These Were The Last Cars You Could Buy With T-Tops

Just like pop-up headlights, the T-top roof has gone the way of the dodo and become a part of automotive history. The perfect compromise between a hardtop and a convertible, T-tops were two removable panels in the roof of the cabin, with a center crossbar in the middle connecting the windscreen to the roll-hoop. These panels were either glass or paint matched to the body, and when removed, were sold as the safer, stylish alternative to traditional drop-tops.

First introduced in the late 1960s, countless manufacturers gave the T-top a shot, and we saw the roof being used in a plethora of different cars. From American land yachts like the Buick Century and Dodge Daytona, as well as Pony cars like the Mustang and Camaro. Japan gave it a go too, with the Toyota MR2 and Nissan 300ZX getting optional T-tops. Cult classics like the Subaru Brat and Suzuki X90 only got weirder and cooler with their split roof.

It was widely utilized, but nobody embraced the T-top the way General Motors did. First seen on the C3 Corvette in 1968, the T-top sold so well that Chevy discontinued the standard convertible in 1976. GM would be both the alpha and omega of the T-Top, with the Pontiac Firebird and Chevrolet Camaro being the final two cars to have the removable roof panels, offering it until both were discontinued in 2002.

The initial popularity of the T-top came with the establishment of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Established in the wake of a public outcry for safety in previous decades, the NHTSA was conceived in late 1970 to regulate roads and make cars safer. With the introduction of crash testing and ever-tightening safety standards, automakers were entering into the unknown when it came to future regulations. Things were changing quickly in the automotive world, and many manufacturers had T-tops replacing full convertibles to future-proof their models — just in case the safety standards got even more restrictive in the following years. Federal rollover regulations never required bracing or protection on the roof, but the design remained implemented as insurance throughout the ’70s and ’80s.

And then cars got safer. Advancing technology at the end of the millennia saw that conventional drop-tops could be offered without skulls being used as the roll hoop. Retractable hardtops entered the mainstream with cars like the Mercedes SLK and Mitsubishi 3000GT. The rise of the sunroof was also being introduced as a new approach to the T-tops compromise of open air and rigidity…one that was far less prone to leaking than the elder alternative.

It’s incredibly fitting that the two cars that embraced the T-top, the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, would be the final two cars to have them on offer. Both would share GM’s F platform, as they had been since 1967, and had T-tops integrated starting in the chassis’ second generation. Pontiac would offer them first in 1976, and thanks to Burt Reynolds ripping the now iconic black and gold ’77 Firebird Trans Am in “Smokey and the Bandit”, all anyone wanted in the late ’70s was a T-top and a trunk full of Coors.

Chevy wanted in on the action, followed suit with the Camaro in ’78. Both cars would stick with the T-top for decades, until the of the final fourth-generation F-chassis ended production in 2002. Even into the 21st century, the option sold well, with Chevrolet bragging that over half of buyers still preferred the T-top in the brochure for the 2000 Camaro. But when the Firebird and Camaro were phased out, the T-top was nowhere to be seen, marking the end of a radical era in automotive history.