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How Porsche combines a regular soft top and a metal folding roof for their new 911 convertible models.
The all-new Porsche 911 (991) is one of the most anticipated cars. While it's merely a matter of hours until Porsche pulls the wraps off of the 2012 911 Coupe (see the leaked photos here), many have been wondering about the roof for the 991 convertible models. Any discussion mostly comes down to this: Will Porsche be bold enough to introduce a metal folding roof?
Some time ago, Porsche filed a patent for a 4-panel metal folding roof. This made many (us included) believe that Porsche would actually follow the likes of the Ferrari California.
The latest spyshots of a Porsche 911 Turbo convertible made us curious again. Why, we thought, would they still use a soft top for these test cars? Don't they have to test the metal folding roof sitting underneath the canvas used for disguise reasons out in the wild at some point?
The germancarforum did a search for patent applications Porsche has filed and found patent US 7,607,715 B2 which reveals the twist. Porsche is apparently set to combine a regular canvas top with a metal folding roof. This patent image shows the schematics of a convertible roof halfway through its operation.
The wind screen would to the left of the image, the rear of the car to the right. The roof comprises of four panels with at least the first (no. 5 in the image) and fourth panel (no. 22 in the image incl. rear window) being sheet-like penals, i.e. metal panels. The suprise however is the canvas top layer covering the whole roof. This canvas layer is fixed permanently to the whole area of the first and fourth panel (no. 5 and 22), yet it's fixed to the two panels in the middle only partially. This allows the canvas to remain flexible in that area during roof operation.
This begs one question: Why? According to Porsche's patent application, this invention makes sure that an "attractive outer contour is ensured by the sheet-like supporting elements when the roof is closed". Looking at the spyshots of the 911 Turbo convertible again we can certainly see that. There might be no other canvas top sitting that tight when the roof is closed. It allows even the 911 convertible to sport the signature 911 roofline formerly found in the coupe models only.
We would also assume that 911 convertible owners wouldn't want to miss a canvas top yet also welcome the increased ridigity coming with metal folding roofs (when closed).
You might wonder now what makes us so sure this roof will actually make it to production. It's this older spyshot we've posted again below. What you see is a 911 prototype during the roof opening (or closing). You can clearly see how the canvas is attached to the first and last segment yet remaining flexible in the other areas. We still might be wrong, but all these things considered together, we really don't think so.
Source,www.germancarforum.com
The all-new Porsche 911 (991) is one of the most anticipated cars. While it's merely a matter of hours until Porsche pulls the wraps off of the 2012 911 Coupe (see the leaked photos here), many have been wondering about the roof for the 991 convertible models. Any discussion mostly comes down to this: Will Porsche be bold enough to introduce a metal folding roof?
Some time ago, Porsche filed a patent for a 4-panel metal folding roof. This made many (us included) believe that Porsche would actually follow the likes of the Ferrari California.
The latest spyshots of a Porsche 911 Turbo convertible made us curious again. Why, we thought, would they still use a soft top for these test cars? Don't they have to test the metal folding roof sitting underneath the canvas used for disguise reasons out in the wild at some point?
The germancarforum did a search for patent applications Porsche has filed and found patent US 7,607,715 B2 which reveals the twist. Porsche is apparently set to combine a regular canvas top with a metal folding roof. This patent image shows the schematics of a convertible roof halfway through its operation.
The wind screen would to the left of the image, the rear of the car to the right. The roof comprises of four panels with at least the first (no. 5 in the image) and fourth panel (no. 22 in the image incl. rear window) being sheet-like penals, i.e. metal panels. The suprise however is the canvas top layer covering the whole roof. This canvas layer is fixed permanently to the whole area of the first and fourth panel (no. 5 and 22), yet it's fixed to the two panels in the middle only partially. This allows the canvas to remain flexible in that area during roof operation.
This begs one question: Why? According to Porsche's patent application, this invention makes sure that an "attractive outer contour is ensured by the sheet-like supporting elements when the roof is closed". Looking at the spyshots of the 911 Turbo convertible again we can certainly see that. There might be no other canvas top sitting that tight when the roof is closed. It allows even the 911 convertible to sport the signature 911 roofline formerly found in the coupe models only.
We would also assume that 911 convertible owners wouldn't want to miss a canvas top yet also welcome the increased ridigity coming with metal folding roofs (when closed).
You might wonder now what makes us so sure this roof will actually make it to production. It's this older spyshot we've posted again below. What you see is a 911 prototype during the roof opening (or closing). You can clearly see how the canvas is attached to the first and last segment yet remaining flexible in the other areas. We still might be wrong, but all these things considered together, we really don't think so.
Source,www.germancarforum.com
