This sounds awesome. I can't wait!!!

 

That's old news DJ. The patent pics for the roof design have been floating around the net since last year It's a two piece design that pivots like the roof on the 575 Superamerica with the two pieces rotating through 180 degrees and stowing stacked above each other in a compartment above the engine.

 

^^^isuk - We have seen those patent photos, however the rumors were not confirmed until now.

 

Yep I posted them a year ago here But now I have confirmation directly.

One of the old schematic images we had:

 

this car looks so sexy with the top off.

 

Why don't they make the tops pop off? Like how they do on a CGT. It would be a hell of a lot lighter.

 

bummer the only chance this car had was to have a soft top up there to soften the lines and make it more presentable. big mistake imho

 

Apologies, didn't realise you'd had those pics. I had "official" confirmation of the hard top just after those pics appeared last year and assumed others had as well.

 

The California is the car for the hardtop convertible. They need to keep this a soft top.

 

There is information about 458 Spider getting folding hardtop, I can cofirm it. Honestly speaking this is not right and let me explain why - if weight increase will be significant the whole concept is wrong to make every car lighter, if weight increase will be not significant (I really do not see the way this could happen) the coupe market will go down. Just imagine, why will you buy a coupe, when a slight premiums gets you convertible? And finally they have Cali for that purpose. I would definitely prefer to see 458 Spider with traditional soft-top.