敞篷车及其家族成员

    1910年凯迪拉克（Cadillac）推出首辆封闭式车厢的轿车之前，消费者除了敞篷车之外别无选择。人们很快就认识到金属车顶所带来的温暖、干燥和安全，敞篷车因此被归入旅行车一类的特别车型。即便是今天，敞篷车用于抬升和降低车篷的机械装置以及车体的加固装置仍然使它们比封闭式车厢的轿车车体更沉重，车内空间更狭小，安全系数更低，工艺更复杂。

    这些问题本应宣告敞篷车的功成身退了，但有一点却令人对它难以割舍：车里的人沐浴着阳光、御风而行——俨然是年轻、自由和性感的象征。早在1923年的一则广告里，这种魅力就得到了完美体现。广告中，一个妙龄女子驾着一辆敞篷的乔丹•花花公子（Jordan Playboy），画外音响起：“在拉勒米（美国怀俄明州东南部城市——译注）西边的某个地方，有位驯服野马、手执套马索的姑娘。”后来，乔丹•花花公子在经济大萧条中沉沦了，但敞篷车却活力依旧。

    正因为深谙这种吸引力的力量，各汽车厂商一直以来都在推出形似敞篷车的车型，或在采纳敞篷车要素的同时又摒弃了纺织物车顶、可伸缩车顶、可开合车顶带来的不便，包括硬顶敞篷车，T型顶车，以及带有乙烯基车顶、天窗和可拆卸车顶的车型。以下就是敞篷车梦幻车型的荟萃，其中既有老款也有新款，还有某些经典车型的现代版。

Droptops and their kin

    Until the introduction of the first closed-roof car by Cadillac in 1910, a convertible was about all customers had to choose from. But they quickly came to appreciate the warmth, dryness and safety provided by a metal top, and the convertible was relegated to a specialty body style like the station wagon. Even today, the mechanism used to raise and lower the top, along with body reinforcements, make them heavier, less capacious, less secure, and trickier to engineer than their fixed-roof counterparts.

    That should have spelled the end of the convertible, except for one thing: The open car with its sun-baked, wind-blown passengers became a symbol of youth, freedom, and sexuality. The appeal was perfectly epitomized as long ago as 1923 in ads showing a flapper behind the wheel of an open Jordan Playboy that begin "Somewhere west of Laramie there's a bronco-busting, steer roping girl." The Jordan Playboy didn't survive the Depression, but the ragtop did.

    Alert to the appeal, manufacturers have long built cars that look like convertibles or are open to the elements without the inconvenience of actually being a fabric-topped, fully-retractable, open-roof car. They include hard-top convertibles and T-tops, and cars with vinyl roofs, sunroofs, and detachable roofs. Herewith a gallery of convertible wannabees, old and new, along with some modern examples of the classic droptop.