In 1969, the General Motors styling staff experimented with a targa-style hardtop called the Aero Coupe II.

As the story goes, General Motors’ 1969 experiment in retractable hardtops was the work of the GM Styling staff, with support by engineers from the Fisher Body division. While the Pontiac division wasn’t directly involved, reportedly, the guinea pig was a production 1969 GTO Hardtop Coupe, suitably modified for the conversion. The project was given the name Aero Coupe II, which certainly implies the existence of an Aero Coupe I, but we wouldn’t know anything about that. The design brings to mind the 1965 Porsche Targa.

In the above, we can see that the A-body coupe’s roof, C-pillar, backlite, and daylight opening have been altered to accommodate a retacting roof and stowing mechanism. By the early ’60s, convertible sales were in decline, in large part due to air conditioning and interstate travel, while 20 years earlier, the pillarless hardtop had stolen much of the convertible’s glamour. Here, we can presume, the GM stylists were trying to provide the pleasure of open-air motoriing in a more comfortable all-weather package.

With the assembly in place on the Aero Coupe II, we can see that the top is actually two sections that apparently telescope forward from the fixed, landau portion of the roof, a situation that must have been dictated by the available length of the stowing area. That’s tricky, especially if the top sections were intended to be automated. Now the complexity of the mechanism has more or less doubled, and there are three seams to protect against wind noise and air and water leaks rather than two.

We can see why the Aero Coupe II approach never made it onto a production vehicle, especially since GM already had a more practical solution in hand. Namely, the T-Top system with two, longtidunally-split removable roof panels, which Chevrolet called a cochère roof, was introduced on the 1968 Corvette Coupe. (However, the design was patented in 1948 by Gordon Buehrig, who immediately filed suit.) The similar Hurst Hatch setup with laminated glass roof panels was a feature on the 1975 Hurst/Olds, and in a few years it spread across the Detroit industry.