Sunroof or no sunroof?

[Corey_R]

That's nothing a piece of "clear tint" like Solar Gard's LX-70 won't fix

[simonm]

That's nothing a piece of "clear tint" like Solar Gard's LX-70 won't fix

If it's glass, it should block most of the UV anyway, unless you're talking about the sunroof being completely open and applying the Solar Gard directly to the scalp.

[Corey_R]

UV is not necessarily heat. I'm well aware that the sunroof being glass and already having a factory glaze tint will block most UV, but since ktrianta is stating that the "top of my head is starting to feel it with this warmer weather", what the Solar Gard LX70 will do is lower the heat via 53% Total Solar Energy Rejection, whilst still allowing 72% of the Visible Light to transmit.

Films like this are often applied onto other existing glazing and factory tinting to further reduce heat (and protect against all UV) without greatly reducing VLT such as regular tint does.


But you are correct on the "open" statement. If by open ktrianta means all the way open, and not just "tilted" or the "screen" being open, then clear tint on the sunroof won't help!

[triode12]

Had one as a standard accessory in the Civic Sport we owned for a year. Hardly ever used it. Nice to have but I wouldn't pay extra for one. But I wouldn't say no to one if it was included in the deal for "free" or if it came with the used car I was buying.

As for the slag against convertibles, sports and racing cars used to be topless/ragtops from the early part of the century till the late 60s. As a matter of fact, current F1,Indy and Formula Ford cars are still topless.

[Corey_R]

As for the slag against convertibles, sports and racing cars used to be topless/ragtops from the early part of the century till the late 60s. As a matter of fact, current F1,Indy and Formula Ford cars are still topless.

Well, lets exclude "open wheelers" from the equation, because well, they're not sedans or coupes or anything "road oriented". Topless/ragtop cars were used because having a roof was heavier! That is literally the only reason. The weight of having a roof was outweighed by any aerodynamic advantage having a roof gained due to the fact the cars were SLOW back then. It wasn't the late 60's that the changed happened either.... the end of the convertibles came in 1959 at the first Daytona 500 where for the first time they ragtops were decimated by the hardtops... due to a little discovery called "the draft", which was previously unknown to racing drivers. It was from that year that the convertibles were not able to compete any more due to their bad aerodynamics and drag and at the following year's Daytona 500 all the cars were hardtops. Although oval tracks the size of Daytona were present in Europe earlier in the century, the speeds weren't high enough for aerodynamics and the draft to really take effect.

As you've noted, other cars are still "topless" even today - but with these open wheelers (and LMP1/2 cars and the like), the opening is so small that the air simply passes over and doesn't cause any loss of aerodynamic efficiency.

[ConR]

yes, I was talking about having the sunroof open open, not closed with the slide open...my head is peeling from yesterday

[Zaul]

A peeling head? Gee it must have been warm in Sydney.

The sunroof was one of the options I ticked on my GTI and I'm enjoying it so far. I like the extra light that fills the car and the flow of air that when its opened. I can't say if it's worth full price because I negotiated a discount on mine. But I wouldn't have a GTI without one!

[triode12]

Well, lets exclude "open wheelers" from the equation, because well, they're not sedans or coupes or anything "road oriented". Topless/ragtop cars were used because having a roof was heavier! That is literally the only reason. The weight of having a roof was outweighed by any aerodynamic advantage having a roof gained due to the fact the cars were SLOW back then. It wasn't the late 60's that the changed happened either.... the end of the convertibles came in 1959 at the first Daytona 500 where for the first time they ragtops were decimated by the hardtops... due to a little discovery called "the draft", which was previously unknown to racing drivers. It was from that year that the convertibles were not able to compete any more due to their bad aerodynamics and drag and at the following year's Daytona 500 all the cars were hardtops. Although oval tracks the size of Daytona were present in Europe earlier in the century, the speeds weren't high enough for aerodynamics and the draft to really take effect.

As you've noted, other cars are still "topless" even today - but with these open wheelers (and LMP1/2 cars and the like), the opening is so small that the air simply passes over and doesn't cause any loss of aerodynamic efficiency.

I'm pretty sure that cars like Jag E-type rag tops, Austin Healeys (3000s, 100s) and Cobras were used in production and touring car racing in the UK and over here till the early 70s. So some sort of racing was still being done with open tops till then. And the E-type or Shelby Cobras weren't particularly slow either.

http://www.motorsportarchive.com/Bob...Calder_web.jpg

http://www.motorsportarchive.com/jan...lredcd_web.jpg

http://www.austin-healey-club.com/Pa...er-series.html

The British Sports car or sports cars from the 30s to the early 70s were by default ragtops. It was towards the late 60s that things started to change.

[Corey_R]

As I said... Europe was different, because their cars were not running at consistently the higher speeds. But in America where they were running at higher speeds consistently already, the last time the convertibles were competitive was before the 1959 Daytona 500. After this they had to separate the convertibles from the hard tops because the speed differential was so great it was dangerous to leave the convertibles in the same field of cars...