There are convertible carsand then there are convertiblecars. Some are factory made;others are conversions costing$40,000 or more.

Then there is Jack Griffith’s Sunchaser. It isa convertible for the ’80s, designed in sight ofthe trend and built with the expertise of an ex-perienced specialty car hand: “Do R&D untilit hurts, and then do it some more . . . use thehighest quality and most sensible materialsavailable . . . get the best engineers you canafford.” Throughout this patchwork, Griffithhas managed to provide what the prospectivecustomer is looking for: a convertible for lessthan $9000, with a full factory warranty andservice at any one of 1050 Toyota dealerships.

Gee, Jack, you’ve really got a winner here:a play car that makes hard-work sense; a carthat will still be around long after its creatorisn’t, which is how this all began. Griffith leftthe legacy of the Griffith sports car, a squattylittle V-8-powered weevil that would do 0-60

in less than 5 seconds. But that was in the olddays, before smog control and sports car de-corum. Griffith bought spineless bodies fromthe TVR company in England, brought themhere, installed 289 Ford engines and driv-etrains, and for three rapacious years main-tained a stranglehold on the leadfoot market.

But that sort of thing doesn’t play well any-more, and so for the past two-and-a-half years,Griffith and industrial design engineer DannDeaver have been fussing over their Toyotaconversion.

The Sunchaser is really a GT or ST Toyotacoupe with its top metal sabersawed away andreplaced with a lift-off panel/cabriolet convert-ible. These two extensions are nestled into ahandlaminated fiberglass crown that covers theraw metal edge, lends a great deal of struc-tural rigidity to the body and makes for a verycosmetic finish. Naturally, all the underbodybases on the underside of the Sunchaser arecovered with frame connectors and gussetplates (see sidebar).

The objects of the convertible maker aretwo-fold: to make the body at least as rigid asit was in the first place, and to keep all the wetstuff on the outside. Drive any convertible andyou see and feel the flex in the chassis andhear the rattles that beget more rattles. Theseare inherent problems, but Griffith seems tohave surmounted them in the Sunchaser. Thelift-off panel is an important part of the struc-ture, and it, combined with the targa hoop“cradle,” allows the car to be almost as quietas a stock ST.

In the wet, the Sunchaser will do just fine.Unless the downpour is something out ofSoutheast Asia, your jodhpurs will stay dry.The closest thing to the squall test in Americais the automatic car wash, which failed to slipso much as a drop inside. And if the Toyota iswont to leak, says Griffith, seepage will occurin traditional places: over the Apillar (wind-shield) and on the flat of the deck.

On the road, the Sunchaser is as tight andas quiet as a hardtop. With the panel in its own

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booty in the trunk and the windows up, there’s notenough air disturbance to muss your hair or givereason to raise your voice. With the cabriolet atfull rest and the panel still in the boot, there’s plentyof action for unsprayed hair, but conversation staysthe same; wind distress level at this point is aboutthe same as if both side windows on a hardtop wererolled down. Nor were there any rattles.

Unless you accost a courduroy road or hit a pothole large enough to hide in, the Sunchaser willrefuse to bark, remaining as quiet as the Toyota itis. A service road provided a quota of surface ir-regularities and straightaways upon which wecould ascertain the Suncahser’s abilities at speed.With both tops down, we cranked the car to a steady80 and held, feeding the Toyota to the sweepingcurves and feeling the full force of the wind about

Heavy Starch foran Open Collar

Cars that are made into convertibleshave a nasty habit of squirming

around unless they are braced or otherwiseregrouped to regain most of their structuralintegrity. Griffith’s Sunchaser conversionbegan with a solid Toyota GT or ST coupe,but when its top metal was cut away, it be-came as flacid as a tent without its poles.Failure to alleviate this problem led to flex-ing, which, in turn, promoted poor handling,erratic braking, the shakes , and all mannerof interior and exterior misalignment.

Unit-construction vehicles, such as theToyota, find their strength in the top as wellas in the floorpan; so, when there is no top,the floorpan must be bolstered to handle morestress. Project engineer Dann Deaver (an in-dustrial design and process engineer who de-veloped the Borg-Warner CRV car, an all-thermoplastic structure) was called in on thecase. He took Griffith’s concept and designedthe parts to make it work.

One-and-a-half years after the project’s ini-tiation, Deaver had composed a continuity forthe Sunchaser made of 2x3/16 inch square tub-ing runners that connected to and overlappedthe stock front and rear subframes. This al-lowed suspension loads to be carried all theway through the subframes. He then devised“scab” plates, which were contoured to thebottom of the floorpan and then welded to thesubframes. The footwells were supported byanother set of plates- 2x2x1/4-inch stock -which were also welded to the pan, but sepa-rate from the subframes. With the boiler-plateunderbelly to keep it straight, Deaver turnedto the question of the convertible top, usinghis extensive knowledge of fiberglass con-

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our heads. The Sunchaser was as surefootedas the original.

