Focus on convertibles - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette
Cabriolets, Roadsters, all-weather tourer, spider or spyder, soft top, drop top, drophead coupe or rag top, the variety of names for the convertible doesn't do justice to the emotion the open-air vehicle creates. "Something about driving with the top down," said Chris Mechling, who drives her 1961 Corvette convertible every Friday. "You can't drive a convertible and remain anonymous," says car collector Tom Payne of Philo. Payne and other members of the Illini Collector Car Club are featuring convertibles at this year's Sweetcorn Festival Motor Muster. The vehicle for movie stars, homecoming queens and sports car fans, the convertible was the first model of car, as manufacturers modeled designs on the horse-drawn wagons they replaced. But by the 1930s, closed cars, sedans and coupes began to overtake the convertible in production numbers. This continued through the 1960s until manufacturers overreacted to new safety rules and new soft-top numbers plummeted. — Stop to admire the 1955 Ford Sunliner owned by Harvey and Adella Hodges, and Adella will make sure you know that even though Harvey bought it new when he was single, "I was the first girl to ride in it. " Hodges, who was a traveling salesman for... Now with 120,000 miles, the car has only needed a coat of paint and a new convertible top once. Source: www.news-gazette.com
