Motor vehicle stowable roof assembly

A motor vehicle stowable roof assembly comprising a first support assembly to provide substantially vertical movement of a roof panel and a second sliding support assembly to provide substantially horizontal movement of the roof panel, the roof panel being moveable from an in use position to a stowed position by sliding the roof panel rearwards using the second support assembly from the in use position and lowering the roof panel using the first support assembly, the first support assembly including an inverted U-shaped roll over protection member that is selectively upwardly deployable when the roof panel is in the stowed position so as to protect the occupants of the motor vehicle in the event of a vehicle roll over, the roll over protection member comprising a first upwardly extending support slidingly connected to a substantially vertically arranged first guide rail fastened to part of the body structure of the motor vehicle, a second upwardly extending support slidingly connected to a substantially vertically arranged second guide rail fastened to part of the body structure of the motor vehicle and a transversely extending member connecting together respective upper ends of the first and second upwardly extending supports, the sliding connections between the upwardly extending supports and their respective guide rails providing the vertical movement of the roof panel between its in use and stowed positions, the assembly further comprising a first roll over protection actuator fixed to a free end of the first upwardly extending support and a second roll over protection actuator fixed to a free end of the second upwardly extending support, each of the roll over protection actuators having an inner support tube to directly transfer load from the respective upwardly extending support into a vehicle body structure when the actuator is deployed.