At the beginning of this year, I wrote a Holy Grails entry about how more than two decades ago you could buy a purple Ford F-Series with a manual transmission and one of the greatest diesel truck engines of all time. I stand by what I said in that piece, but I think I just found a truck that’s infinitely cooler. Up for sale right this moment is a 1996 Ford F-350 Centaurus III, a truck where you get everything. This rare beast has four doors, an eight-foot bed, a legendary 7.3-liter Power Stroke diesel V8, and oh yeah, it’s a time capsule with just 1,668 original miles. Be sure you’re sitting down when I bring up the price.
One of the most fascinating things about the modern pickup truck is that you can get work, style, and luxury all in the same package. The 2024 Ford F-250 Lariat I drove earlier this summer wasn’t even the king of the hill, yet it was so comfortable and so well-equipped that it made driving across the country oh so painless. I could only imagine sinking myself into the hides of a King Ranch.
Rewind the clock nearly 30 years and you’ll find that big pickups were still largely work vehicles. Ford advertised such luxuries like captain’s chairs, convertible center consoles, and power controls, but nothing like what you get today. For more luxury, you’d want something like this 1996 Ford F-350 Centaurus III, which combined the power of a big truck with the luxury of a ’90s conversion van with some sporting style.
A What?
Despite appearances, I didn’t misspell Centurion. While Centurion conversions have a similar look to this truck, a Centaurus is not a Centurion.
This story starts with Scott T. Chapman, an entrepreneur with a love for converting vans. According to Automotive News, his prior work involved starting Bivouac Industries and converting vans for nearly a decade. Bivouac Industries crashed and burned in 1987 when conversion van demand fell off a cliff. Chapman never gave up, opening LCM Inc. in Elkhart, Indiana in 1990 to convert vans into commercial vehicles.
The other side of this venture included Timm Bledsoe of Centaurus Vans. This company opened in 1988 with Bledsoe converting vans into luxury vehicles, or what Chapman used to do. In 1992, Chapman’s LCM picked up Centaurus Vans, putting the conversion van producer under the roof of LCM. Apparently, Chapman was so into what Centaurus was doing that he pumped the brakes on LCM’s commercial vehicle production.
As Automotive News reported, in 1995, LCM-Centaurus tried to stand out in the dense pack of conversion van builders by unveiling lightweight, aerodynamic van interiors designed by Boeing. Its other tricks included paint buffed to a glass finish, two-part polymer coatings to walnut trim, and circular knit fabrics.
Sadly, whatever LCM was doing didn’t really work because the company folded up in 1998, taking Centaurus down with it. Bledsoe would go on to work for a bunch of RV manufacturers and a shuttle bus company, never really leaving the specialty vehicle space. I have not been able to track down Chapman.
LCM’s fall from grace is sort of surprising. According to Automotive News, the company made $60 million in sales in 1994 and had 180 employees plus 450 dealers in 1995. The company had deals with each of the Big Three and sold 5,600 vans in 1994, up from 2,800 units in 1994.
The Centaurus III
LCM converted a number of vehicles in its short lifespan. Some are pretty obvious like the Ford Econoline and the Dodge Ram van, but then the list includes conversions of the Chevy Astro and the Ford Explorer, too. The coolest is easily the Centaurus III, or a pickup truck turned into a conversion van.
Sadly, I have not been able to find any brochures or documentation for these trucks, but I can tell you that the Centaurus trucks were built like the Centaurus vans. This truck started life as a Ford F-350 Crew Cab with a long bed, then LCM-Centaurus went to work to “pimp” it out.
Let’s start with the exterior. LCM-Centaurus took a plain F-350 XLT and decked it out with a brush guard, auxiliary lights, a wind deflector, a wind visor, and a ground effects kit. As I noted earlier, LCM-Centaurus heavily marketed its graphics and paint packages which featured hand-sanded and buffed paint. This truck also sports a roof antenna and an air horn. All of it is said to be FMVSS-compliant.
The real magic happens inside, where Ford’s boring interior was upgraded to luxury spec. The first thing you’ll notice are cushy real leather thrones and a rear bench that folds into a bed. All of that trim you see is real walnut that LCM-Centaurus marketed as being “ultra-gloss.” Centaurus added ambient lighting all over the truck’s cabin, added its own headliner, added its own plush carpeting, and even added insulation to the cab.
