THanks!

 

Haha - genius, eh?

 

what kind of oil does he use.

 

i asked the same question, but i dont think there was a company to undertake such a project.

I mean you can do anything if you throw enough money at it, but with 15-20k units globally and probably less than half of them being the convertible, 7-10k units... there's no justification for a company to engineer and fab a hardtop for such a niche car.

 

Apparently the design of the LC 500 is pretty great against wind buffetting (noise with the top down) vs other convertibles. I wonder if that would go away if it were made a hard top, though. Despite the crappier look of soft tops, they definitely don't seem to struggle with noise from the wind hitting the hard parts sticking up behind your head (see RF vs soft miata for a clear example of this).

 

I owned an IS250C for sometime, decent car but slooow (it was comfortable though). The rooftop operation was something to watch, like a Transformers operation. I liked the fact it was a hardtop; quiet and secure. It did also take up a large amount of the rear trunk area. On the LC, while security maybe not the same (due to cloth) I find it less noisy than our RX or GX on the highway. Some of that is mitigated because of the sound system, but I also think they did a great job with roof insulation.

 

@2959
“ I find it less noisy than our RX or GX on the highway. Some of that is mitigated because of the sound system, but I also think they did a great job with roof insulation.”

To my understanding much thought went into the soft top construction and I believe it has 4 individual layers. So it certainly seems that sound isolation was a high priority. I’ve seen many reviews of the LC 500 convertible and only one reviewer complained of noisy interior with the top up. So an outlier as all other reviewers were consistent in praise of the quietness of the soft convertible top.

 

To be clear, when I said "wind buffeting" I'm talking with a hard or soft top down. When a hard top is down on a miata, then there's a lot more noise from wind due to buffetting... So I have to wonder if that is why Lexus only went with a soft top for the LC 500... Because they were able to make one of the quietest convertible experiences I've seen this way.

 

The nature of the roof (hard vs soft) doesnt affect wind buffeting or lack thereof when the top is down. It has to do with the way the windshield is raked, if there are nacelles or flying buttresses, the slope of the rear deck lid, amd the design of the side windows.

For instance a 2012-2016 SLK has more wind buffeting with the windows rolled up and top down than a 2017-2020 SLC. It is the exact same car with the only difference being the ability to raise the rear quarter windows on the SLC while the top is down. That tiny little piece if glass further deflecting the turbulent air past the driver makes a difference. If the windows are down, the buffeting is identical because the cabin design is otherwise identical.

A 2024 Nissan Z has less buffeting windows down than a 2024 Toyota Supra. Cabin layout, window design, etc are big factors.

A hard top convertible LC500 would have the same wind buffeting top-down as a soft top LC 500 top-down, unless the rear decklid design and/or window design changed somehow.

The wind deflector in the rear seat (if you use) also reduces wind buffeting with the top down.

Top up, the LC vert is one of the quietest soft top vert cabins on the market because of the multiple layers insulating you from wind and road noise.

 

That's what I mean: it definitely can. See the RF vs soft top Miata as a case study. Of course with the large windshield of the LC500, one may be able to design a hard top that does not buffet more wind that the soft top, but I'm skeptical a third party designer could pull that off when even Mazda cannot. Or perhaps they can, but the part of the hard top that sticks up behind you in the Miata RF was just too essential to its aesthetic - so they took the lose with the extra noise and released it that way. I do think it is possible to make a hard top that collapses all of the way down. So if you put the top down in your LC500 and go ~3ft behind your head and about 6in above it, then you'll hear it catching wind I bet.

 

I'm a sports car dude, so the couple gets my vote. A targa or t-top would also be preferred for me over a convertible.

I'm glad they made the LC in convertible... the guys who I've meet who have one absolutely love theirs. A lot of them previously owned the SC 430. Met a guy recently who's retired and regularly used his LC convertible for parades.

 

Not necessarily. See the C8 vette. It has nearly zero buffeting with its HTC down while the C7 has a lot with the soft top down, and both C7 and C8 targa tops have far worse buffeting. It all has to do with fhe design and dimensions not soft top vs hard top. The miata looks more like a targa top when its HTC is down. I cant speak to Mazda's design decisions.

From the LC's shape, i dont think a HTC version would be any different than the soft top. I simply believe it was more cost-effective (and reliable from Lexus's view perhaps) to build it as a soft top. Also likely a lot lighter than a HTC wouldve been, and its already a very heavy car that loses rigidity in vert form so they likely wanted to minimize add'l weight above its center of gravity given the already reduced handling of the vert. The C8 on the other hand was designed with the vert in mind so it loses no rigidity or handling, making the slight additional weight less of an issue.

Benz went back to rag tops in their verts instead of the HTC in the older SLs and SLKs for similar reasons IIRC.

 

I had the Sport Roof on a Toyota Supra and really enjoyed it, except for needing a removal tool for all four corners. That’s something I could get behind on the LC if it had a quick-release setup, which is something I’d certainly expect from Lexus.

With the Supra, you could store the roof panel in the rear hatch without any problem. I don’t see that working with the LC trunk.

 

Yeah, me too on my MK3. Loved it with 420+ whp.

I'm not into those 4 digit HP numbers, but the hard top is far superior for those builds.

What year Supra did you have?

 

I had a 1987. That was a bad year for Supra performance, I sold that slow thing quick