10 of the best classic targa-top sports cars

Drop-top thrills with coupé usability

The targa: neither a coupé nor a convertible, it’s a sort-of-drop-top that offers both wind-in-your-hair fun and hard-top performance.

First coined (and trademarked) by Porsche in 1966, the targa-style top features a section of roof which can be removed, leaving behind the rear window and a band of bodywork.

So appealing is the formula that a surprising number of marques have copied the Porsche approach over the years – all attempting to deliver that fabled blend of convertible and coupé.

Which of the classic targa-tops is best, though? We put 10 to the test to find out.

Fiat X1/9 1500

Price: £7,000 – £10,000

Fiat’s little mid-engined wedge has never really gained the classic status it deserves, with threats of rust and electrical issues keeping buyers wary and prices low.

But the naysayers are missing out on a driver’s car that is genuinely entertaining and cheap to run, in a 34mpg kind of way.

Fiat X1/9 1500 (cont.)

Remove the roof panel – it's held in place by four clips and is quick to take off and stow in the front boot compartment – and you'll find the X1/9 offers plenty of character and sporty sound. The 85bhp engine's no ball of fire, but it doesn't have much weight to push around.

Inside things are roomier than you might think, but then the X1/9 is larger than it looks in photos.

Fiat X1/9 1500 (cont.)

Much has been written in praise of the X1/9’s kart-like handling – and all of it is valid: Fiat really got the chassis balance spot-on. There’s an almost Lotus level of quality to the ride/handling balance.

The non-powered steering is weightier than you'd expect, particularly at low speeds, but it's never actually heavy and always precise. In fact, you often find yourself wishing roads were a bit twistier.

Honda CR-X Del Sol

Price: £4000 – £7000

If you can find one on the market, Honda's CR-X Del Sol offers an affordable entry point to targa-top ownership – and it has the best party trick of all the cars we tested: the electrically operated TransTop automatically stows in the bootlid, which rises up to meet it. It's great to watch – even if it takes 38 seconds.

Honda CR-X Del Sol (cont.)

The Honda’s cabin is uninspiring in its total blackness, but the driving position is good and everything feels well screwed together.

With the windows up there’s almost no buffeting in the cockpit, even at pace – and the 125bhp del Sol has plenty of that, thanks to the typically revvy Honda ‘four’.

Honda CR-X Del Sol (cont.)

You wouldn’t call it fast, but the Honda is fun – and more powerful versions are available, up to the 170bhp VTi or SiR. There’s eager turn-in for a front-driver and plenty of grip, and you can add a slick shift to the list, too.

In fact, it’s hard to find much to criticise: this is a real bargain that also has rarity on its side – and it's a car you can use and enjoy every day.

Toyota MR2 2.0 GTI-16

Price: £3000 – £6000

In contrast to the origami styling of the Mk1 MR2, Toyota went smooth and slippery for its replacement.

The result might not be as striking, but the mid-engined Mk2’s looks have aged better and would barely seem out of place if the car was launched today.

Toyota MR2 2.0 GTI-16 (cont.)

The MR2’s T-bar top is a two-piece affair, with half stowing behind each seat. It might not be as fancy a solution as some of the other targa-style roofs on test, but it's relatively quick and it works.

In fact, it sets the tone for the car as a whole. Toyotas have a bit of reputation for being dull but decent – but the Mk2 is good at everything.

Toyota MR2 2.0 GTI-16 (cont.)

Sure, the engine doesn’t exactly kick you in the back, but the MR2 has bags of go. The lack of power steering is a bonus, too: this car simply doesn’t need it, with perfect weighting and plenty of feedback.

Early MR2s were criticised to such an extent that chassis settings were altered and larger tyres fitted a few years into production, but – in the dry at least – we had no complaints at all about how this targa-top handled.