Centaurus conversions were also known for the addition of televisions, radios, and ice chests. I see a CB radio in the cab of this one plus overhead switches, headphone jacks, and reading lights. The rear seat passengers get their own screen and there’s also a vintage car phone sitting on the passenger floor. It’s unclear what other features this truck has, but Centaurus also advertised heated and vibrating seats in its other conversions.
All of this is wrapped up in an already legendary truck. This 1996 Ford F-350 is already a mint condition example of a ninth-generation “Old Body Style” (OBS) truck, but it’s also equipped with a legendary 7.3-liter Power Stroke V8 turbodiesel. From my retrospective:
The iconic 7.3-liter Ford Power Stroke engine is also known as the Navistar T44E, and it brought some important upgrades to the table. The biggest improvements were direct injection and computer control. At the time, General Motors saddled its trucks with the 6.5-liter Detroit Diesel while Dodge trucks with the Cummins 5.9. Navistar was ready to deal a blow to both companies.
[…]
HEUI joins forces with six head bolts per cylinder, a Garrett turbocharger, forged connecting rods, and a fluid-to-fluid oil cooler to provide high performance and a lifespan that could outlive you. Later examples of the 7.3 got a wastegate for the turbo and an air-to-air intercooler. There was also a brief moment between 2001 and 2003 when powdered metal con-rods were used.
If you’re going with an OBS unit, the Power Stroke was advertised at 210 HP and 425 lb-ft of torque at launch. After 1996, the rating was pumped up to 225 HP and 450 lb-ft of torque. Power Stroke-equipped 1999 Super Duty trucks got 235 HP and a beefy 500 lb-ft of torque. By 2003, this was bumped up to 250 HP (275 HP manual transmission) and 525 lb-ft of torque.
Click here if you want to read more about what HEUI is, but the short version is that the 7.3-liter Power Stroke is a stone axe of an engine. Sure, it doesn’t make a ton of power compared to today’s beasts, but it’s relatively easy to keep alive and will run even when the truck around it has dissolved into nothingness. Diesel fans concerned more with reliability than power covet these engines – as well as the Cummins competition – enough to spend stupid amounts of money on them. To further illustrate how cool these engines are, you technically can’t even run them out of oil because the engine only needs sufficient oil just to run.
According to Ford, this engine is making 210 HP and 425 lb-ft of torque. It’s backed by a four-speed automatic. A 1996 Ford F-350 in this configuration can tow a 10,000-pound conventional trailer.
Perhaps The Perfect OBS Ford
As for this particular unit, it doesn’t have much of a story. We’re told that the truck was purchased new, driven approximately 1,668 miles, and then the owner parked his truck in a carport in Louisiana for about 30 years. The truck was parked near the ocean, which explains why some metal parts have more rust than you might expect.
So, let’s go down what you’re looking at here. This is an OBS Ford built like a conversion van with a luxury interior, an eight-foot bed, and one of the greatest truck engines of all time. It even has an automatic transmission for those who don’t want to row gears in their big pickup. On top of that, it has fewer than 1,700 miles.
Oh, and there’s icing on the cake in that it hasn’t just sat for three decades. The selling dealership says it’s sitting on a stack of service records that prove the previous owner got the truck’s maintenance done every year. So it wasn’t racking up miles, but it also wasn’t just sitting and rotting, either. That’s why the coolant still looks new. It’s possible you might be waiting a long time before you ever see a truck like this – if you ever see one again.
Now comes the hard part. The selling dealership, Platinum Motors of Portland, Oregon, wants $69,900 for this truck. That’s insane cash that would buy you a nice brand-new truck. Sadly, there aren’t really good comps for a truck like this. A Centaurus III in the same color and with similar options but 206,600 miles sold for $13,200 at Mecum. One with 101,000 miles sold for $16,012 at Bring a Trailer while another with 62,000 miles sold for $18,000 on the same platform.
So, is being a basically brand-new truck worth $69,900? I’m not sure it is, but it is a seriously awesome truck. Platinum Motors suggests if nobody buys it now, it’ll be thrown to the hounds on Bring a Trailer. So, I guess we’ll get to see what the market says.
Either way, my mouth is watering at this beautiful rig. I just want to hitch up a trailer and haul something across the country with my window down and music up. I’m not sure what you would do with a time capsule like this, but someone is about to get one of the coolest vintage diesel trucks ever built.
