Because there’s no substitute for actually seeing it in operation, here’s a Porsche video showing how the automated top works on the new 911 Targa.
As already noted here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, an interesting controversy surrounds the latest Porsche Targa and its retracting roof panel. Some call the setup needlessly complicated and cumbersome, especially for a sports car. Others say the automatic top makes perfect sense as a premium convenience feature.
For his part, MCG compared the automated roof mechanism to a complication in a classic watch: Whether it is truly necessary is beside the point. It’s an entertaining function in its own right. Another observer suggested that the Targa’s audio system should be looped in to play calliope music whenever the top mechanism is in action.
To see the roof in action for yourself, we’ve supplied the Porsche video below. The introduction is a bit overwrought, but we do eventually get to see the Targa function operating at around the halfway point. By the way, should you decide that you simply must have one. the Targa is available in the AWD Carrera 4 and 4S, and pricing starts at $101,600.
http://youtu.be/FL7kLL-9tj0
Ok, before everyones jaw hits the floor, ( not mine) may I remind people, Ford did the same thing 57 years ago with the “Skyliner. It was also a very complicated setup, with relays and electric motors, but surprisingly reliable, but was dropped after 1959. Also, the video was filmed in Milwaukee, Wis., that roof is part of the Milwaukee Art Museum, on the lakefront.
Not too mention all the weight that it adds to what is supposed to be a “sports car” that is already too heavy!
I just figured out why I love this top so much. It all goes back to Brooks Stevens, like many things in my automotive world. Howard’s observation of this film clip being shot in Milwaukee is responsible for my warped chain of thoughts:
-Brooks Stevens was a famous industrial designer from Milwaukee
-In 1952, he designed the Paxton Phoenix with a top that retracts like the new Targa’s
-Porsche designer Grant Larsen is from Milwaukee
-As a teenager, he worked at the Brooks Stevens Museum
-The Paxton was at Pebble Beach in 2008, where he saw it for the first time in person
Inspiration or fabrication? That’s for you to decide. I just know that I’ve come up with another rationalization to buy a new Targa as a bookend for my original.