MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - Jargon

My carclub chums are mostly expat Brits. I was born and raised in the US until I moved to Canada 40 years ago. My British mates use a term that I can't find the meaning of anywhere: Drophead as in Drophead coupe.

I know it has nothing to do with the engine. The best I can make out is that it may be a British term for what I would call a convertible.

I am too embarassed to ask my British friends the meaning.

Help me out here so I don't have to look blank every time I hear Drophead.
H Speer

You are correct it is describing an convertible...
c allen

Yes - a DHC is basically a convertible - the "head" being the hood or soft top.
For example, there are two versions of the Jag XK120.
There is the roadster which is a fairly basic type of convertible much the same as the MGA roadster, where the hood is only used in an emergency. The DHC version is a much more luxurious affair and is virtually a coupe, having a very close fitting soft top and wind up windows etc.
Cam Cunningham

H. It depends on your definition of "convertible", which is a definition used in the US and Canada to cover any automobile having a top that can be removed from over the passenger area. There have been "hard top convertibles" which a metal roof which folded away into the trunk area.

The Brits use two terms for our "convertible"--roadster and drop head coupe.

A roadster commonly has a soft top which may or may not be completely removable from the car. A roadster has side curtains, a form of removable side window. The MGA is a roadster.

A drop head couple will have soft top which is, most commonly, attached to the vehicle and cannot be removed without the use of tools. The DHC has roll up windows in the doors. Often, but not always, the top on a DHC will have some sort of additional padding or insulation for warmth and sound deadening. The E type Jaguar is a classic example of a drop head coupe. So is an MGB.

Sometimes, a third classification is offered, one derived from German use. This is a Cabriolet which is a term used to describe any car having a removable, padded top. (As is often used on the drop head coupe.) This term seems to have come into use specifically to describe a convertible of German manufacture and designated, by the factory, as a Cabriolet.

Our use of a single word, "convertible", does not identify as specifically the exact type of vehicle as the various British and European terms do.

Les
Les Bengtson

The answer is well described above. However, I am a little surprised that DHC is attributed to us Brits. I had always presumed it was an American term. It is not commonly used over here nowadays. Most people would use the description: convertible, soft top, open top sports car, cabriolet or rag top.

However, just to complete the decriptions, the DHC was complemented by the FHC - Fixed Head Coupe.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Thanks guys, now I can talk to my Brit friends without embaressment. I could have asked my wife since she is British but all she wants to know about cars is where do you put the key to start it.

Drophead is definitely NOT American as I was raised there and, obviously, I never heard the term until living in Canada.
H Speer

There is another type of convertible- the phaeton- which is a 4-door convertible. Drop head coupes always have 2-doors.
C Schaefer

Many of these terms--coupe, phaeton, cabriolet, landau--are pre-automotive, deriving from the body styles of horse-drawn carriages. Oddly enough, the "hardtop convertible" became a marketing label for fixed-top Detroit sedans of the 1950s which lacked a B-pillar, giving them the sporty appearance of a soft-top model with its roof elevated.

Ken
Ken Korey

Ken. Ford actually made a metal roofed convertible in the mid 1950's. The metal roof retracted, hydraulically, into the trunk area. Never caught on.

As to strange language usage, a four door automobile is a "fordor" and a two door automobile is a "tudor" in the automotive useage of the 1950's and earlier. A "coupe", in the American usage, was always a tudor vehicle.

Les
Les Bengtson

Correctly speaking, the MGA is a roadster while all MGBs with soft tops, whether removable or not, are dropheads or convertibles.

It always grates when I see an MGB referred to as a roadster, as the proper defining criterion is whether a car had roll up windows or removable sidescreens.

The XK 120 was an unusual one as it had all 3 types of tops available.
Bill Spohn

Further to my earlier post - I seem to remember that the XK120 "roadster" was referred to by Jaguar as an OTS - "open topped sports". I was only when I saw my friend's XK120 DHC that I realised how different the two cars are.
Cam Cunningham

Mister Speer, You can always have a little fun with your British friends by asking if they know why a chicken coop has two doors. The answer of course, is that if it had four doors they would have to call it a chicken sedan. yuk yuk yuk
J Rogers

Yes, but a sedan is an ancient device, a sort of enclosed chair carried around by two servants using long poles.
Malcolm Asquith

"Ancient device".Not round these parts Squire.Some will do anything even for the minimum wage."I say chaps,Prepare to lift,,,,lift".
MR Blencowe

This thread was discussed between 22/02/2009 and 25/02/2009

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.