Photo: eBay User: batgirlcs
Article title aside, we'd forgive you if you took one good look at this vintage Ford truck and said, "Nice! a pretty clean vintage F-150!" Most folks passing this truck in a parking lot or on the road would think the same. But then you take a second look at it, and then a third, and then a fourth. Only then do you realize, "Holy s***! That's a four-door vintage Bronco!" But even then, you'd only be about half right because Ford wasn't as involved in this Bronco's creation as you might think.
You see, before Ford had an SUV for every level in the market segment, the space soon to be occupied by the Expedition in 1997 was rife for the picking in the late 1980s through the mid-1990s. It was Centurion Vehicles of White Pigeon, Michigan, who capitalized on this vacuum in the market by offering fully custom extended bodies and fully-kitted interiors for Ford vans and trucks. From F-150s to Econoline vans and, of course, Broncos, Centurion went the extra mile to take Ford trucks with varying degrees of refinement and build quality and make them places you'd genuinely want to spend a road trip inside.
Less than 15,000 of these "C-150" and "C-350" Centurion four-door Broncos left its Michigan production facility. Customers were expected to purchase the vehicle separately before sending it along to Centurion's facility for the full conversion process to be completed in-house. It was similar in practice to boutique manufacturers of custom performance cars like Hennessey or Calloway, except with full-sized trucks instead of muscle cars. As a tribute to how old-school SUVs used to be built 30 years ago, the Centurian C-150 Bronco is nothing short of a crash course for modern folks so drunk on wimpy little crossovers.
Under the hood of this gargantuan truck is a 351-cubic inch (5.8 L) Windsor variant of Ford's much-beloved small block V8. Dubbed the 351W (Windsor) to not confuse it with the similarly-named but different 351C (Cleveland) engine, the 351W jetted 205 horsepower and 328 lb-ft (445 Nm) of torque in the standard fifth-generation Ford Bronco as it left the factory. No word on whether Centurion or anybody else did any modifying under the hood. But let's be real, horsepower figures and zero to 60 times are a bit beside the point with this truck.
With 190,000 miles on the clock and nothing more but cosmetic scuffs and dents with no visible rust to deal with, all this truck needs to look sensational again is someone willing to put the TLC into fixing all the bodywork. Once that's done, there's every chance this Centurion Bronco could be a real collector's item one day. Even if not, it's still badass as heck.
Less than 15,000 of these "C-150" and "C-350" Centurion four-door Broncos left its Michigan production facility. Customers were expected to purchase the vehicle separately before sending it along to Centurion's facility for the full conversion process to be completed in-house. It was similar in practice to boutique manufacturers of custom performance cars like Hennessey or Calloway, except with full-sized trucks instead of muscle cars. As a tribute to how old-school SUVs used to be built 30 years ago, the Centurian C-150 Bronco is nothing short of a crash course for modern folks so drunk on wimpy little crossovers.
Under the hood of this gargantuan truck is a 351-cubic inch (5.8 L) Windsor variant of Ford's much-beloved small block V8. Dubbed the 351W (Windsor) to not confuse it with the similarly-named but different 351C (Cleveland) engine, the 351W jetted 205 horsepower and 328 lb-ft (445 Nm) of torque in the standard fifth-generation Ford Bronco as it left the factory. No word on whether Centurion or anybody else did any modifying under the hood. But let's be real, horsepower figures and zero to 60 times are a bit beside the point with this truck.
With 190,000 miles on the clock and nothing more but cosmetic scuffs and dents with no visible rust to deal with, all this truck needs to look sensational again is someone willing to put the TLC into fixing all the bodywork. Once that's done, there's every chance this Centurion Bronco could be a real collector's item one day. Even if not, it's still badass as heck.
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