Patent ID: 8235449

Claim:
A roof opening structure for a vehicle, comprising: a front header extending in a vehicle width direction in front of a passenger's seat arranged in a vehicle compartment and supporting an upper side of a windshield; a roof extending rearward from said front header and forming an upper portion of the vehicle compartment, the roof being split into plural parts in a vehicle longitudinal direction and openable and comprising a rearmost roof part and at least one front roof part, the at least one front roof part being positioned in front of the rearmost roof part when the roof is closed; a trunk room formed at a rear end portion of the vehicle, an upper space of which is covered with an openable trunk lid, the trunk room being partitioned, in the vehicle longitudinal direction, from the vehicle compartment by a rear bulkhead forming a rear end of the vehicle compartment; a roof-storage space formed between the passenger's seat and the rear bulkhead, in which said roof is stored when the roof is open; and a support mechanism supporting said roof relative to a vehicle body, wherein said support mechanism comprises a first link which couples said rearmost roof part to the vehicle body, and a second link which couples said at least one front roof part to the rearmost roof part and supports the roof comprising the at least one front roof part and the rearmost roof part in a roof-closed state where the roof covers over the vehicle compartment and in a roof-open state where the roof is stored in said roof-storage space partitioned from the trunk room, and said first link of the support mechanism in the roof-closed state is configured such that a front end thereof is rotatably supported via a support axis at a specified position of the vehicle body which is located behind the passenger's seat, and a rear end thereof extending substantially rearward and upward is connected to the rearmost roof part, whereby an upper space of the roof-storage space between the passenger's seat and the rear bulkhead is covered with the stored at least one front roof part extending substantially horizontally and the rearmost roof part is stored inside the roof-storage space at a specified level below said support axis of the first link in a forward-slant position thereof where a level of a front end of the stored rearmost roof part is lower than that of a rear end of the stored rearmost roof part.