My favorite new standard feature is a functional folding top. Gone is the ungainly skullcap, the automotive equivalent to a comb-over, replaced with an effortlessly operable drop top. Flick a lever and it raises and lowers a la elbow grease, more to reduce weight than to save money. It stows tidily under the trunk lid with no need to install a cumbersome tonneau cover. Also positive the defrosting rear window is glass. With the roof raised wind noise lowers dramatically, improved yet more by the new cars 7% coefficient of drag reduction to 0.40 - 0.43 with the top down. Wind tunnel tuning the top, body and belly pan made all the difference.
Under the fabric covering a magnesium folding mechanism reduces weight and adds strength. Magnesium is used elsewhere too. A single piece spans the width of the car acting like a stiffening buttress while doing double duty as the dash sub-structure. The body itself is constructed of sheet-molded composite (SMC) as well as resin injection molded (RIM) body panels.
By the way, what do you think of the new duds? Personally I like the new car a lot. Its cleaner, crisper lines appeal to my tastes more than the anabolic steroid injected predecessor. It does pull the odd design cue from other cars, such as its Ferrari 550-style hood scoop. That said it's impossible to write a song without using the same notes as someone else. All in all the new design is well executed. Its imposing crosshair grille is flanked by even more snake-eye shaped headlamp clusters than the old car. The now conventionally opening hoods central scoop is bordered by twin rows of air inducing louvered vents, purposeful while menacing. Air can escape via an angular duct at the rear of each front fender, the top of which follows a clean cut-line that dissects each door until it seamlessly melds into the rear half of its skin. An equal mix of sensual curves and blunt creases resonate both dissonant discord and harmonious resolve from one end of the car to the other. Altogether it's a bold and strikingly beautiful design, easily worthy of the revered Viper nameplate.