Engine Punk

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. 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 exo...

Well, as I'd hoped, I've made contact with the owner of the Centron mentioned on here as Vintage Thing No. 53 . It belongs to Gerald Dawson who has confirmed that it was once black. He's kindly passed on some better images of his car to use on this blog. As the registration number is the same as the Statestyle car that I once knew, Gerald's car must be that demonstrator as well as the Lalande show car. As you may have gathered I have a soft spot for the Centron. I think the front end styling is highly successful but there are some awkward angles to the window aperture in profile. Softer lines here might improve the overall look but the kamm tail doesn't bother me at all. Gerald's Centron is a striking motorcar. Gerald says, "By the time I got it, it had already been painted red, with a black vinyl roof. The auction catalogue I was given describes it as a black show car, and that it was featured in a magazine article. I have been unable to find which magazin...

This post was prompted by a request for information about the GP Centron at the 2009 Exeter Kit Car Show. Somebody had one and wanted to know more about it so they put up a board about it in the designated car park for kit cars. They knew it had connections with Cornwall but not much more than that. I apologise for the quality of the pictures but these are photos of photos. I left my name on the writing pad asking for more info so if I hear anything I'll do an update. I happened to visit the factory at Threemilestone just outside Truro, when the moulds for the Centron II briefly resided there during the summer of 1983. At the time I was an industrial design student and tried to get a summer job out of them but had no luck. The company were called Statestyle and were developing an ultra-violet curing process for woven mat glass fibre. Staff on their experimental production line had very well bronzed forearms - it was a kind of rolling sunbed. The GP Centron was the first Beetle-base...