Patent ID: 8672398

Claim:
A moveable panel system for a roof of a passenger compartment of a vehicle, comprising: a roof wall of the vehicle having a first lateral edge and a second lateral edge with said roof wall defining an opening between said lateral edges, said opening having a width between said lateral edges and a length between a front edge of said roof wall and a rear edge of said roof wall; a structural cross bow provided in said roof wall perpendicular to said lateral edges and proximate a rear edge of said opening; a pair of continuous unitary parallel tracks disposed in said roof wall and longitudinally extending from said front edge towards said rear edge with said tracks outside a perimeter of said opening and outside said structural cross bow, wherein each track includes a pair of continuous parallel longitudinally extending channels; a panel sized to close said opening; and a set of mechanical linkages disposed in said channels and moveably coupling said panel to said tracks; wherein said panel moves from a closed mode overlying said opening to an opened mode partially to wholly uncovering said opening responsive to said set of mechanical linkages moving within said channels; wherein said pair of longitudinally extending channels include an outer channel and an inner channel and wherein said set of mechanical linkages include a pair of forward linkages and a pair of rearward linkages; and wherein a first forward linkage and a first rearward linkage are coupled to a first lateral edge of said panel, wherein a second forward linkage and a second rearward linkage are coupled to a second lateral edge of said panel opposite of said first lateral edge, wherein said rearward linkages are coupled at said lateral edges closer to a rear edge of said panel than said forward linkages, and wherein all said first linkages are moveably coupled to a particular one channel of a first particular track and all said second linkages are moveably coupled to a particular one channel of a second particular track.