Were you part of the T-Top craze?
In this video, we go over some of the top cars that came out with T-TOPS. T-top cars were all the rage in the 70's and 80's. Sure, they leaked, but who cared when the sun was out? We all looked so cool with them off! ENJOY EVERYONE!
#T-top
#firebirds
#corvette
#camaro
#thunderbird
Chevy Corvette
What puts the 1968 Chevy Corvette on this list is that it was the first T-top production car from an American automaker. All Corvette C3 hardtop coupes (1968-1982) received it as standard equipment. After that era came the Targa-top-style roof for the 'Vette. ("Targa" uppercase is a name that belongs—literally—to Porsche.) In 1968, Chevy described the roof design as "two removable roof panels and removable rear window."
Hurst Hatch Cars
The 1975 Hurst Olds sported a T-top, but it was called "Hurst Hatch." The name stemmed from the roof panels not being added on the GM assembly line but rather implanted at nearby Hurst Performance (later switching to become Fisher roof panels). GM's Buick, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac cars—including the Regal, Cutlass, Grand Prix, and Trans Am—began offering the T-top soon after.
Pontiac Firebird Trans Am
The Pontiac Trans Am will forever be associated with the movie Smokey and the Bandit. Period. The car arrived in 1976 and the movie in 1977, but that flick made the car a superstar and a sales star. The Hurst Hatch roof first appeared on the T/A Y82 special-edition model. Although the Corvette had the first production T-top, the Trans Am put the T-top on the map. By the way, John DeLorean oversaw development of the Firebird Trans Am, but he initially wasn't much of a fan. Imagine overall T-top success in America if he'd killed production of the T/A.
Chevy Camaro
Smokey and the Bandit struck a chord with audiences, particularly the car chases and the benefits of having a proper mustache. But it was also about the Pontiac Trans Am co-star and its T-top. Chevy wanted in on some of that action, and soon after, the T-top came to the Camaro in the 1978 model year. The $625 option was classified as RPO CC1—"Roof Panels, removable glass"—with 9,875 sets available. The last factory T-top cars made were for the Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, which hung onto the panels until 2002. Camaro production is coming to an end, but the car will remain a part of both automotive and roof history.
Ford Thunderbird
Ford's first "personal automobile" was the Thunderbird, and it offered the "T-Roof Convertible"—what the Blue Oval called the T-top—for the 1978 and 1979 model years. The T-bird made this list precisely because of that brief production time frame; less is more, particularly for collectors. Ford hyped it for its 1979 models as, "The sky-high exhilaration of an open-air coupe is yours to enjoy in any Thunderbird, with the optional T-Roof Convertible," promising a "highflying adventure" from the addition of "two oven-tempered tinted safety glass panels." Ford might have overpromised, however, with its marketing boast of the "countless ways in which you can tailor your T-Roof to help you look and feel even better."
Ford Mustang
When it came to the Mustang, Ford marketed the roof design as "the next best thing to a convertible" and, "The T-Roof and flip-up open-air roof give you a way to soak up the warm weather in your Mustang hatchback." The original 1965 Mustang offered a convertible, but in 1977 the factory T-Roof was made available. The option was offered through the better part of the 1980s, even when the convertible Mustang returned in 1983. In 1978, dealerships offered the Mustang with "substantial sticker price reductions," with the T-Roof model ringing in at $4,500.
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