Driving top down in freezing temperatures

I love driving with the top down. This weekend I set a new personal record. I drove through the Catskill mountains for one hour at 23 degrees Fahrenheit (-5 degrees Celcius) without getting cold. My previous record was at 28 degrees.

Most people that saw me thought I was crazy, and the rest felt sorry that my roof did not work. However, you sit so low in the 360 Spider, and the aerodymamics are so well designed that even in the winter you can enjoy top down driving.

 

I wouldnt think your crazy at all...I do the same thing. I live in Northern Florida and it easily drops in to the 20s and 30s here. My top never goes up and when its that cold outside usually I am as warm as can be in the car. I get the same thing too...everybody looks at me like I am nut or something.

 

you get two thumbs up. personally if the top goes down I think it should be down as much as possible. hence the reason for getting it in the first place that open airy feeling you get

 

I'm also a big fan of topless driving and hit the roads in freezing weather..... I find the cold much more tolerable than a scorching TX summer day.

 

Kudos. I drove my '53 Healey(no heater ) to about 2500m, snowboarding a few years back. I had to put the roof down as the boards would only fit in behind the seats, standing up. Great air brakes. Got some very funny looks overtaking the buses of tourists heading for the slopes.

 

Living in north Italy, it gets really cold in winter. When the sun is out, or at least it is dry, my top never goes up. If I wanted a top, I'd have bought a GTS. And in the 328, even if you cannot say that the AC works wanders, heating system is great

Ciao
Eugenio

 

I did something similar with my old Pininfarina 2000 spider. Skis on the back and no roof: it was great!

Ciao
Eugenio

 

Rijk - you're taking NE driving to another level!

Play on brotha!

 

Put a shirt on the next time, silly, or you might catch a cold!

 

Agreed! Too many times I see posers, er, drivers in convertibles with the top up. If the car has heat or A/C then use those to your advantage to open the window of topless driving opportunities.

Guess that's why I also ride a motorcycle.

 

My Boxster S manual says not to operate the top below freezing.
So I put the top down in the heated garage.
Then put it back up after a few hours of sitting in the garage when the car warms up again. The garage is 65-70 degrees F.

I wonder if this is true for my 360 F1 Spider. I follow this procedure just to be on the safe side.

Others experience and input would be appreciated.

PNH
Aspen, CO

 

Does it have a plastic rear window?

 

Last year my dad and I went down to the Florida/Georgia football game and we left arund 4 in the morning. It was about 40 degrees and we were in the SC430 with the top down doing about 85mph.






It was cold.

 

Been there, done that...

 

No. My Boxster S has a glass window with defroster built into the glass.

PNH

 

I have an older boxster with the plastic window (here in Denver). I have a heated garage too. The top basically stays down all year (unless I'm out and it starts to rain). I don't drive it in the cold when I know the top might have to come up (if snow is coming) but I do drive when its cold, not lately though, too much snow and road gunk on the roads in Metro denver.

Anyway, if I was to put the top up, I'd do like you, I'd wait until the car body had warmed up to avoid cracking.

James in Denver

 

Not crazy at all. If you think about it, no different than riding a motorcycle. You just have to dress right. Dress warm. a cap to keep the knoggin warm and heater cranking. I love it.


Darrell.

 

Ditto that.
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I'd probably do the top down thing during winter but the heater should be turned on all the way! Too bad, we don't have the Coupe version.

 

Your Boxster is a Porsche....not a Ferrari! I am at the other end of the scale. I get cold in temps below 70 (but have the top down anyway), but, at 118 in Palm Springs in August the top would be down and no AC!

 

I think it's funny that people talk about 20 being really cold. Its been sitting in the 20's for a while now here and we are having a "warmer" winter. Usually people are driving on lakes by mid to end of december but just yesterday I saw a couple of cars on the ice. I do have to give you guys credit as being in the cold( single digits and below) takes getting used to and when 90 is normal then I bet 30 feels cold.

 

A Porsche? Guess I'll have to go back to the guy who sold it to me. He told me it was a Ferrari. It had a horse on it so I assumed...

PNH

 

My 328 in the garage after a good run can practically heat the whole house.

In an earlier epoch, I noticed that I can drive the Alfa Spider top down in light rain and not get wet, as long as I stay over 30mph. (Too bad about traffic lights.)

But you really get strange looks when driving down the road with the wipers going and the top down.

 

Yep, I like winter driving with the top down too. Unfortunately, my only convertible right now is my 993 C4 cabrio, which is a fabulous car in every other respect, but because the rear window is plastic, I am very reluctant to crack it. Yes, I have done the drill of taking it down in my heated garage and leaving it down, but I'm not sure how good it is to see below freezing temps in a folded position.If you read the Porsche boards, they seem to be fanatical about this issue. Also, at least with the model I have, simply replacing the rear window is not so easy, as I understand it.

 

I'm with you guys. Even when it dips close to 50 degrees here in San Diego, I remove the top and cruise. Life's too short to be hostage to the cold, I've always said.