A trained hand and a plasma cutter is about all it takes to turn a coupe into a convertible—so long as one isn’t concerned with niggling topics of “structural rigidity” and “paint finish”—but taking a convertible and giving it a folding top often presents a much bigger challenge for automakers. Designing a top that retains some usable trunk space and doesn’t leak (hello, Volkswagen Eos? We haven’t forgotten) still takes effort. But the true coup de maître is creating one that works and also looks good when it’s up. On the admittedly thin basis of these patent application images, filed by Toyota in Europe, the FT-86 Open concept looks quite good with its folding roof deployed. No, we can’t get a clear impression of the, er, impression on the fabric top left by the support bars, but at least it looks like a serious effort has been made to preserve the attractive profile and roofline of the Scion FR-S and the Subaru BRZ.
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Toyota’s efforts to submit this design for patent also is a good signal of what everyone in the automotive community already expects—that a roadster version of the Scion FR-S/Toyota GT 86/Subaru BRZ is going to production. After all, why waste the time on a folding roof if you’re only building a roadster concept car? A plasma cutter would have handled the job just fine.