An openable roof for sports cars has a containing tank and a fabric cover movable between an opening position of the roof and a closing position of the roof due to the thrust of two lever mechanisms, which are parallel to one another and are movable relative to one another in a moving direction transverse to a driving direction of the sports car between a narrow position, in which the lever mechanisms are arranged inside the containing tank following the movement of the fabric cover to its opening position, and a wide position, in which the two lever mechanisms extend on the outside of the containing tank following the movement of the fabric cover to its closing position.

An open-air car canopy and cover assembly and method of operation provides a rearwardly extending canopy that shields an uncovered rear deck of an open-air car from a deployed position, and when in an undeployed position, the panels retract, becoming limp and folding upon themselves. An upper pocket covers the panel folds in the undeployed position by encapsulating the panels and the rotatable supporting bracket. Lateral and rear flaps having fasteners and rear flap fasteners retain the panels out of the rear sight line and the side openings of the open-air car. A roof mount detachably attaches the canopy to the roof of the open-air car with a curved flange that hooks over a roof support structure, and metallic tensioned hooks that hook under the roof support structure. A tensioned hinge member is operable with rotatable supporting bracket to retain canopy in a fixed position between deployed and undeployed positions.

A retractable canopy for a vehicle, the retractable canopy moving independently of a vehicle roll bar being retracted or raised. Canopies for weather protection both from excessive exposure to the sun and from precipitation are commonly used on many types of vehicles, which in many cases may be motorized. For safety reasons, and often also legal requirements, these vehicles may be equipped with a roll bar or similar structure to protect the operator of the vehicle from injury in the event that the vehicle rolls over. When the vehicle encounters a low-lying obstruction, the canopy may be quickly lowered to enable the vehicle to travel underneath and past the obstruction, after which the canopy may be quickly raised again. Raising or lowering of the canopy is independent of whether the roll bar is raised or lowered, and raising or lowering of the roll bar is independent of the canopy position.

Soft top assembly which is linkage free between fabric management bows. A combination of a predetermined plurality of pivots, including at least one predetermined cooperative biasing pivot, dampens the movement of the soft top and provides an assist when moving between closed and predetermined open positions. Safety catches can be used if desired. An arm goes over center to lock the soft top assembly open even if there is no catch to hold the soft top in a sunroof open position. Front arm members can have an over-center position that substantially locks down the soft top in the open sunroof position from going backward until upward pressure is placed on the frame and then the soft top pivots back with an assist. A four-bar link system more easily moves the soft top to a stowed position with another push upward where a clock spring pivot biases the parallelogram frame back.