Stowable, removable roof
Keeping your options open
Traditionally, owners of a supercar with a removable roof had to decide before they left home as to whether they’d drive ‘top-down’. Their cars had no room to carry the roof on-board so it was a risky decision, especially when the forecast showed potential for rain.
One of the original, key design elements when Christian von Koenigsegg first sketched his idea for a super-sports car in 1994 was the idea of a removable, stowable roof. He wanted to give his customers both the security of a hardtop coupe AND the freedom of open-top driving. Every Koenigsegg road car ever made features this ingenious piece of design.
The roof is a one-piece unit made completely from carbon fiber, and it is light enough to be removed by one person. While the design of the roof itself was not a challenge, designing a space for it to fit into the front of the car certainly was.
The only manufacturer to offer two-in-one
Clearing space for the roof under the front hood posed special challenges for the design of the front subframe, a structure that holds Koenigsegg’s elongated wishbone suspension, the steering rack, front dampers, brake fluid reservoir, anti-roll bar, and more. The front subframe had to be designed to be as compact as possible so as to allow space for the one-piece roof.
It was a challenge worth tackling. Koenigsegg is still the only manufacturer in the world for which every car is both a hardtop coupe AND a roadster.