A phaeton is a style of open automobile without any fixed weather protection, which was popular from the 1900s until the 1930s. It is an automotive equivalent of the horse-drawn fast, lightweight phaeton carriage.
1897 Daimler Grafton phaeton
Dual cowl 1932 Cadillac V-16
The Mercedes-Benz 300d was marketed as a "pillarless phaeton"
1917 Hudson phaeton
A phaeton was a form of sporty open carriage popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Drawn by one or two horses, a phaeton typically featured a minimal very lightly sprung body atop four extravagantly large wheels. With open seating, it was both fast and dangerous, giving rise to its name, drawn from the mythical Phaƫthon, son of Helios, who nearly set the Earth on fire while attempting to drive the chariot of the Sun.
Hooper's - royal coachbuilders - stylish design for a phaeton
Hooper Spider Phaeton (1860)
Trooping the Colour in 2009
Phaeton 1816 with a pair of outsized, swan-neck rear leaf springs and high-mounted body