Top 10 T-Top Cars

Neither convertible nor Targa, the T-top is a dated design worth a second look.

Automotive Alliterative Alternative

The T-top splits the difference between going full cabriolet and remaining a coupe. Porsche had pioneered the convertible alternative with their Targa top design for the 911, anticipating new rollover regulations that never materialized. The third-generation Corvette would be the first production car to introduce the T-top design. It featured two removable roof pieces, rather than the one single piece in the Targa, with a bar in the middle. Marginally improved rigidity was besides the point for most car buyers, through the 1970s and on into the ‘80s and even 1990s, T-tops were a popular alternative to the traditional convertible. Even if some applications proved questionable.

This is our look back at the top ten T-top cars.

1948 – TASCO (by The American Sportscar Company)

The Corvette may have been the first production car to feature a T-top design, but GM wasn’t the originator. Credit for that goes to Gordon Buehrig who developed the T-top design for a concept car, the TASCO, for The American Sportscar Company in 1948. Built off a ’47 Mercury chassis, the TASCO’s aluminum body panels vaguely resembled a WWII fighter plane. It was a surprisingly ugly car for the same guy that designed the classically elegant Duesenberg Model J. Buehrig would later sue GM for the Corvette’s use of the T-top, having been issued a patent in 1951 for the design.

1968 Chevrolet Corvette (C3)

1968 Chevrolet Corvette - media.chevrolet.com

The third-generation Chevrolet Corvette was the first production car to feature the T-top design. The newly minted Corvette Stingray was a major step forward in aesthetics, with swooping body lines, bulging fenders, gill-like slats, and an optional T-top roof. The fourth-generation Corvette would adopt a Targa top, which it still carries today.

Chevrolet Camaro (2nd, 3rd & 4th Gen)

1986 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z - carsforsale.com

When I think of T-top cars, it’s the mid-1980s Camaro IROC-Z that immediately springs to mind. Indeed, the Camaro offered the T-top for decades spanning from the second generation, starting in 1978, all the way through the fourth generation and the new millennium in 2002. The second generation had done a lot of evolving (devolving?) from something resembling the classic muscle car and into…well, something else entirely. The Malaise Era wasn’t kind on the Camaro’s horsepower, but at least it gave us one of its more iconic features, the T-top.

1977 Pontiac Trans Am

Prior to the 1976 Trans Am, the T-top had been a Corvette exclusive among GM products. By far the most well-known of all T-top cars to be featured on the silver screen is the 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit. No one before or since had looked as cool talking on a CB radio as a roughish Burt Reynolds in his T-topless Firebird.

1979 Ford Thunderbird

Speaking of high style and avian themed cars, the Thunderbird, Ford’s “personal car of distinction,” was given the T-top treatment in its seventh generation. Though the car is, in the humble opinion of one writer, a rolling caricature of gawdy tastelessness, the seventh was also the Thunderbird’s best-selling generation. One of Lee Iacocca’s final projects before leaving Ford, the seventh-gen Thunderbird was an amalgam of Malaise-era luxury car tropes. It featured a pointy egg-crate grille, gargantuan chrome bumpers, hideaway headlights, wire wheels, chrome impact trim on the fender flares, and a landau roof split in two by a wraparound panel complete with opera window. Oh, and you could get it with a T-top, to, well, top it all off.

1986 Dodge Daytona

Chrysler was in love with T-top cars in the 1970s and ‘80s. There was the Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare, the Dodge Diplomat and the Chrysler Le Baron, all of which offered T-top options. The front-wheel drive hatchback Dodge Daytona of the mid-80s may not have shared much with its NASCAR namesake, but at least it had some rocking T-tops, right?

1987 Toyota MR2

The T-top wasn’t just popular with American manufacturers either. Japanese automakers became enamored with the design in the 1980s. The MR2, Toyota’s oddball midengined sports car, offered a T-top option for both its first and second generations, before going convertible only for the MR2 Spyder in its third generation.

1987 Ford Mustang

The Mustang II might not get a lot of love but one thing it did bring us was a T-top ‘Stang in 1977, which would only last an additional year before the move to the (then) new Fox-body platform. After a two-year hiatus, Ford brought back the T-top to the Mustang in 1981 and it would remain available for both the notchback and hatchback versions until 1988.

1990 Nissan NX1600/NX2000

The short-lived Nissan NX1600/NX2000 among the sportiest front-wheel drive cars you could buy in 1991. Available with either a 1.6L or 2.0L inline-four, the NX was only on sale in the US for a scant 3 years from 1991 through 1993. Though you could get it as a coupe, most of the NX1600s and NX 2000s were built as T-top cars.

1996 Suzuki X90

The X90 “Sporty Utility Vehicle” was Suzuki’s attempt to woo the American youth market with an affordable SUV. Based off the Suzuki Sidekick, X90 did have optional four-wheel drive, but that was about the extent of its “utility.” The tiny two-door had no back seat and most of the miniscule trunk was taken up by the spare tire. Motor Trend named it the number one worst car of the 1990s. To our eyes, however, the X90 might have failed at its original mission, but through the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, it becomes the epitome of 90s frivolity. I’ll take style over substance in the case of the X90, not least because of its killer T-tops.