Ode to a Bikini Top

My God, it's full of stars.

My God, it's full of stars.

I love my hardtop. I mean seriously. It’s my hardtop. I don’t call it “Sharka’s hardtop” but rather “mine”. It transforms the Miata from a floppy noodle into a real car. It offers a barrier against skin cancer and the weather. It looks gorgeous. I even wrote a loving blog post about my hardtop.

And then I got the Project-G G-String bikini top.

The bikini top is all about what it doesn’t have. It weighs nothing. It doesn’t shake. It doesn’t flap. It doesn’t rattle. There’s no delicate, crappy plastic back window to deal with. There’s no delicate, tiny glass window either (tiny in reference to the NB window, not the hardtop window). There’s no storage problems (I’m looking at you, Mr. Hard Top).

There’s only perfection.

It's even good at night.

It's even good at night.

But what about the night cruising? Hot summer days – especially in New Mexico – can be miserable, but a cool evening cruise under the stars with the top down totally makes up for it. But what if there was a bikini top shielding the stars? Did I find the one chink in the armor? The one downside? (Nevermind that the G-String is super easy to install and remove.)

Nope. It’s also excellent at night.

You get the cool breeze. You get the stars (can you really look straight up while driving?). You get the feel of the top down. And you also get rain protection.

I tested this rain protection last night while I was out shooting these photos. While standing on the empty road with my tripod, I began to hear a little plink plink plink. Then my head started getting a little wet. I immediately gathered up the camera and headed for home. And I didn’t get the slightest bit wet on the drive back. Now, it wasn’t a huge downpour, but it was a decent soak. No droplets hit the back of my windshield or head while driving (that’s been a problem with the rollbar / top down / rain storm combo). No droplets hit my camera perched on the passenger seat.

Midnight Flames

Midnight Flames

Even 1 month ago, I wouldn’t have believed I would have voluntarily removed Sharka’s hardtop. I would have looked at my future self funny if I somehow got to talk to him and he told me that my hardtop would be leaning against the wall in the garage getting dusty. I was totally Hardcore Hardtop.

But then came the bikini top. My bikini top.

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  • Stoly says:

    Wow! That thing is awesome! These are some of my favourite shots to date.

    • revlimiter says:

      Thanks!!! I was trying to push my photos a little bit after realizing I’ve been pretty much taking the same posed angle with a slightly different background over and over.

  • spindiscs says:

    You drizzled a torch over the body to get midnight flames. Took me a while to figure out the time exposure.

    Really nice shots.

  • Brad says:

    Love my G-string top too although not quite as much as my hard top, which does not use the Frankenbolts. I never got the G-buckles to go with the G-string so I ended up going with aluminum turnbuckles that attach to regular metric hardware.

    [IMG]http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp334/jumbosrule/Miata%20restoration/IMG_9481.jpg[/IMG]

    There is something about it though…

    [IMG]http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp334/jumbosrule/Meets/IMG_9430.jpg[/IMG]

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