Spyder vs Roadster

[GeoffM]

Wait, What?

Spyder, sorry for all this cultural appropriation in this thread. Our Roadster privilege caused us to be blind to the fact that only spyder has the right to contextualize what it truly means to be a spyder.

[Shaundeegan]

Looks like a tiny Batmobile
Shaun
67.5 1600

[68DSU]

It was tempting to remove the passenger head rest and extend the cover forward to just behind the windshield (like the unzipped original vinyl tonneau with passenger side covered), but practical considerations demanded otherwise. Easy enough to do for those who do not face similar constraints.


Jon
'69 SRL (stock)
'70 SRL LT1
'71 TD2B (two races, original paint)

I really like the looks of that. It has a very clean, updated look to it.
As far as extending it, would you have any concerns putting a hard, thin surface at approximately neck level to the driver? Kind of the opposite of side impact airbags.

[jhayden]

Ha! Le guillotine? Point taken.

Jon

[FairladySPL]

A few cars come to mind when someone refers to "spyder," the Fiat 124 and the Porsche. Since the term has never been applied to the 311 series, it seems mismatched to me. Nissan seemed reluctant to use the term "Roadster" when it was marketing the car, yet from somewhere the name came up and has been in widespread use. "Convertible" is probably a generic American type that most people understand.But "Sport," despite being part of the Nissan branding, was not as popular in the vernacular, and is far more vague as a descriptor for a type or category of car. All this is before we even get to the "Fairlady" name within Datsun's marketing, which applied to vastly different cars as the 311 and the lesser "Z" models that followed. Lesser, in the sense that the tops do not go down.

[redroadster]

I,d bet the fairlady was also a variant of the the most successful N american car back then the Ford Fairlane ( Ltd , marquis, galaxy 500 were trim packages of the Fairlane body)
The term Roadster was coined in the 1920s for a 2dr 2 seat car esp with a cloth top
IMO there was a 1919 model T roadster...? Those early autos were either know as a car or touring car the later being one that was meant to be heavy-duty enough for out of state trips ...I remember my dad , uncles reveared the Roadster Model T saying it was heavy duty enough like a tourer

As I was told by another tech long ago a spider is 2 door convertable many 4dr US conv. but with many of those 2dr. it became a special unique one in some way

The vr4 3000gt mitsu had a spyder convertable that had a retract hard fiberglass top. porcshe boxster spider too was a targa .
I had a 86 subaru XT turbo coupe
With a big roof panel 38" that raised up and removed
I went to a subaru parts once and they wanted to see the car ,called it a spider