Vintage Thing No.53.2 - Centron
Following my earlier reminiscences about the GP Centron - the first ever VW based exotic kit car - none other than Colin Clifford got in touch. Regular readers may remember that I recently had an exchange with him on the comments to one of my earlier Centron posts in which he mentioned some old photographs. Well, Colin's come good and sent me some, via his brother Gerald.
The first picture shows the Centron in an industrial unit, which matches my memories of the Statestyle set up in Threemilestone.
Note that I'm not referring to the car as a GP Centron. As originally conceived by GP Concessionaires it did not have conventional doors but by the time this car was built it the folding canopy arrangement had been dismissed as too exotic and too leaky.
Gerald has confirmed that this is the car that later had murals applied to it so must be the black customised one I remember seeing.
Another Gerald, Gerald Dawson, owns a red example, 180 CUC which was built as Statestyle's demonstrator. He's been in touch with the owner of another, Cornish registered FCV144L, and has also heard of a targa top version that exists in Holland.
Now I did a drawing - now long since lost alas - of a targa top version so this is of great interest to me, not that it would have been based on my drawing. It's just that the lines of the Centron, with its buttress rear pillars seem to lend themselves to this treatment.
The white shell in the background of the factory looks more like a full convertible however.
So now we have WOU432J. That makes 4 Centrons with Cornish connections although I have a funny feeling that the Dutch one maybe an earlier version converted to solve the problems of the lift up canopy.
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| This Centron has mismatched wheels - are those Wolfraces on the front and chrome Wellers on the back? Most intriguing of all though is the background, which contains another shell in white gelcoat. Could this have been a convertible version? |
The first picture shows the Centron in an industrial unit, which matches my memories of the Statestyle set up in Threemilestone.
Note that I'm not referring to the car as a GP Centron. As originally conceived by GP Concessionaires it did not have conventional doors but by the time this car was built it the folding canopy arrangement had been dismissed as too exotic and too leaky.
 |
| Does this car still exost? When I visited the factory in 1983, Colin Clifford was developing wind up windows for the doors and panels to hide the VW silencer. The known survivor earlier featured as VT No.53 has a large one piece rear window between the rear buttresses. |
Gerald has confirmed that this is the car that later had murals applied to it so must be the black customised one I remember seeing.
Another Gerald, Gerald Dawson, owns a red example, 180 CUC which was built as Statestyle's demonstrator. He's been in touch with the owner of another, Cornish registered FCV144L, and has also heard of a targa top version that exists in Holland.
Now I did a drawing - now long since lost alas - of a targa top version so this is of great interest to me, not that it would have been based on my drawing. It's just that the lines of the Centron, with its buttress rear pillars seem to lend themselves to this treatment.
The white shell in the background of the factory looks more like a full convertible however.
So now we have WOU432J. That makes 4 Centrons with Cornish connections although I have a funny feeling that the Dutch one maybe an earlier version converted to solve the problems of the lift up canopy.
Hi Bob I got alot more photos of the Centron now The car in the background is as you rightly said is a gel coated shell the top cannot be seen it the photo they were produced in two half's and bonded together that is John Gilbert in the background looking at the shell we gave him in payment for the paint job on our first car. send me your email address again and I will send you the photos which show very clearly one of the uses for Our Fibre Mesh which as you know was our main business regards colin Clifford
ReplyDeleteHi Bob just to let you know the car in the photo WOU 432J was our demonstrator car we build 4 shells and as of now I only remember the one shell we gave to John Gilbertas payment for painting our car
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Colin. My e-mail is bob@anarchadia.co.uk
ReplyDelete