To open it, you simply release the lever above the windscreen, which automatically triggers the side window motors to lower them just a fraction. Hooray for this new Fiat Spider's exemplary hood, which is very quick to lower or raise, and seals tightly to be completely weatherproof. Old-style convertibles used to rake your hair to straw with the top down, and douse you with draughts and drips, or worse, when driving in the rain with the roof raised. Anyone past 40 who remembers convertibles from their youth, and any owner of a classic model today, knows what a pain the folding fabric roof can be – a jumble of metal struts and over-stressed material. Soft-top cars used to come with a built-in handicap. Does it matter? Arguably not much, because it looks the part and the MX-5 is a fine base for a decent and affordable sports car. So the Fiat badges disguise a car that isn't fundamentally Italian at all. Underneath, it is basically a Mazda MX-5 in new clothes.
What looks like an all-Italian traditional sports car, with its sleek lines and slick hood, has a skeleton in the closet. In celebration of that car's recent 50th birthday, here is its modern-day descendant, newly arrived on UK roads. The 1960s was the heyday of youthful optimism and cars to match, and in late 1966 the original Fiat 124 Sport Spider made its debut. It is the newest Fiat to arrive on the scene, the 124 Spider.įiat has a long history of drop-top cars, stretching way back, with the ancestry of this particular model rooted half a century ago. So here is the sexy little two-seater soft-top sports car that we have been testing at this chilly tail-end of the year. But a well-designed modern drop-top, with an efficiently engineered hood that can be elevated rapidly, and seals tightly against the elements, is just as viable in the middle of winter. Spring and summer are the seasons most naturally associated with classic soft-top cars, when many emerge from winter hibernation like butterflies escaping from their chrysalids. They are selfless and sensible, functional and family-friendly.īut if you have any speck of petrolhead instinct coursing through your veins, don't you just occasionally yearn to drive something a bit more, well, selfish? To have some fun behind the wheel? For a bit of breezy engagement? That is the appeal of driving a convertible, with the option of de-lidding the roof and going topless when the mood takes you. They tend to be tall and practical, with roomy boots, fold-down seats, and an armoury of safety features. Most modern cars are so achingly rational. In the bleak mid-winter we all need a bit of cheering up, and a blast in an open-top car could be just what you need.
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