I saw this in my neighborhood the other day, and screeched to a nice dangerous stop to take some pictures. Since I came to Retro's defense, I've been hyper aware of all the Retro cars on the road, and when I saw this prime example of Class 3/Synthetic Comprehensive goodness, I had to stop.

One of the largest manufacturers of convertible tops, the Haartz Corporation, has recently shown off new technology that allows complex patterns and imagery to be woven into the fabric tops. As a paid PR hack kindly emailed us:

Earlier this year, Audi's uber-coupe, the RS5, finally made the journey across the Atlantic to the USA. And boy oh boy, were we excited.

Or so says Bentley. After teasing its rich customers with a hard-topped Mulsanne offering since 2009, it's finally on its way: the Mulsanne convertible. Although still a concept, it really is a thing of beauty, with "muscular haunches," and an interior Bentley says was inspired by luxurious, high-performance power…

If there is a car that embodies the "More Chrome, Bigger Fins!" ethos that dominated late 1950s automotive design in America more than the 1959 Cadillac, we certainly haven't come across it.

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler just took delivery of the world's fastest convertible. The Hennessey Venom GT Spyder will accelerate to 200mph in 15.9 seconds, eight seconds faster than a Bugatti Veyron. Tyler was the first person to ask if he could have his without a top.

Stories of ultra-rare muscle cars sitting in barns are truly the car person's equivalent of "the fish that got away". A few years, a hazy memory or just a desire for a good story have all too often put a Hemi under the hood of a dusty small block Barracuda or turned an average rot box Camaro into a ZL1.

While venerated, BMW's E30 M3 did lack certain features possessed by its later, and better performing, brethren. Today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe E36 for example offers both a drop top and an. . . automatic transmission. Will that second item guarantee its price needs to down along with the top?

Lotus has produced some fine convertibles in the past — the original Seven, both front-and rear-drive Elans, the Elise — so you'd think a quirky announcement alluding to a new open-top model would be welcome. It might have been if it wasn't from Dany Bahar's Lotus.

We were lucky enough to be the first on the floor here at the Chicago Auto Show to catch the 2013 Shelby GT500 Convertible peeking its snout out. Here's the first photos.