why a hard top in the winter?

[porsche986spyder]

I think the hardtop is more for looks than anything else. The softtop seems to still keep the interior warm enough for me. As for the coment about the rear plastic window cracking in the winter, I would have to agree. It does tend to get harder when it's cold and more elastic and soft when it heats up in the summer making it more flexable and less likely to crimp in on itself when you lower the top. I would also preffer a hard top if I was racing and my car flipped over. I don't trust any kind of role bar to save my head from being crushed. I think it's also a good deterant for thieves. I plastic window is allot easier to cut and get into from the rear than a glass hard top would be. So there are pros and cons for having one as an option. I know if my car wasn't always in a garage I would want a hard top on it, while outside all day. To many of my past cars have been broken into.

[Perfectlap]

this is my second roadster, I skipped hardtops in the begining since I only drive on the weekends. Once I got one I kicked myself for not doing it sooner. Drive a car with the hardtop and you will see right away that the car is better in all driving aspects with a proper roof on it.
Its not so much the weather but the fact that since you won't really be lowering the top for months and months, there is no point in compromising the structure of the car. No matter how well designed a roadster is, the abscence of a roof comes at a cost. Cowl shake and turbulence over rough roads, less rigidity in cornering, more noise, aerodynamics etc..
For a mere $1500 your car essentially becomes a true sports coupe in a five minutes, ideal when top down driving isn't in the cards for a big chunk of the year.

The flurry of retractable hard tops like in the VW EOS, Miata and BMW 3 series tries to bring together the best of both worlds but the extra weight seems to affect most of them. Its really not perfected in any roadster yet.