Fun, Fun, Fun

Ford quit building roadsters after the 1937 model year. In fact, the company had stopped advertising them after 1936. The two-passenger (four if equipped with a rumble seat) open body style without windows had long been the cheapest one available — something equally true across all marques.

It was also the lightest and therefore sportiest body, but in an era when sportiness didn’t sell as many cars as practicality. Instead, roadsters became associated with poor folks who just needed a car and didn’t want to pay any extra for something like a coupe body.

Throughout the 1930s, the cabriolet — a body similar to the roadster, but with a fixed windshield and roll-up windows — gradually took the roadster’s place as the default sporty body. Unlike the roadster, the more weather-tight cabriolet had