Lancia Monte-Carlo Spider

Price: £10,000 – £15,000

Lancia's fetching Monte-Carlo does something different with its roof: the patented design by Pininfarina features a cleverly tensioned soft section that takes seconds to roll up into a housing above the rear window. 

It's novel and means you don't need to worry about having to stash solid panels somewhere.

Lancia Monte-Carlo Spider (cont.)

A 120bhp output from the 2-litre 'four' might not sound like a lot, but the Lancia only weighs 997kg – which means on the road the Italian darts into corners like a racer.

Once warm, the twin-cam engine pulls well from low down in its rev range and does its stuff with exactly the kind of rasp you expect and want from an Italian sports car.

Lancia Monte-Carlo Spider (cont.)

In the cockpit you barely notice that the roof is open, such is the lack of air intrusion at speed. Sure, the engine means it’s never peaceful in there, but there’s no excuse for having the top shut on a dry day.

There’s a lovely balance to the handling, too, helped by the direct steering and good feel from the brakes.

Chevrolet Corvette C3

Price: £10,000 – £18,000

You'd expect to find a large, lazy American V8 in a ’Vette – but if you can find a 1982 model (the last year of C3 production), you'll get Cross-Fire throttle-body fuel injection instead of carburettors.

That means a very tractable 200bhp – up 10bhp on the previous year – alongside Chevrolet’s new four-speed 700-R4 automatic gearbox.

Chevrolet Corvette C3 (cont.)

During this period of Corvette production, all cars were coupés with the removable T-bar top.

Sadly, it gets a booby prize for being the worst car here for cockpit buffeting. For some aerodynamic reason that’s hard to fathom, it's almost as bad as in most roadsters, which hardly encourages you to take the top off.

Chevrolet Corvette C3 (cont.)

And that's a shame, because the perfect driving position, comfortably supportive seats and Chevy V8 soundtrack make you want to drive the ’Vette a long way.

It certainly had us dreaming of endless interstates viewed down those exaggerated wing tops. There might not be a great deal of feel or precision to the steering, but that’s never really been Corvette’s game, and it does have excellent brakes.

Bristol 412

Price: £35,000 – £50,000

Like the Corvette, the British-built Bristol 412 also packs a big American motor, which suits its scale: this is an immense car, far larger than you can tell from pictures, hitting the scales at more than 1900kg.

That added size does you mean you get a pair of rear seats, at least – though there's no way you could call the brute beautiful.

Bristol 412 (cont.)

The roof is versatile, with a choice of a fold-down rear section or the hard-top, and you'll experience little interference from the wind, even with the side windows down.

What's more, performance is truly muscular: the immense torque turns this into a real gentleman’s hot rod.

Bristol 412 (cont.)

You get the feeling that if Bentley hadn’t been swallowed up by Rolls-Royce, this is how one of those might have driven in the ’70s.

Only when cornering hard does all of that weight become noticeable – the car rolls like a ferry in a bad swell – but there is a remarkably high level of grip.

In fact, it's a prime cruising candidate: it has the sound, the comfort and, importantly, indestructible and easy-to-fix running gear.

Porsche 911 2.4S Targa

Price: £50,000 – £70,000

Porsche created the targa concept to deliver a convertible that wouldn’t require lots of heavy body stiffening, just a rollover bar. Early ones even had a zip-out plastic rear screen.

The 1973 2.4S targa is among the rarest and most valuable of all 911s, with only 49 right-hand-drive examples built and a mere handful surviving today.

Porsche 911 2.4S Targa (cont.)

Porsche not only gave us the targa in style and name, but also equipped it with a patented mechanism that sees the tensioned vinyl top concertina down and fit snugly into the front boot, without taking up too much luggage space. 

There’s very little buffeting in the cabin, and you feel much closer to all the excited mechanical thrash from the engine – and it delivers an exhaust note to fall in love with.

Porsche 911 2.4S Targa (cont.)

Behind the wheel, the 2.4S feels solid and impresses with its ability to communicate with the driver. In fact, there’s almost too much feel to the steering, but that does give you the confidence to push it quite hard.

