When the Classic Ford Bronco and OBS F-Series Fused Together
You might hear people say the late 80s through the mid-1990s were pretty much the peak era of Ford trucks. For the most part, that’s because it’s the period where the Ford Bronco and the beloved “Old Body Style” F-Series pickups were at the peak of their influence. Well, what if we told you there was someone out there who took the two greatest Fords of the era and fused them into a chimera so awesome that it’s a wonder it’s not more celebrated.
The Bronco and F-Series: Pretty Close to Truck Perfection
Let’s paint the scene for you. It’s the mid-1980s, Ronald Reagan is in the White House, MTV is relevant, and the American SUV craze is starting its transition from a niche off-road novelty into a full-blown suburban lifestyle movement. Over at GM, Chevy and GMC were practically printing money with the Suburban, while Chrysler and Ford looked on, probably seething. This was especially true of Ford, whose lineup had a Suburban-sized hole in it right in between the Gen-VI and VII F-Series and the third-and fourth-generation Broncos.
If you walked into a Blue Oval dealership with a large family and a fleet of quad bikes or a boat to lug around, you were faced with a frustrating reality. Sure, you could squeeze your family into a two-door Bronco, but don’t be surprised when the kids start complaining about clambering over the front seats to get in the back. On the F-Series side of things, well, most usable room was taken up by a big old truck bed where you could’ve put more seats.
It was this narrow slice of the market, right between the Bronco and the F-Series, where the Suburban absolutely thrived, and Ford had nothing to compete directly with it. Worse still, fielding a direct competitor would’ve meant spending millions on R&D, custom factory tooling, and tons of marketing just to compete with a single model from Chevrolet and GMC. For the executives in Dearborn, the math simply didn’t add up. Then again, what if someone else did the work for them?
The Aftermarket Fills the Void
After all, if someone had the wherewithal to make a Ford truck fill the Suburban’s niche on the aftermarket, Ford could just sell them the trucks they need without having to lift a finger. Enter two Michiganders by the name of Dale Hassing and Gene Lehman, founders of a custom conversion outfit called Centurion Vehicles. While Ford sat on its hands, these two entrepreneurs looked at the gaping hole in Ford’s lineup and decided they had what it takes to fill it themselves.
Centurion Vehicles’ business model was simple in theory but endlessly complicated in its execution. They’d take Ford’s existing mid-size SUV and half-ton truck platforms, and either merge them together, or make them better on their own. To build the ultimate four-door Ford behemoth to take on the Suburban, they couldn’t just stretch a Bronco chassis and call it a day. If they did, the chassis would probably snap in half.
Instead, Centurion relied on an ingenious coachbuilding process where an F-Series half-ton or one-ton crew-cab truck had roughly two and a half feet of its frame removed to shorten the wheelbase to 140 inches. From there, the back wall of the cab was cut out, and a Bronco’s rear quarter panels, floor, tailgate, and fiberglass hardtop were grafted directly onto the opening in the cab that had been cut out. Then, the body was given fresh paint, the interior livened up with plush seat upholstery and thick carpets, and the whole thing was factory-backed by Ford and shipped off to participating dealerships. Well, how do you think that turned out?
The Centurion Classic Breaks Cover
If your answer was total ‘80s Ford perfection, you’d be spot on. Officially dubbed the Centurion Classic, it was sold in two distinct flavors: the half-ton C-150 and the heavy-duty one-ton C-350. By relying on the beefed-up F-Series chassis, the Centurion Classic could be optioned with powertrains that standard Bronco buyers couldn’t dream of touching. The C-150 made do with standard 302 and 351-cubic-inch Windsor V8s, but the C-350 behemoths packed Ford’s 460-cubic-inch gas V8 from the 385-series, or the 7.3-liter IDI diesel.
It gave this custom rig towing capabilities that would make a Bronco’s axles snap off, easily lugging heavy horse trailers or massive boats without breaking a sweat. Inside, the cabin of a Centurion Classic was like a living room on wheels, complete with conversion van-style captain’s chairs, center-console drinks coolers, choices of plush leather or velour cloth seat upholstery, and custom woodgrain accents, making them the most luxurious SUVs ever built until the Cadillac Escalade came around years later.
Because these rigs were sold brand-new directly through participating Ford dealerships, they came complete with Ford factory financing and full warranties to back the whole package up. That is, if you could afford the lavish sticker prices to begin with. We’re talking upward of $50,000 in 1990s money for a fully-loaded C-350 diesel. In today’s dollars, that’s north of $123,000. In other words, for the same money today, you could have a top-trimmed Lincoln Navigator Black Label, and in many ways, the Centurion Classic occupied that very niche. Before the Navigator was a gleam in the Blue Oval’s eye, Centurion effectively founded the ultra-luxury SUV class.
A Product of its Time, Incompatible With the Modern World
More aptly, the Centurion Classic was the direct predecessor to the much-beloved Excursion, a full-size-plus SUV based directly on a 3/4-ton Ford F-250 Super Duty. But the Centurion Classic’s own time in the limelight was relatively short.
Even well into the post-OBS years, Centurion Vehicles carried on, building OEM-approved Ford, GM, and Dodge trucks until 2006. Today, the diesel C-350 in particular is a collector’s item, one that easily fetches between $75,000 and $95,000 at auction.
Source: Bring a Trailer
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