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Savage Rivale shows crazy multi-panel retractable roof for Roadyacht GTS

Why don't they make four-door convertibles anymore? Because the roof mechanism would just be too darn big, that's why. But there's at least one company out to change that. And, of course, they're Dutch.

That outfit is Savage Rivale, the braintrust behind the Roadyacht GTS. Rather than a wafting parade car like the Chrysler Phaetons of yore, the Savage Rivale Roadyacht GTS is more like a four-door Lamborghini Gallardo. With a retracting hard top.

The vehicle is still in the development phase, with the (fixed-roof) race version set to debut next month at the Top Marques show in Monaco. But in the meantime, the Dutch firm has released an animated clip of the Retractable Telescopic Multi Panel (RTMP) roof mechanism it has developed for the Roadyacht with Inalfa Roof Systems.

The mechanism is based around a retractable arm that deploys with the glass panels and then forms the backbone for the structure once in place, with locking mechanisms in the C pillars. It's about as thorough a rethink of the folding roof as the one former Pininfarina designer Leonardo Fioravanti created for the Ferrari 575 Superamerica (and later adapted for the Renault Wind and Ferrari 458 Spider), but it's a little hard to imagine, so we'll let the video clip after the jump speak for itself.

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