page_title: Sedan (automobile)
section_title: Hardtop sedans
hierarchical_section_title: Sedan (automobile) / Standard styles / Hardtop sedans
caption_attribution_description: Summary Sunbeam Rapier Series I. Picture by David Parrott.(DVLA) first registered 4 September 1957, 1390 cc
context_page_description: A sedan, or saloon, is a passenger car in a three-box configuration with separate compartments for engine, passenger, and cargo.
  Sedan's first recorded use as a name for a car body was in 1912. The name comes from a 17th-century development of a litter, the sedan chair, a one-person enclosed box with windows and carried by porters.
  Variations of the sedan style of body include: close-coupled sedan, club sedan, convertible sedan, fastback sedan, hardtop sedan, notchback sedan and sedanet/sedanette.
context_section_description: Hardtop sedans were a popular body style in the United States from the 1950s to the 1970s. Hardtops are manufactured without a B-pillar leaving uninterrupted open space or, when closed, glass along the side of the car. The top was intended to look like a convertible's top but it was fixed and made of hard material that did not fold.
  All manufacturers in the United States from the early 1950s into the 1970s provided at least a 2-door hardtop model in their range and, if their engineers could manage it, a 4-door hardtop as well. The lack of side-bracing demanded a particularly strong and heavy chassis frame to combat unavoidable flexing. The pillarless design was also available in four-door models using unibody construction. For example, Chrysler moved to unibody designs for most of its models in 1960 and American Motors offered four-door sedans, as well a four-door station wagon from 1958 to 1960 Ambassador.   
  In 1973 the US government passed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 216 creating a standard roof strength test to measure the integrity of roof structure in motor vehicles to come into effect some years later. Production of hardtop sedan body style ended with the 1978 Chrysler Newport. For a time roofs were covered with vinyl and B-pillars were minimised by using styling tricks like matt black finishes. Stylists and engineers soon developed more subtle solutions.
caption: 1957 Sunbeam two-door hardtop
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