Folding roof for an automobile

A folding roof for an automobile for the optional closure or partial exposure of a roof opening formed in a fixed vehicle roof, comprising a front hood bar, slidably guided at both sides of the roof opening on lateral guide rails disposed in a traverse direction from one another and movable by a drive device, a fixed, rear hood bar and a foldable hood extending between the hood bars, which foldable hood is tightened by the front hood bar on closure, the front hood bar, when the roof is closed, being pressed with its front edge sealed onto the fixed automobile roof, wherein the lateral guide rails are adjoined at the front by curved transitions, which are continued parallel to the front edge of the roof opening and are provided with an upwardly open guide channel, continuous at least partly also along the lateral guide rails, in which guide channel, at each side, an upwardly projecting entraining element having a lower end which is slidably guided and synchronously movable by drive cables, the entraining elements are each force-transmittingly connected with the front hood bar by a control plate guided slidably in a transverse direction on the front hood bar, upper ends of the entraining elements each engaging longitudinally slidably but axially immovably into a control slit formed in each control plate, which slit, starting from a section, parallel to the front edge of the roof opening, continues into a rearwardly curved section, of which a radius of curvature defined by said slit is larger than a radius of curvature defined by said curved transitions of the guide channel, the control slits are arranged so as to define an upwardly ascending portion extending from said curved section to said section which extends parallel to the front edges of the roof opening, and the control plates bear slidably with their outer ends against wall surfaces of the guide rails corresponding to the curved transitions.