Some cars have fixed roofs; others have folding cloth roofs – and a very special few have small removable sections of the roof that let the sunshine in when they’re out, and let a tiny bit of rain in when they’re installed. Today we’re going to take a look at two such cars, and pay our respects to that most badass of all roof types: the T-top.
Yesterday we looked at two cars with big rear spoilers, and I figured the Thunderbird was going to win. Rear-wheel-drive and a manual transmission gave it the edge, I think, despite its electrical gremlins and higher price. The Iron Duke/TH125 combo in the Grand Am just couldn’t compete.
However, I’m going to play devil’s advocate and cast my vote for the Grand Am. At this point, I would rather do upkeep on a slow car than try to revive a faster one with issues. Maybe I’m just getting old, but polishing up an old Pontiac on weekends sounds relaxing.
T-tops on a production car first appeared on the 1968 Corvette, and they really gained popularity in the late 1970s in the absence of convertibles. They seem to be one of those love-it-or-hate-it car features; either you think they’re unbelievably cool, or you have had some that leaked on you and are over them. I’ve never had a car with T-tops, so I still think they’re cool. For today, I’ve found two great examples of T-top cars: one that had them as standard equipment, and another that should have. Let’s check them out.
1989 Nissan Pulsar NX XE – $4,500
Engine/drivetrain: 1.6 liter OHC inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Seattle, WA
Odometer reading: 155,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
The Nissan Pulsar was available in a variety of bodystyles in other parts of the world, but we only got one: the two-door coupe. For the second generation, that meant standard T-tops and a removable hatchback that could be replaced with a station wagon-style cover known as the Sportbak. This one doesn’t have the Sportbak; it was a rare option then, and it’s nearly impossible to find now. But you can still remove the T-top panels and the hatch for open-air fun.
The Pulsar never was a high-performance car; you could get a turbocharged engine in the first generation and a twin-cam engine in this one, but the standard engine was a single-cam 12 valve engine shared with the Sentra. It makes the most of its 92 horsepower with a five-speed manual transmission. This one has had four owners, and comes with service records going all the way back to 1994. It’s in great mechanical shape, and has been driven daily for the past three years.
The interior positively screams ’80s, with its accordion shift boot, side pods on the instrument panel, and tape deck in the dash. The seller has installed new Pioneer speakers in the doors, so your INXS tapes should sound pretty good. It’s all in great shape, and the seller says everything works fine. The T-top seals do seep a bit in the rain, but to be fair, Seattle weather is a test of any window seals.
There are so many great little details on the outside of this car: the pop-up headlights, the diagonal lines on the taillights, the door handles set into the edges of the doors. It’s unmistakable from anything else. This one is in fine shape, though it does have a little crease in the driver’s side door, and some unevenly-faded paint. Still, the seller says it turns a lot of heads, and I believe it.
1994 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 – $5,000
Engine/drivetrain: 5.7 liter OHV V8, six-speed manual, RWD
Location: Redding, CA
Odometer reading: 96,000 miles
Operational status: Has been sitting for a while, needs a battery
Though it seems like the Chevy Camaro had T-tops all along, they didn’t actually become available until 1978, well into the car’s second generation. But after that, they became a fixture, and no well-dressed Z28 was complete without them. The fourth-generation Camaro and Firebird were to be the last cars with T-tops, but they wore them well. In fact, any time I feature a Camaro here without T-tops, someone comments on the lack of them. So here you go.
Not only does this Camaro Z28 have T-tops, it also has the T56 six-speed manual transmission. The seller says this car belongs to their grandmother, who stopped driving it three years ago. It has been sitting since then, so it will need some waking up. The battery needs replacing, and all the fluids should be changed, at the minimum. But once you get it going again, you’ll enjoy 275 horses from that LT1 V8. Go Granny go.
It only has 96,000 miles on it, and Granny obviously took care of it, so it’s in a lot better shape inside than your average fourth-gen Camaro. This is also the first time in a long time that I’ve seen a detachable-face stereo with the face actually detached. People still do that? I think the face comes off the one in my truck, but I’ve never actually removed it.
It has been parked outside all this time, which is a good test of the T-top seals, but it’s hell on the clearcoat. All the horizontal surfaces are dull. Whether or not it’s worth repainting is up to you. At least, as a California car, it should be rust-free. Redding gets its share of snow, but they don’t salt the roads.
Open-air driving can be a wonderful thing, but convertibles are kind of a pain in the ass. T-tops seem like a good compromise: snug and warm in the winter, but letting plenty of summer sun and fresh air in. Almost no one makes them anymore, and I think that’s a shame. We could use more fun and fresh air in cars these days. But at least we’ve got these two. Which one is more your style?