You do have to use plenty of revs to get the best out of the 911’s 190bhp fuel-injected flat-six, but the rear-engine setup means it feels even lighter than it is.

Triumph TR5

Price: £30,000 – £35,000

Did Triumph actually invent the targa top? That depends on your definition of the term – but it certainly beat Porsche to the concept by five years with its Surrey top.

Introduced in September 1961 with the TR4, the optional bolt-on glass rear window section could be used either with a steel hard-top – held on by four bolts, but with no way of being stowed in the car – or the leather cloth ‘Surrey’ soft-top and folding frame that stows in the rear seat area.

Triumph TR5 (cont.)

The top works well in two ways. For a start, the rear window section adds rigidity that reduces a lot of the shake and rattle that usually goes hand-in-hand with TR ownership.

It's also pleasingly refined with the top off: very little wind gets into the cockpit, so you can enjoy the old-school nature of the Triumph without the need for a tight-fitting cap.

Triumph TR5 (cont.)

Even lighter than the ‘lightweight’ 911, the TR5 also produces more torque, so always feels lively to drive.

Add in the precise, unassisted steering and predictable handling and you can see why TR5s are so sought-after.

Ferrari F355 GTS

Price: £80,000 – £100,000

Racing is said to improve the breed, but it was a different form of competition that drove Ferrari to produce its first genuinely usable supercar: the fact that Porsche (with the 993) and Honda (NSX) had managed it and were stealing sales.

So enter the Ferrari F355, still visually related to the 308, but with eye-watering performance, gobsmacking dynamic abilities and almost Germanic build quality.

Ferrari F355 GTS (cont.)

Sold alongside the GTB and Spider, the GTS is the rarest of the F355s, with fewer than 500 sold in right-hand drive guise.

The no-fuss roof simply unclips and stows behind the seats, leaving you with fresh air but not too much breeze, even at the kind of speeds we could indulge in at a test track.

Ferrari F355 GTS (cont.)

The Ferrari is an incredibly easy car to drive – whether down to the shops or very, very quickly. There’s so much feel to all of the controls, along with an instant and predictable reaction to your slightest input – and the power steering is perfectly weighted, too.

And then there’s the noise: always sounding as if it has an urgent appointment somewhere, above 4000rpm it grows to an other-worldly howl so raw and scary it should carry an 18 certificate.

TVR Tuscan S

Price: £30,000 – £50,000

Last up is the Tuscan, a car that doesn't carry the greatest reputation for reliability or, indeed, predictability – but it's all forgivable once you've driven one.

Just sitting in the Tuscan takes you to another place, possibly one concocted for a Hollywood sci-fi movie: beautifully machined aluminium sprouts from everywhere and the freakish dashboard is, well, academic once you hit the accelerator.

TVR Tuscan S (cont.)

There’s no time to look anywhere but straight ahead when you're pushing it – yet the Tuscan also surprises by being docile when you want it to be.

It is a little more turbulent inside than some of our other targas, but we were using it without the rear screen fitted. These pop out for extra ventilation – sometimes when you don’t expect them to.

TVR Tuscan S (cont.)

Making the most of lightweight materials and home-grown Speed Six engine, it has a weapons-grade power-to-weight ratio.

There’s no V8 kick up the backside; rather, an urgent, linear rush of power that keeps building like a rotary engine until you hit the limiter and grab another gear.

Which one would we buy?

Given that the very concept is meant to do it all, how does one rate a targa? On outright performance? Roofless thrills? Practicality and versatility?

If money is no object, the F355 GTS wins on all of those. Slick six-speed gearbox, electronic dampers, and it fits like a glove: with that roof panel off, this is possibly the perfect driving machine. And once you hear it you want some more. 

Then again, the Toyota MR2 offers addictive drivability for a fraction of the price. But it all started with Porsche. Oh, we can't decide…