Targa top

Targa top, targa for short, is a semi-convertible car body style with a removable roof section and a full width roll bar behind the seats. The term was first used on the 1966 Porsche 911 Targa, and it remains a registered trademark of Porsche AG.

The rear window is normally fixed, but on some targa models, it is removable or foldable, making it a convertible-type vehicle. Any piece of metal or trim which rises up from the side of a car and continues in an uninterrupted line over the roof and down the other side is sometimes called a targa band, targa bar or a wrapover band.

Targa tops are different from T-tops, which have a solid, non-removable bar running between the top of the windscreen and the rear roll-bar, and generally have two separate roof panels above the seats that fit between the window and central t-bar.

The word targa first came into use from the 1966 Porsche 911 Targa, though it was not the first to use the removable roof panel system. The system first appeared in 1961 on the Triumph TR4, where it was called a surrey top. The 1964 SAAB Catherina prototype and the 1965 Toyota Sports 800 both used similar systems before the 1966 Porsche 911 Targa.

The targa style roof opening became popular in the 1960s and 1970s, when there were fears that the Department of Transportation (DOT) in the United States would ban convertibles, due to concerns over the safety of occupants when a car overturns. As a result, manufacturers adopted Targa tops or T-tops. As Porsche helped to popularise this body style, they took out a trademark for the Targa name and manufacturers sought for alternative names for their removable tops. Porsche got the name "Targa" from the Targa Florio, the famous road race in Sicily where Porsche was very successful. Targa means "plate" in Italian.

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