When a manufacturer decides to chop the roof off a car to make it into a convertible, conventional engineering wisdom states that it must do a couple of things. Firstly, the company needs to strengthen its bodyshell. In the days of the Triumph Herald, this was just a matter of giving it gigantic sills and putting a rope in the glove box so that owners could tie the door handles together to stop them flying open over bumps. These days, of course, things are more sophisticated. Now, the car is still given gigantic sills, but the manufacturer makes sure it launches the motor somewhere with flat, smooth roads so journalists don't see that it wobbles like Chris Moyles on a pogo stick. And just to make sure, they are also put up at the local Four Seasons beach resort and plied with Italian leather goods and all the anoraks they can eat.
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