Hey, the Pulsar’s price is down to $3,900!
If I was not selling stuff off and moving, I think I’d buy it
Yeah, yeah the t top is removable, but on the NX you can remove the back to turn it into a open pickup or track down one of the wagon backs that will cost as much as at the car.
NX for me!
No brainer. A Pulsar is on the short list of cars I’d like to acquire someday, especially a SportBak. I only know of one still in operation locally. Those taillights, those wheels, it all screams Rad.
Pulsar. It’s weird as hell and as unusual as a Muslim in the Vatican.
T-tops, the lobotomy of car modifications. I’ll take the Camaro. Squeek, squeak, squeak.
That Pulsar looks really nice, where the Camaro is not looking so nice, even if it is a Z28 with T-Tops…which is awesome.
Oh my, this one hits right home as one of my (recently deceased) cousins owned an 88 Pulsar when I was a kid, and being the eldest cousin he would take me and my other cousins to the arcade and video store. A few years later he showed up in a 96 Camaro with T-Tops although that one had a 3800/5 spd but 15 yr old me thought it was a riot in the streets, we had a lot of fun.
I’m going with the Pulsar as the Camaro was his half brother’s and I found out he had borrowed it from him w/o asking, hear me out 15 years later!
Me and his half brother had a nice laugh after some swearing, LOL
Rest in peace buddy
Two good choices – all things equal, I’d probably take the Camaro, but the exterior is the deciding factor today. That little pulsar is ready to rock the shit outta some radwood stuff. Also remember driving a couple of these back in the day. They’re cool little cars and handle pretty well.
I’ll take the extra clean Nissan, as a Gen X’er I love these funky little things.
The Camaro? If I want a 4th gen, I would rather pay more and have a later LS car. Hell, I feel like I could pay just a couple grand more and find a LT1 car with a cleaner exterior and lower miles. It’s just in a weird spot condition-wise, clean enough if you like these cars but I’d rather buy the best one I can afford, and I can afford better.
I like both but gotta go Pulsar! They are unique, fun and this one is in good condition. I really do love the taillights, door handles, and pop-ups. That gen Camaro really wasn’t a great body style but at least it’s V8/stick
Normally, a V8 6-speed Camaro for $5,000 would take the prize and I’d give granny the devil horns out the top whilst doing a burnout down the street.
But fond memories of cruising in my cousin’s Nissan Pulsar with T-tops off when I wore a younger man’s clothes come back to mind with this clean Nissan.
It’s like the antithesis of yesterday’s borked Thunderbird and Iron Duke/automatic Grand Am combo.
Both, but if I had to choose one….it would be the Camaro. My inner redneck speaks loudly today.
Hat tip for the Billy Joel reference.
I don’t really love either option. I don’t have a good reason, just neither car speaks to me. Since the game is choose one give me the V8.
I really didn’t care for the Pulsar when it came out, thought it was too gimmicky, even though a colleague who was an industrial designer, whose opinion I respected, argued that it was the cat’s pajamas.
Through the lens of time, I think she was right.
They look damn cool and I suspect they’d be fun to drive.
Those Camaros, bleh. Pure gavone city, never liked them in just about any generation, they were always playing second fiddle to the always-cooler ‘Stang.
That said, I do wish I could’ve met the Granny who’d driven this one, she sounds like a character.
That’s funny, I agree with you on all points.. It’s funny because I had to google gavon, as I always heard it with more of a “c”, but you nailed it
Yikes . . . Tell me you have bad taste without saying you have bad taste. 🙂
This isn’t any sort of choice at all. 4th gen F bodies are cheap performance. The Pulsar doesn’t even register.
I used to like those Pulsars, my best friend from first grade’s dad had a first gen. I thought these with the changeable rear portion were super cool. I cannot remember the last time I even saw one here in the Northeast, never mind in that nice of shape.
I still think the Camaro is the better buy, but the Pulsar is more interesting.
Granny was a bit of a badass!
Oh, and I have a later 4th gen Firebird with T’s, and they didn’t leak. The most annoying thing is how slow the pass side window goes up in these cars, a lot of times I have to give it a hand by pushing up on the glass.
needs a window motor, and it’s held on by rivets 🙁
You can drill out the rivets, and aftermarket window motors include nuts and bolts to replace the stupid rivets 🙂
I can’t believe the voting is even close. Camaro should be slaying it right now. Sure the Pulsar looks neat, but it has leaky t-tops already. All parts discontinued for it. Seals for Camaro – readily available.
There’s at least 4.1 other reasons the Camaro should be winning as well.
“… but convertibles are kind of a pain in the ass. T-tops seem like a good compromise…”
I think this statement has it backwards, at least for a decent power top.
