Folding hard tops

Following a recent thread I did a couple of tests on my wife's coupé (UK
model).

If you put the car in gear the hood stops, beeps and flashes. Same seems
to happen in neutral with the car in motion. I expect this could be
overcome but I am not about to start messing with complex software.

Looks like it is a definite 12 second stop in neutral if it suddenly
starts to rain.

The Invisible Man wrote:
> Following a recent thread I did a couple of tests on my wife's coupé (UK
> model).
>
> If you put the car in gear the hood stops, beeps and flashes. Same seems
> to happen in neutral with the car in motion. I expect this could be
> overcome but I am not about to start messing with complex software.
>
> Looks like it is a definite 12 second stop in neutral if it suddenly
> starts to rain.

I suspected that would be the case, otherwise you could be hitting 60
mph with the top just over halfway up or down, which couldn't be good.

So what happens if you hit the button, wait a couple of seconds, and
then floor it? Does it stop and hang in that one position catching air,
try to go back up, or continue down?

Don't worry, I'm not asking you to experiment with your car, just wondering.
It sounds like it is not a problem or we would already be hearing about
people breaking them.

Pat

pws wrote:
> The Invisible Man wrote:
>> Following a recent thread I did a couple of tests on my wife's coupé
>> (UK model).
>>
>> If you put the car in gear the hood stops, beeps and flashes. Same
>> seems to happen in neutral with the car in motion. I expect this could
>> be overcome but I am not about to start messing with complex software.
>>
>> Looks like it is a definite 12 second stop in neutral if it suddenly
>> starts to rain.
>
> I suspected that would be the case, otherwise you could be hitting 60
> mph with the top just over halfway up or down, which couldn't be good.
>
> So what happens if you hit the button, wait a couple of seconds, and
> then floor it? Does it stop and hang in that one position catching air,
> try to go back up, or continue down?
>
> Don't worry, I'm not asking you to experiment with your car, just
> wondering.
> It sounds like it is not a problem or we would already be hearing about
> people breaking them.
>
> Pat
It stops where it is as soon as you put the car into gear and beeps and
flashes a lot.

The Invisible Man wrote:

> It stops where it is as soon as you put the car into gear and beeps and
> flashes a lot.

That makes sense, it probably goes into an immediate full-lock.

Still, since it can be done, it seems like someone would have started
the lowering process and then taken off despite the beeps and flashes,
leaving the top partially down at high speeds.

Either this somehow hasn't been done yet or the design is strong enough
to withstand the wind.
It seems to me that it would tear off of there or at least get damaged
as you hit a high enough speed, maybe not.

Pat

In article >,
pws > wrote:

> Either this somehow hasn't been done yet or the design is strong enough
> to withstand the wind.

Perhaps no one smart enough to buy a Miata is stupid enough to drive it
with the roof halfway up.

Lanny Chambers wrote:

> Perhaps no one smart enough to buy a Miata is stupid enough to drive it
> with the roof halfway up.

Perhaps, but the driver is not always the owner, and since I have seen a
1990-2005 hardtop for sale that had damage from coming off of the miata
while it was moving, it is hard for me to assume that intelligent
actions concerning operation of the top will occur because they chose a
miata.

My experience has been that if it can be screwed up, somebody will screw
it up eventually, no matter what it is.

Pat

> Pat:

> My experience has been that if it can be screwed up, somebody will screw
> it up eventually, no matter what it is.
>

I have to agree with Pat here :-)
Chris
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