It sounds outlandish for sure, but if you really wanted a sports car, while at the same time sticking to the taxman, you might go a little above and beyond weird. Case in point, one Finland entrepreneur found that there was a market for American sports cars, but the taxes were so high, so average people could not afford them. His idea was, since you didn’t have to pay taxes on a van or truck in Finland, to take some third-generation Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird muscle cars, and convert them into pickup trucks.
Per Jalopnik, via a third-gen Camaro forum, the unknown entrepreneur decided to import 140 F-body cars from the US over to Finland so he could tastefully, or not, chop them up and turn them into third-generation Camaro and Firebird trucks. Now of course some would wonder, as I did myself, why not just import a bunch of El Camino trucks? Apparently, there was just more of a demand for a true American sports car in Finland.
To become third-generation Camaro and Firebird trucks, a lot of customizing work had to go into chopping up these sports cars. The rear overhang was extended to make the bed of the car/truck useable. If you’re going to have a bed, you might as well be able to make use of it. It looks as if someone had the good idea to come up with a snap-on bed cover that fits, no word if it was the same entrepreneur. The B-pillars were also extended to integrate with the body lines of the cab and the truck’s bed.
If you think about it, these third-generation Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird trucks may not be everyone’s cup of tea when it comes to styling, but your car gains a lot and loses a little in terms of usable space.
We wonder what it would take to import one of these back to America.