(Images: Platinum Motors, unless otherwise noted.)
$70K?! What a ripoff…ND/Crackpipe
Too bad it’s a Fix Or Repair Daily
I saw one of these back in the day on Woodward Avenue in Detroit. Definitely mde a statement.
I know a guy who drove an XL version of this truck down from Alaska to Florida, pulling a trailer the entire way. I’m sure he would’ve preferred this luxo version and definitely would’ve preferred the diesel engine. (Yes, his truck had a gas engine!)
This example is an interesting experiment. Everyone complains about the complexities of modern trucks so here’s a simpler one that looks to be in great condition, albeit with a filthy engine bay, and low miles. Yes the price is high, but we see it all the time on Bring A Trailer. Will someone buy this at that price? Only time will tell. Hopefully Mercedes will keep us updated.
If they are going to ask top money for this thing, perhaps they should make it look like a million bucks. Car parts laying on the back floorboards are a big red flag.
For similar money (and a similar truck), I would have gone this route: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1997-ford-f-350-101/
Just another dealer adding all that value to the product!
I always wanted my own private train.
Seriously, you’ve gotta live in some place like Montana or Wyoming to turn this thing around, unless you have a roundhouse garage.
I bet it was just used to impress folks at LSU home game tailgate parties.
Parking? I don’t even try with my F350 ’92 longbed dually crewcab. I take up four spaces in the outer reaches. Turning radius is a plan-very-far-ahead size if not on the interstate.
$69k. I wonder how much more to remove all the dated, tacky shit stuck all over this otherwise good work truck.
I’d pay $10/mile put on it. But I’d fairly certain I’d be quickly and rightfully outbid.
I think it’s worth $30,000 to $40,000 and would not be surprised at all if it sells for that. I can’t see $70,000. Maybe on BaT though.
Was that supposed to be “exteriors”? I’m not sure how or why you’d make the interior aerodynamic. 😉
I can’t wrap my head around that statement. Does that just mean the engine shuts off if the oil gets low?
As a fan of both trucks and conversion vans I can appreciate this monstrosity, but the price makes it completely uninteresting to me. You’re paying for low mileage, which means you’re buying it as a garage queen.
I believe that the 7.3 PS relies on high-pressure oil to run the fuel injection system. Low oil pressure = no fuel.
Boeing designed their interiors to be aerodynamic to add efficiency for when the doors fall off of the plane/spacecraft/van conversion and passengers are sucked out, less wind resistance.
LOL, well played.
I bet they end up getting half the asking price.
Being sold in Oregon with Louisiana plates and less than 1700 miles? Why would anyone trailer this truck across the country?
Isn’t it about 1700 highway miles from Louisiana to Oregon? Must not have driven it there.
Ah, Platinum Motors. During the pandemic, whenever I was feeling a bit depressed, I’d go on Platinum’s website and look at their prices so I could get in a good, hard laugh. I don’t understand their business model, but they seem more than happy to set insane prices and then sit on their inventory for months.
With that said, there was a guy in Houston twenty years ago who had one of these with a 12V Cummins swapped in. He was a family friend of one of my coworkers, and I got the full scoop. He bought it new from Centaurus to tow his RV and horse trailers, with the fold-down bed being the main selling point. Before this he had a 12V Ram 3500 which he loved but wasn’t big enough. He bought the Centaurus and immediately had some local diesel shop tune it for more power, and then at about 20,000 miles it popped head gaskets and both Ford and Centaurus said he was on his own. He had that same diesel shop pull the 7.3L and drop in the 12V Cummins tuned to what he claimed was 500hp and 900lb/ft. I don’t know how much power it actually made, but it was a lot.
One thing I have to note is that the interior in the thing was absolutely amazing, at least for something that started out with a normal Ford F-series. His did not have the TVs mounted in the seat backs, and the rear seat was a solid bench that power reclined flat into a bed. The wood was all real, with a heavy coat of glaze that made it almost griddle-like in its ability to burn you in the South-Texas sun. The leather was amazing, and so soft it made me question just how long it could last in an automotive application. The rear seat bed was also impressive, as it was way more comfy than I’d experienced with some other conversion van’s beds.
My cousin recently sold his ’96 F350 Powerstroke LB CC 4×4 for $65,000. More miles than this one but in mint condition. People will pay a lot for these things.
