The Ford Explorer’s put the weight of the entire company on its back lately. Year after year, regardless of trends, it remains one of FoMoCo’s most consistent sales drivers. How did it get to this invaluable position in Detroit? Well, part of it came from odd-ball concepts that tried to predict where the future of the vehicle might one day become. This is a 2001 Explorer Sportsman concept, and it had the right idea in more than one way. Now, it’s for sale!
A Special Teaser for the Gen-III Explorer
That said, not in every way that matters. Even by the standards of the day, it wasn’t exactly a looker. Even 20 years later, it looks like a strange chimera between a mid-size Explorer and an F-150 pickup that couldn’t choose between being an SUV or a truck. Of course, that’s all a very calculated styling cue on the part of Ford. When the Explorer
Sportsman concept made its global debut at the 2001 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the main styling inspiration was the “lifestyle of a fly-fisherman,” whatever that means.
Based on the underpinnings of the third-generation Explorer, the Sportsman concept unveiled a teaser trailer for features soon to come on the production spec variant. The rear suspension was fully independent for the first time in the Explorer line’s history. The 101.8-inch wheelbase was shared with the production-spec two-door Explorer Sport, detailing a form factor that’d soon become so familiar, it still hasn’t fully left American roads 20 years later. In an era where glass-jaw modern SUVs that break after five years, robust early 2000s Explorers have been pressed into service long after their expected expiration dates.
Such was the fate for most of the third-generation Explorers built between late 2000 and mid 2005. Under the skin, the Explorer shared a platform with the Lincoln Aviator and Mercury Mountaineer, and packed either a 4.0-liter Cologne V6 or a 4.6-liter Modular V8. The V6 made an unimpressive 205-210 horsepower during its run, making the 240-horsepower Modular motor also found in the Ford Panther platform (Crown Victoria, Grand Marquise, Town Car), all the more tempting.
Bold Styling, Lots of Wood and Leather
At its debut show, the Explorer Sportsman concept was marketed as sporting the more desirable 4.6-liter engine as a flagship feature of the whole car. But the Bring a Trailer listing out of Grayslake, Illinois, tells a very different story. You won’t find a Modular V8 under the hood of this Explorer. Instead, what you find is a metal and plastic ambassador for Ford’s then-burgeoning partnership with Mazda. It’s a 2.5-Liter four-cylinder engine, the same you’d find in Mazdas of the period, like the 626 sedan.
In truth, the Explorer Sportsman’s powertrain has more in common with the 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine in a modern entry-level Explorer than the V8 it was built for. Had forced induction been more prevalent in lower-end SUVs back in the early 2000s, you can’t imagine Ford wouldn’t have tried. It’s just one way Ford’s slapped several layers of refinement onto the Explorer name in the time it’s taken for these Gen-IIIs to hit 20 years old.
Familiar Tech, an Unfamiliar Body
Power is fed to a four-speed automatic gearbox that was also courtesy of Mazda. It may have looked pretty primitive for a semi-modern platform, but that’s exactly what helped Explorers of this era be that little bit more durable at a time where SUVs were about to go crazy with features. Regardless, it wasn’t the same five-speed Ford automatic gearbox that wound up going into the production Explorer.
Elsewhere, this concept’s rocking a wicked Satin Metallic Green paintjob with contrasting Tan woven leather-upholstered seats. The color combination almost looks closer to something a European brand Like Land Rover or Porsche might use in its high-end off-roaders. Truth be told, the same colors look mighty pleasing on this all-American concept car. Positively chunky-looking Goodyear concept all-terrain tires take the place of the Firestones that’d come with a normal Explorer.
Inside, leather interior trim pieces of various colors come together to form a very nice-looking place to sit. Free from the burdens of modern crash safety testing, Ford was able to make this interior as nice and detailed as their hearts wanted. That mean a steering wheel that didn’t look like a bloated beer belly for your steering wheel. Its spokes are relatively thin, its horn button relatively tiney, it’s a real blast from the past, and just as much now as it was back then. Even the twin gearsticks for the transmission and the transfer case are trimmed in a tempting polished aluminum.
A Bring a Trailer Classic
It all comes together to make a concept truck that looks a little bit questionable from certain angles. Still it was quirky enough and forward-thinking enough to become one heck of a collector’s item. Especially now that this Explorer concept is in the public eye, available for sale to that same public, its cultural influence is as strong, if not stronger, than when it made its debut a quarter century ago. Such is the power of social media, which as it turns out, can be used for something half-way useful sometimes.
