I've got nearly 200,000 miles in cars with targa tops, and never forgot to latch them in place. But it could happen tomorrow.

Two tricks to help:

Turn the sun visors down before putting the roof back into place, and re-check that it's latched when you go to swing the sun visors up.

Get a piece of foam rubber or a nerf ball that will tuck in above the driver side roof handle, without falling out. Tie it to a piece of string on the handle. When you first put the top back in place, the ball will be hanging in front of your face. You can't get it to tuck out of sight until the handle is in the latched position. Just don't snag the string on something as you are removing/installing the top.

Many used transparent tops have small cracks that are very difficult to see, and they are hard to ship. I would only buy a top that i could inspect in bright sunlight and take home in my car.

Sorry for your situation.

 

I'm sorry to read of your loss and am glad no one was injured or suffered any property damage aside from your top and pride.

Since GM hasn't seen fit to place a sensor or two that announces if the top is secured or not on the C4, C5 and now C6, let's hope they do so with the C7.

There is no excuse for not have a built in warning. Someone could get killed if hit by a flying targa top.

Tom

 

I have to admit my top flew off a couple of weeks ago on my 08 Corvette Coupe. On the way to the golf course with the top down and it started to sprinkle so pulled into a parking lot and put the top on (there was actually only one or two drops of rain on the windshield and it never rained). Then, I meticulously cleaned the top of the glass panel from all the fingerprints, climbed in and got up to the stop light. When it changed, I pulled out and got up to about 40 mph before it suddenly flew off. Fortunately there was no one in the lane behind me as the light was red for the main traffic. I simply put the car into reverse and went back to pick it up. I expected it to be shattered but it was still intact and there was absolutely no damage whatsoever to the glass panel. It landed on the section under the glass and that is slight damaged with some scrapes. I put the panel on, latched it, and went on to the golf course. I'm still going to replace it and have been looking on the Internet and they are hard to find. I have a query in with Gene at the GM Parts House. It appears they have one on sale for about $1200 but want to make sure it's the one for my Vette. I took my Vette to the Chevy Dealership Service Dept today and they gave me an estimate of $2945 to repair it. Yikes! It appears I could get two full panels for that price!

I always thought I would never ever forget latching my roof panel but it happened. I wish there was some kind of idiot light to warn one when the roof is not secured like they have for the rear hatch but realize that would be a problem if one had the top off most of the time like me.

 

I am curious what speed you have to be going for this to happen and if the windows were down. I would think there would be a fair bit of movement that you would notice before it becomes airborne.

 

That's what I thought awhile back and look at all the $hit I got for suggesting it.......

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...-c6-coupe.html

 

I'm sure it can be forgotten but I think the problem is becoming distracted or trying to multitask. It was routine for me to lock down top as soon as I put it on. No putting it on and going to close the trunk or anything else. Top touches car and lock immediately.