I understand that one of the Fiat 124 Spider Abarth/Fiat 124 Spider/Miata’s greatest draws is the ease at which you can put its top up or down, as it is only powered by your arm. But that doesn’t stop me from thinking that the new Abarth 124 GT, with a removable carbon fiber hardtop, is utterly righteous. Clarification: The car is still being offered with a soft top, you just can’t have it up while the hard top is there.
The GT is a special edition of the Abarth 124. It will be painted Alpi Orientali Grey on the outside, with a gunmetal-gray finished front fascia and mirror caps, according to the press release. It will also come with 17-inch OZ alloy wheels, which are 6.6 pounds lighter than the standard hardware.
That awesome hardtop, made from carbon fiber and weighing 35 pounds, is lined on the inside. Fiat claims that it can be simply removed or refitted, though I’d want to test this myself.
That’s so awesome, though. That’s like those old Mercedes SL convertibles, the ones where you left the top at home in a special holder if you wanted to go out without it. And if the weather changed while you were out, you were screwed! You really had to plan your trip wisely.
That’s what convertibles are missing these days—that aspect of inconvenience. More convertibles should be like that. Keep people on their toes.
The Abarth 124 GT will be at the Geneva Motor Show next month.
Clarification March 1, 2:25 p.m. EST: There was some confusion over how this hard top would function, so I tapped both Fiat and Tirey of Evil Genius Racing for clarification.
The GT still comes with a fully functional soft top that you can use normally. The hard top can be fitted to the car after you put the soft top down and you want to ride around in some hard top Abarth glory. Otherwise, you can just store it in your garage.