The Sunchaser is an easier car to field stripthan the Corvette ever was. The roof panel issnugged down by four lever clamps, one ateach corner. You sort of stand to the side withthe door open and use one long arm as sup-port for the middle of the panel, so you can liftit off. The cabriolet is permanently anchoredat the body, and its top lip is held to the targahoop by three double-action clamps that makea tension-tight upper seal. Simply, the top foldsnearly flat, and the boot attaches by a dozen orso conventional snaps. Even if you carry outthe operation only once, you can pull it apartor put it together in less than three minutes.The aficionados, we are told, can do it in less

than one. However, even though the remov-able panel only weighs 14 pounds (about thesame as one T-top glass hatch), it is wideenough to be awkward for a slight person.Wind can also be a foe in the right situation.

The convertible top, while causing zeroproblems in removal, poses a more insidiousproblem for the driver. It helps create a blindspot large enough to make the addition of aright sideview mirror mandatory. With it andsome time spent with the beast, this inherenttrait will just become something to live with.After all, this is a convertible.

We wanted to see and feel the Sunchaser’sinstrumented reactions, to know if the conver-sion had affected its performance and handling.With barely 70 miles on the clock, the

‘Chaser’s acceleration times were a bit slowerthan those of a stock ST. At first, we surmisedthat the extra weight of the conversion was theculprit, but Griffith said the car weighed thesame and that its weight distribution remainedthe same as when the car was in its originalconfiguration.

Braking times were comparable to those ofthe stock Celica, although the Sunchaser ex-hibited some tendency to grab hard and thenmake the transition to full lock on 60-0 stop-ping modes. Clearly, braking capability wasnot affected by the Toyota’s open collar.

For last, we set up a slalom chute to seewhether the thing would flex enough to popoff its top. Lord, we tried, but it didn’t loseone inch of directional stability. Even with

struction techniques. Working with Griffith’spart-panel-part-ragtop idea, Deaver devised acombination structural-reinforcement /cosmetic-looker / top attacher made from lami-nated fiberglass. ‘These pieces were createdby hand -still are- and entirely covered the rawmetal edge, where the steel top once resided.Both the liftoff panel and the cabriolet con-vertible top were attached to this hoop, mak-

ing it, in effect, a self-contained unit.Under the targa hoop there’s more support.

Deaver placed another section of 2x2-inch tub-ing over the passengers’ heads, tying the sidesof the Sunchaser together and lending a pointof safety to the Toyota that traditional convert-ibles do not have (save for the Rabbit).

The windshield was also an area of struc-tural concern. Thus, the steel top was removed

at the A-pillar, leaving a good-looking butmechanically unsound frame. Through the useof acrylic-modified adhesives and laminatedfiberglass, the upper and interior windshieldheaders are permanently bonded together andthen finish-surfaced in laminated vinyl. Theresult is a structure that a number of manufac-turers could consider for their own device.

-RM

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stickier tires and a special suspension (partof a turbo pack Griffith is toying with), wedoubt that body flex will be of concern, atleast in the short run.

Now, money. There is a way to add aSunchaser to your collection for less than ninegrand. You get one of the low-ball 4-speedST coupes (not available in California), equipit with the bare minimum (your luxury is go-ing to be that folding top) and have theSunchaser conversion applied for $2995.You’re home free for about $8800. Even bet-ter, see your local Toyota dealer and askwhether he ever heard of Jack Griffith andthe Sunchaser. If you’re lucky, the guy willbe one of Griffith’s distributors; but even ifhe isn’t, he can get a Sunchaser for you, com-plete. If he disavows knowledge of theSunchaser or throws you out, contact Griffithimmediately (3213 N. Ocean Blvd., Fort Lau-derdale, FL 33308, telephone (315)564-4866). If you are a raving hedonist witha proclivity for spending dollars, you can loada Sunchaser to its A-pillar with options andfind a $10,500-11,500 sticker.

Regardless of initial outlay, the Sunchaserappears to have all the right stuff. During itsfirst week of inventory, the Gullo-Hass deal-ership in Houston, Texas, sold four of them.All to women. Three were completely satis-fied. The fourth brought back her Sunchaserbecause it leaked. Gullo-Haas fixed the leakand hasn’t seen her since.

But other people have, because theSunchaser is highly visible, not easily mis-taken as a product of some assembly line. Forthis reason, it is a special car, one that looksmore expensive than it is. More important ishow the Sunchaser makes you feel. If you’repast your twenties, it will pull you right backto those late teen-age years, convincing youthat you never missed a thing.