Toyota has built a one-off convertible version of its Crown crossover, and it’s... interesting

Toyota has created a chop-top version of its four-door Crown SUV, and it looks… certainly A Thing. It’s built on top of Toyota’s TNGA-K platform, which has underpinned a number of models previously including the Camry and RAV4.

It’s a one-off built to participate in the Grand Sumo championship’s victory parade, and also because nobody is likely to actually buy one. Not anyone with dignity, at least.

Having removed the pillars from A through to D, and developed a saloon-style boot to replace the original tailgate, Toyota then raised the rear passenger floor by four centimetres and threw in larger leather seats. The bronze/black paint doesn’t really do it many favours either.

Toyota used 3D printers to design most of the new components to allow them to bolt on as seamlessly as possible, but this meant the engineers had to forge these one-off parts by hand. So you could say it's… coachbuilt? Wait, does that mean it’s a bit like an Alfaholics project?

The interior does remain elegant and calming, though, with plenty of cream leather to support the reassuring (albeit dull) trim. The front seat headrests also adopt a unique inward-facing design to cushion the driver and passenger a bit more comfortably from the wave of awkward pedestrian stares.

No word on powertrain changes, so we expect it to retain the 2.5-litre inline-four petrol engine and dual electric motor set-up, which results in around 236bhp and 163lb ft of torque delivered through an all-wheel drive system.

Toyota has a habit of making quirky one-off concepts in the past, such as a rally-bred version of its Mirai hydrogen fuel cell car, and we don’t expect this to end with the creation of its sumo wrestler chariot.