Weird tray on the back of roadsters

[TVR IS KING]

This is something I've always wondered about and never been able to find the answer to. Today I believe I spied a Z4 roadster with something similar on the back, and I need answers! I can't bear not knowing any longer.
What's with the weird tray on the boot of the MGs and things? Like so:
http://www.diseno-art.com/images_2/1977_MGB_Roadster_rear.jpg

My only guess is that it's trying to increase storage capacity on a car that's obviously lacking. Like a roof rack. But do people actually tie their bags to those things?!

[Man of Steel]

I guess that is a ''yes'''.

[NSXType-R]

Yup, that's a luggage rack...

[TVR IS KING]

I still find it's pretty weird. It looks strange dangling off the back. And I don't think they get used often enough to justify it.
Guess they weren't so cryptic after all.

[Ferrer]

It's indeed a luggage rack as NSX says.

I have also seen it being used with a suitcase fastened in it.

[Kitdy]

I have also seen it being used with a suitcase fastened in it.

That was used by you, because you are in fact, an old British man at your core.

[Ferrer]

That was used by you, because you are in fact, an old British man at your core.
Well I already drive a British roadster (made in Japan) and say bonnet and lorry... so, may, maybe that's the thing.

[f6fhellcat13]

Devoted anglophiles will insist that they make their holey, cramped, and unreliable roadster practical. They are largely a styling feature, though.

[Ferrer]

My car very practical and spacious. A medium-sized human fits in the boot, making it technically a 3-passenger vehicle, and then where am I going to fit my luggage?

The luggage rack, best invention ever, I tell ya!

(I'm not kidding with the human in the boot malarkey. I have photographic evidence)

[Matra et Alpine]

Practical for many of the cars of that era where the boot was barely large enough for one suitcase for a week travelling. So the "boot rack" :) Commonly with ski fittings too !!

[NSXType-R]

Devoted anglophiles will insist that they make their holey, cramped, and unreliable roadster practical. They are largely a styling feature, though.

Haha, looks like a rumbler seat!