In even the most basic power top convertible, and some manual top ones, I can put the top up at a red light if it stops raining in a short account of time while never leaving the driver’s seat. Not so with t tops.
Anyways, I voted Camaro. V-8 rumble and a six speed. The first time I drove a stick was in my friend’s dad’s convertible Z-28 of similar vintage.
I can remove my driver’s side T top from the driver’s seat in my Firebird. I’ve done it a few times.
As the owner of nearly every type of open top vehicle (sunroof, moonroof, T-tops, manual convertible, power convertible, Jeep; Targa would be the one I haven’t had) t-tops are probably the 2nd worst next to Jeep (for quick changes and overall driving.) Why – because there isn’t anywhere good to put them when you’re driving. In my 300ZX you had to put them in bags and then strap them in the hatch area, where they took up the entire floor, and you didn’t want to set anything on them as they are made of glass. But I still like them better than a hardtop (I did own a 90 Camaro with no T-tops.) Jeep is bad because it takes forever to remove the top on mine, and nowhere to put it when you’re driving, and it takes even longer to put it up. So for me you just leave it off most of the time until winter comes. I’m split between power and manual convertibles, the power ones are nice because you don’t have to exit the car to raise and lower it, but you don’t have to worry about the power parts breaking leading to a costly repair or being stranded with a top down unable to raise it.
When I had my Miata, I never locked it, because I didn’t want someone slashing the top open just to discover there was nothing worth stealing in it. But once, when I had it parked at a brew pub with the top down, I returned to find someone had left a half-empty cup in the cupholder – and stubbed out a cigarette on the floor. Left a nice burn in the carpet. Someone obviously thought it was acceptable to just hang out in a stranger’s car. That’s what I mean by “pain in the ass.” Security is very tricky with a convertible.
Fair enough.
I’ve had a LeBaron with a power top, Mustang with a power top, MGB with a top frame only but no cloth, TJ with both soft top and hard top, JL with hardtop with “freedom panels” so sort of t-tops, and soft top.
I have also generally gone by the rule don’t have anything of value in a convertible. The LeBaron got broken into because the windows could basically be pried open and TI-86 graphing calculator and book of burned CDs was stolen. I also had to replace the top pump on that, but it was pretty easy.
I still stand by the fact that the Mustang and le baron were the easiest to live with.
Z28. The Pulsar is neat, but I have owned two LT1 F-bodies and would gladly own another. With that said, I wish this wasn’t a T-top, as I liked the structural rigidity of the hardtop over the flex and leaks of the T-tops.
Went with the Pulsar, not a fan of that generation Camaro, suffered for the Firebird.
I love the Nissan, but it has to be grandma’s bitchin’ Camaro. I will play Buzzbomb from Pasadena and do donuts in it.
Pulsar for nostalgia’s sake. I was 19 and my apartment roommate had one. Whenever I see one I think about the outdoor party we went to on an absolutely perfect day. It was the first time I shroomed, too. After several hours, we thought the shrooms were done, but as he was driving the backcountry roads in his Pulsar to get us home, it was clear that they were still lingering. I felt like I was in a spaceship hovering just above the ground hugging every curve and hill.
If this were a V6 Camaro, I’d be all over that Pulsar. But the LT1 is calling to me…manual makes it extra desirable.
Went with the Pulsar…nice condition!
Never liked the looks of that generation of Camaro (or any of the ones after). They’re too cheap to spring for a battery on a $5k car.
Was expecting to pick the Pulsar due to its uniqueness, but a Camaro with a 350 and a manual transmission makes it a winner.
Man…. this is a tough one. I don’t think I’d want to keep either one, but they’re both on the left coast, and I’m on the right, so it’d be a roadtrip purchase. At first I was like, “oh man, no way that Camaro even gets 20mpg on the highway” which, I mean, it doesn’t, but then I looked up the Pulsar, and it only gets 22 highway. So, I’ll go with the one that has more room for road tripping, and might be a better cruiser on the highway, and pick the Camaro.
With the M6 in that Camaro, the motor is barely running above idle at 70mph. It probably gets closer to 25 on the highway. My ’88 3rd gen T/A with the TPI350 and 4L60 could get 20 highway.
I had a LSI FBody with the M6, that got 28mpg on the highway. The LT1 may be a little less efficient, but not by much. These really are great highway cars.
Well then! That definitely validates my choice. 🙂 Now I kinda wish I was actually doing it….
the SOHC Pulsar with a 5spd got low to mid 30s on the HWY. But that Camaro is not that far behind, I mean you’re giving up only 30% fuel economy for 200% more power.
I still went with the Pulsar for nostalgia’s sake