Ten cars with no roof to celebrate the summer

The world of performance cars can get so overly nerdy at times. It’s all ‘steering feel’ this and ‘chassis response’ that. Which is all well and good, but sometimes a car comes along that just wants to make you grin, and to hell with the rough edges. That car is the Abarth 124 Spider, which takes a traditional sports car layout – front engine, rear drive – and adds some jazzy two-tone bodywork and a loud, gurgling exhaust on top. Voila – an open-top roadster that’s a riot whether you’re on a racetrack or trundling through town at 4mph.

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Prefer your Italian soft-top to be a bit cuter and cuddlier? And is your chance of finding that racetrack absolutely zilch? Then step right this way, and into one of the smallest, cheapest cabriolets it’s possible to buy. It’s easy to love the 500C – any hang-ups about its image will blow right away the second you retract its electrically folding canvas roof. It loses little of the regular 500’s practicality, too; just think of it is a dinky little city car with an especially fancy sunroof. Pottering though urban traffic gets no more enjoyable.

Time for some superstar status and the utterly stunning Jaguar F-Type. It’s almost a decade since this car launched, and yet it’s easy to argue the styling hasn’t dated one bit. Resuscitating the spirit of the classic E-Type was a bit of an unenviable task for Jag’s design time, yet they nailed it. If you’re eco-conscious, you’ll be delighted to know there are several 2.0-litre F-Type Convertibles for sale. But if you want the proper experience, the V6 R-Dynamic is where it’s at, with almost 400bhp and a sonorous soundtrack to back up its punchy performance.

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Time for a ‘best of all worlds’ solution courtesy of the solid dependability of Audi’s proven A3 hatchback, just with a far greater chance of getting a golden tan this summer. The joy of the A3 Cabriolet is in its four-seat practicality, decent boot and the vast array of engine options it inherits from its hatchback sibling. So while you can get some poky petrol engines up front for proper performance, the example you see here has a supremely frugal 1.6-litre diesel engine, claiming up to 70mpg and thus allowing you to soak up just as much sun, just on a smaller fuel budget.

If fun matters more than frugality, there are few better options than the mighty Mazda MX-5. It’s got a Guinness World Record for the best-selling sports car ever, with over a million of them sold. It’s dinky, light and simple, but still boasts all the safety, security and tech you’d hope for in a modern roadster, all while providing some of the purest driving fun of any car on sale – whatever the price point. It joins this list in alluring Sport Recaro spec, bringing some delightfully hugging sports seats with it.

If an MX-5 sits right at the core of what a driving enthusiast craves, the orange car you see here couldn’t be much more on the periphery. The launch of a cabriolet version of the Range Rover Evoque caused consternation among car fans, but perhaps that’s simply a sign it’d hit its bullseye – to create something entirely different, a soft-top focused on the comfort and safety of a high-rise view rather than the hunkered-down driving position of the sports cars more traditional in this segment. The fact VW followed suit with a convertible T-Roc shows Land Rover was surely onto something.

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Need a convertible that suits all the family? Options get little better than the luxury of a Mercedes E-Class. Four seats, way more room than a roadster, and the option to keep the roof fixed but drop all the windows and drive around like you’re in a luxurious coupe should you so wish (Merc does plenty of those, too). There’s a heap of tech and safety on board – of course – while a torquey diesel engine is allied to an automatic gearbox to take the strain out of cruising around lapping up the soon. Not a sports car, but nor do you want it to be.

Oh, you do want a sports car? Well this might be the best one in the world. Seriously. The Boxster takes all of Porsche’s vast performance car knowledge and applies it to something of slightly more modest size and speed – and thus price – than a full-fat 911. But far from being a poorer relation, the Boxster is arguably even sweeter to drive thanks to its engine being slap-bang in the middle of the car. Which also means it has two boots, adding up to similar luggage space to a nice sensible Ford Focus. As easy to live with as it is satisfying to drive.

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Your heart wants a soaring performance car with a punchy turbo engine and a frisky rear-drive chassis. Your head requires four seats, a big boot and the practicality of a folding hard-top roof. And the rest of your body? Why, it’s gagging for a bronze hue this summer. Nothing simultaneously ticks off each box with quite such aplomb as a BMW M4 Convertible. Sure, it’s heavier than a stock M4, and might not be as welcome at the local cars ‘n’ coffee meet. But it’s highly doubtful you’re ever going to be wishing for something quicker or harder cored.

A Mini Cooper cabrio feels like an especially joyous thing. While it’s brilliant fun to drive, it’s not too preoccupied on sportiness (the same can’t be said of Mini’s quicker Cooper Works versions, mind), meaning it’s no great hardship to potter around in one basking in the sun.