Four-door convertibles are extinct, right? Wrong. Newport Convertible Engineering will chop the top off just about anything.
Al Zadeh's long-running affair with convertibles began shortly after his arrival from Iran nearly 20 years ago. While at the University of Southern California pursuing a chemical-engineering degree, Zadeh's personal cars were always convertibles. Now he runs his own conversion company, Newport Convertible Engineering, in Placentia, California, where he lops the metal tops off anything you care to bring him.
Cutting the roof off any sedan severely compromises its rigidity. To brace the 740iL's unibody, NCE welds a maze of two-by-two-inch square-section hollow tubing underneath the floorpan. Tubes run the length of the rocker sills—laterally from one rocker to the other and diagonally from the ends of the rockers to the center. The reinforcements reduce ground clearance by an inch or so, but they look strong.
When the doors are shut, with the top either up or down, this arrangement looks okay. Open a front door, and you're treated to the peculiar sight of two frame uprights ending in grommeted stump. It isn't particularly stylish. With its top up, the BMW has a profile similar to that of the stock sedan, although the C-pillar area is now huge and the plastic rear window is smaller than the original backlight. The windshield header has a one-inch channel to accept the top's leading edge. It is clipped in place by two overcentering clamps and fits flush. This helps cut noise and top lift, both of which seemed quite tolerable during a brief test drive.
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