Rare FiberFab Centurion Kit Car Offered at Auction in Europe

Believe it or not, there was a time when some C1 owners wanted to update their “old” Corvettes to make them more like the outrageous C2 Sting Ray.

An amateur sports car racer named Warren “Bud” Goodwin decided to try and cash in on that line of thinking when he founded Fiberfab in 1964 and offered a Centurion kit car based on the 1959 XP-87 Stingray prototype that had been designed by Pete Brock and went on to capture its first class win in 1959 and an SCCA championship in 1960.

In literature promoting the similarly designed Corvette Fiberfab Centurion, the company tempted owners of C1 Corvettes to alter their cars: “Make your older Corvette worth what it should be. Increase the value of your car while making it a real Show Stopper.”

The kits were available in two forms – the first consisting of a one-piece Centurion body shell for $495 and the second including a Centurion body with flanged doors and tilting front end for $795.

The 100-lb. Centurion body was “designed to mount easily on any year Corvette chassis, using stock floor panel,” though a new floor pan was also available through Fiberfab for $150.

As Fiberfab boasted in a brochure from the 1960s, “the Centurion is ideal to be fitted on old Corvette cars, which makes them younger. If you have such a model and you have spent a lot of time and money on your engine, choose the Centurion to give your car the bodywork it deserves.”

The exact number of such kits that were sold back in the day is unknown, but one such kit that was mounted on a 1958 Corvette will be up for auction at Artcurial’s Classic Le Mans sale on June 30.

This car was auctioned at the 2018 Barrett-Jackson sale in Scottsdale, Arizona, where it was purchased by a resident in Andorra, who imported and registered it there.

The auction house says the completely restored car “of impeccable presentation” is based on a 1958 Corvette and includes a 283 Rochester fuel-injected engine, with manual gearbox. Described as the only known example with two streamlined head restraints, it’s believed to be the only one circulating in Europe.

Goodwin himself has an interesting history by the way. He opened Fiberfab in 1964 in Palo Alto, near San Francisco, and among other things produced the Centurion that bolted onto a C1 or C2 Corvette chassis using the same fasteners. It’s believed he made between five to 12 of these kits before he went to jail for murdering his chief mechanic, whom he caught in bed with his wife. At the same time, GM lawyers reportedly were also considering litigation against the company because of the Centurion’s resemblance to the XP-87.

Now one of his dream cars is up for sale in Europe. Are you interested?

Source:
Artcurial.com via silodrome.com

Related:
Corvettes on eBay: Fiberfab Centurion Roller Project Car
Fiberfab Centurion Corvette Headed to Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale
Corvettes on eBay: Rare Fiberfab Centurion ’59 Stingray Racer