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A roadster is an open (without a fixed roof or side weather protection) two-seat car with emphasis on sporty handling. While roadsters often have soft-tops, retractable hard-tops are becoming more common.[1]
Design history edit
In 1916, the Society of Automobile Engineers defined a roadster as: "an open car seating two or three. It may have additional seats on running boards or in rear deck."[2] Additional seating in the rear deck was known as a rumble seat or a dickey seat. A roadster is still defined as an open car with two seats.[3][4]
Roadster bodies were offered on automobiles of all sizes and classes, from mass market cars like the Ford Model T and the Austin 7 to extremely expensive cars like the Cadillac V-16, the Duesenberg Model J, and even the Bugatti Royale. They are popular with collectors, often valued over other open styles.[citation needed]
- ^ Boeriu, Horatiu. "Video: BMW Roadster History".
- ^ "What's What in Automobile Bodies Officially Determined" (pdf). The New York Times. New York, NY USA. Nomenclature Division, Society of Automobile Engineers. August 20, 1916. ISSN 0362-4331. OCLC 1645522. Retrieved 2012-05-31.
Here it is, with other body types and distinctions, officially determined recently by the Nomenclature Division of the Society of Automobile Engineers:
- ^ Elaine Pollard, ed. (1994). "R". The Oxford Paperback Dictionary (fourth ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 692. ISBN 0-19-280012-4.
roadster noun an open car without rear seats.
- ^ Anderson, Sandra (2006). Collins Concise Dictionary & Thesaurus. Glasgow, UK: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 740. 978-0-00-722971-0.