Is ther any difference in handling and performance between the two makes
Is a hard top lighter than the vert??
And how about weight distribution on the vert?? Is it balanced as even as the hard top??
Pros and cons to both??
Any advice would b good

 

about 200-300 lbs, one is a hatch the other has a trunk, one if you **** someone off they can make it rain in your car with a knife, the other it'll take something a bit stonger. the verts almost always need a new top. did you even attempt to research?

 

There is some under the car bracing that the coupe doesn't have. The vert comes with only a Open rear diff. Tail lights are different.

 

There is more body flex in the vert. Even with the stiffening it can never be as ridged as the hardtop. That being said, it still handles very well.
The hard targa does help from keeping it from "raining" inside. :p

 

When I weighted my base model hard top without people it was 2550LBs, the S5 manual vert I had with no people was 3000LBs [truck scale on the side of the freeway]

The vert also seemed to have a less progressive loss of traction.. Instead of slowly sliding more and more like the base it tended to suddenly loose it [might've been the bad tires I had though.. ~30%]

 

Headrest speakers in most convertibles though the one I'm working on right now does not have them. There is a connector underneath the seats for them so I assume it did at one point but the headrests are just like the coupes on this one.

 

Pretty sure all the verts came with them.. But I've been told that most of them quit working at some point, so people replace the seats..

 

my headseat speakers dont work -_-

 

i had convertible seats with speakers they were awesome, but now they are my gaming seat muahaha but yeah convertibles come with 3.9 differentials as well. coupes came with 4.1, if you want to get a vert, switch to a 4.1 made my life soo much easier, acceleration wise.

 

Only two helpfull responses ther
Ok so even with the reinforcements the it's more flexible
It's a good 300 lbs heavier
And I'm not rele worried about rain lol owned a mr2 and forgot the ttops at home 1 day
Like I said it's a performance question not looks and accessories

 

handling will come down to how you drive the car, most people will never drive the car to the performance edge that the difference will be noticeable

brakes and suspension- it comes stock with basically the same as a TII, car is 50/50 also

turbo or v8 conversion and now you easily overcome the difference in weight, by the way 2550 is a VERY light version of a FC, compare a TII and a vert and they are not 300lbs apart

 

The vert has aerodynamic drag coefficient of .33 as apposed to the coupes .31.

Not that, that small of a difference matters.

Put a spoiler on the vert and you'll fix that.

 

Only the s4(88) verts had the 3.9 rear. Besides for the automatic cars, all the other verts had the open 4.1.



Some other things, verts have Turbo II brakes, BBS factory wheels, and lighter window motors. And unlike many other manufactures, the vert model of the FC is very close in rigidity to the coupes from what I've read.

 

the good old US Goverment () wouldnt allow mazda to put the turbo engine in verts but everyother country it went got the turbo!

 

It wasn't the government. Back in the 80's and early 90's, cars with convertible tops and/or turbo's got molested by insurance companies with high rates.

Mazda was scared nobody would buy a turbo vert due to the cost of insurance.

 

thanks, people always tell me the goverment was the reason, but that sounds WAY more believable and probably true.

 

In addition to that, the car would of been very expensive new, and would of achieved horrible fuel milage.

 

oh yeah forgot only 1988 got 3.9. Correct me if im wrong but i remember that my convertible had stiffer engine mounts than my coupe.

 

Yes, it had the stiffer engine mounts.

It also came with the same suspension as the Turbo II and same brake setup as the Turbo II, which was mentioned earlier.

Oh, I also wanted to mention that the body flex of the vert isn't much more, if not almost un-noticeably more, than the coupe. The vert has that huge crossmember behind the engine plus the giant body support section right behind the seats. From my experience, the vert tries to flex right at the B pillar where that rigid section is, but it isn't much and can easily rectified with a roll bar.

 

Ok so cool so when it's comes down to it ther isn't much diff wen I'm just gona swap out to all t2 parts and up grade to adj coil overs and mandatory roll bar for drifting. I just don't see many vert drifters lol just an idea that hit me would b kinda cool

 

Drifting a drop top is an amazing feeling too. Makes you feel more in tune with the car imo.

 

Roll cage should take care of the rigidity.

I know that it's been said that it's still 50/50 weight distribution, but you would figure the vert would have more weight at the rear with the top and motors for it?

I haven't drifted a drop top, but i think nate has a good point about feeling more in tune with the car.

 

The extra weight of the support in the front, plus having most of the extra vert stuff toward the center of the car pretty much makes it still 50/50.

The vert top isn't what weighs 300lbs more than a coupe, it's all the extra support to keep the body stiff.

 

Not to offend the guy that posted this, but 2550 lbs. for a N/A coupe is not the stock weight. Either he has done some pretty nice lightening on the car (removing carpet, light exhaust, lighter wheels, remove spare tire kit, etc.) or the scale was off. After all truck scales are not calibrated to be accurate at 2500 lbs, they're accurate at whatever ridiculous amount a semi truck with a fully loaded trailer weigh. The lightest FC ever made was over 2700 lbs.

 

On my original window sticker for a s4 base, it has it at 26xx lbs. Don't know if that was dry or wet.