Embarrassing moments with the top down?

OK here is a question I’ve been thinking about a lot.

Not counting mechanical breakdowns or bad weather – When is it “NOT” cool to be driving bout with the top down on your Ragtop? And/Or when do you know people are laughing at you when driving your LBC?

By & large this isn’t a problem folks usually take a second or third look and normally have kind things to say. However two rather embarrassing incidents immediately come to mine for me.
1)One was the time mentioned in an earlier thread after spending 5 hours in the dentist’s chair for an unexpected root canal. When I had a swollen jaw, a mouth full of cotton & drool coming down my chin.
2)The other(s) was with my three year old serving as co-pilot – who from time to time forgets herself (& her proud lineage) and starts digging for nose treasure (pick’in her hose) and waving at the folks sitting next to us at a traffic light.



Anybody else?

Was it a pick or a scratch? (Seinfeld fans, anyone?)
I always seem to have to scratch myself embarrassingly when the top's down and I have someone in a large truck or SUV next to me, so they can look down into the car at me. Also, anytime I sing along with the radio to something goofy like "Rock Lobster". Cant seem to stop myself.
-William

A vaguely related incident...

About 15 years ago I was working with a collegue who drove a Triumph Spitfire. While waiting at traffic lights, with the top down, a large car pulled up beside him in the inside lane. After a few seconds the other cars window wound down a fraction and a cigarette end came flying out and landed in the Spit. Luckily it did no harm but my collegue was struck by a bout of road rage and proceeded to fire every profanity under the sun at the other driver. Said driver was less than impressed....

But the story had an strange twist. A few weeks later at work we were all introduced to the new managing director, yep the man in the car. Ironically the bloke must have had some sort of mystical experience because one of his first actions at work was to introduce a no smoking policy!

ok guys here goes. About two days after I got my spitfire I was driving around with a friend of mine from work. We are driving around saying allo to all the pretty lass's when it starts to rain out of nowhere. I turn around to quickly lift the top up but said top is folded under akwardly and catches on the edge of the body. Took me almost three minutes to get the top up. My friend and I got drenched and the rain stoped almost as soon as we got the top up. Everyone at the light was cracking up in retrospect is was kinda funny I suppose. We must have looked like the keystone cops.

Cheers
Walter

The oral surgeon’s office was walking distance from my dentist so I left the LBC parked on the day that I had to go down the street with a anesthetized face full of cotton wads and the paper towel chained around my neck.

I can’t say that I was embarrassed but I did get some strange looks from people on the day that I was driving around with the top down and a 6 foot tall inflatable Godzilla in the passenger seat.


PC.

Aloha,

In the mid 70's, I was living in the Jacksonville, Florida area. Winters there are generally very mild with occassional overnight low temperatures at or below freezing and day time high temperatures in the upper 40's and 50's Fahrenheit. I used my TF to commute to work daily and rarely put the hood up, using only the tonneau cover when I parked the car. One winter day there was a very rare snow fall that began in the afternoon and continued until that evening. Driving during a snowfall was a new experience to most driver that day. Most thought they should drive really slow because the roads were slippery and wet, while a one or two people thought they should drive really fast and get out of the snow quickly. I decided to drive home with just the tonneau cover because I was concerned I might crack the frozen vinyl hood trying to put it up and I didn't have side curtains. I got alot of strange looks as I drove in my old MG with the top down and snow falling. Someone called a local radio station with a traffic report and mentioned the crazy "yankee" driving the convertable sports car with the top down. I had Rhode Island license plates on the car at the time so it must have been me they were talking about.

Safety Fast,
Dave

I used to drive around in the Midget with the top down in winter all the time. Tonneau cover plus heater fan on full (plus lots of engine heat leakage) meant me toasty. Once, I drove over to my Grandmother's house and parked up. Sat around talking for about an hour and a half, when she says "Oh, look! It's snowing! Wonder how long that's been going on?" About three inches worth, it turns out!
-William

One day I came out of class at the end of the day to find an apple core that was thrown on my seat. When I bought the car 4 months ago the convertable top was torn and not usable. The tonneau cover was for a mg midget so I don't have any protection from a-holes.

So I found out my friend did it so I had to retaliate and he has a nice shiny black honda prelude

When I was in college with my 1965 Spitfire, five of us decided we needed to go out for a pizza and I was the only one with a car. Well, we got stopped by the local police (Madison, WI) for people "riding on the outside of a car". I swear that we were all within the limits of the "inside" of my car!