In the latest episode of Weird Cars on Facebook Marketplace, there is a Toyota Solara convertible with a Ford Explorer Sport Trac Bed.
I’ve said it ad nauseum now: there is no limit to the depths of weird internet car shit. I’ve covered the bizarre Mack-cabbed heavy-duty pickup, the Volkswagen Beetle pickup–okay the theme here is pickups. There’s nothing else to say except to implore you to look at this 2006 Toyota Solara convertible with a Ford Explorer Sport Trac bed grafted onto it.
Smyrna, Tennessee, does it like nowhere else. At least in terms of Solara convertibles converted into pickup trucks. Unfortunately, this one has already sold but it was too good not to shitpost about, mainly because it is presented so unbelievably matter-of-factly and because it looks like a ridiculously clean conversion. As far as I can tell, they started with a salvage title Solara that was likely rear-ended. Then, instead of just putting a Solara rear back onto the drop-top Toyota, the builder grafted the end of an Explorer Sport Trac bed onto it. Trainspotters will recognize that its a bed from the first-generation Sport Trac, not the step-sided second-generation.
All things considered, it is a genuinely clean job. The rear body lines of the Sport Track are seamlessly integrated into the rear fender shape of the Solara, though the bed is extremely shortened and basically turned into a open trunk. There is genuine cargo space, with the sale ad showing a full wheel and tire comfortably fitting within the bed. Even the tailgate works.
The rest of it is, unfortunately, a normal Solara convertible. The 3.3-liter V6 still lives in a transverse configuration powering the front wheels, the convertible top probably works, and the car has only 153,905 miles. If you’re a glass-half-full sorta person, the reliable bit is untouched while you get a healthy dose of weird from the bed. For $4,700 as listed, I think whoever bought it got a real bargain.