No matter how much somebody pays for this it will eternally, at least to me, look like they haggled down to $5500 on a Craigslist listing in the not-so-great part of town.
Man, I really don’t understand buying something like this and parking it for 30 years. That said it has a 7.3 which means it’s awesome. The price is absurd tho.
This is a textbook example of Rare ≠Valuable
*insert bender neat gif* love the 7.3s but yeah as others said this cost way to much and the mileage and price this really wouldn’t be getting driven anyways which seems pointless for the type of truck that it is. I’ll stick with my Cummins I paid like 10 times less for hah
It’s a really nice truck… but not US$69,900-nice to me. The most I could see myself spending on this is US$30K… and I’m sure plenty of buyers would spend more on this than I would.
Because I like clean air, one thing I hate about older diesel trucks like this is the pollution they spew.
Basically these trucks literally stink.
And thus, I think the best place for this truck is in a museum… where it will remain unused.
Also, if the sellers are serious about getting an offer close to their asking price, then they have to make it SPOTLESSLY CLEAN inside and out and make it look like it’s new from the factory.
And they can do that by giving it a wash and wax, get rid of the stupid paper in the footwell, get rid of the crap in the back and front seats and clean the engine bay.
And this is especially inexcusable since this is being sold by a dealer who call themselves “Platinum Motors”
The more precious the metal, the skeezier the dealer.
I’m still waiting the find the dealer that’s forthright enough to call themselves “Bronze Motors.”
I’m looking for a dealer named “Pig Iron Motors”
Bronze motors eh. Found Ea-Nasir
If it has the hauling capacity this could be a great 5th wheel puller. Would need to know things like hitch weight, total trailer capacity, etc.
Then again at 69k we are in the buy a couple year old diesel dually that can do all that.
It said in the article it could tow 10k, which probably sounds right to me because my 88 F-250 with a 351W (essentially the same HP as this truck but less torque) started to struggle around 5k lbs.
To show how far trucks have come – my 2014 RAM 1500 with a Hemi engine can tow more than this F-350 – and gets about 75% better gas mileage than the F-250 did.
That’s what I thought. Considering most trailers worth a damn are 10k before factoring things like water, storage, people in the truck.
I can’t help but wonder how this went from sitting under some old guy’s carport in Louisiana to a dealership in Oregon.
Well they didn’t drive it because that is further than 1,600 miles.
“A 1996 Ford F-350 in this configuration can tow a 10,000-pound conventional trailer.”
Not with that hitch.
Don’t worry… it’ll be fiiiine…
If they really wanted to convince us it’s worth 70k, at least replace the alternator and AC compressor to look new, give it a proper detail, and take pictures without the interior full of parts an boxes. I don’t have an issue with a high price on a truck like this IF effort is put in to present it well. This smacks of a dealer that offered some old man 12k for his truck, gave it a very lazy exterior wash, and slapped it on their lot for 5-6x their investment. This is the reason people hate used car dealers. It’s a cool truck, but screw this seller.
I have to admit, I am perplexed why it was parked for 30 years and also regularly serviced. The engine bay looks exceptionally grungy for the low mileage.
**Editorial observation: “The company had deals with each of the Big Three and sold 5,600 vans in 1994, up from 2,800 units in 1994.” I am assuming one of these years is wrong.
Yes thanks for calling that out. I had the same thought. First and foremost, that’s driven and/or barn find dirty. Second, a damp rag and 60 seconds would have gone a long way.
That thing is really fucking ugly and stupid looking in all the wrong reasons. This is a redneck wet dream if anything. So maybe its a good thing because that’s the only kind of person who will buy this.
Yeah, even as someone who really likes OBS Ford trucks, I can’t get behind this one. This is covered with so much gaudy crap that it doesn’t work for me. To each their own, and for the right buyer who wants to own this it’s awesome that it exists as such a time capsule.
No.
This is cool, but more like $40K cool, not $70K cool.
Once we are in the price range where new luxury trucks become an option, 30 year old ones do not make any sense.
even for $40k one could get twice the truck. 15 year old 3/4 ton diesels can be had for 30-40k, even some nice ones. If someone bought this truck to actually use as a truck that’d be awesome, but I’d bet it’ll just sit in a climate controlled garage for the rest of its life.
It looks more like a $30K truck to me.
$20,000, maybe.
Or maybe just $10,000.
Now that’s a beautiful horse puller. Built for the long haul. I’ve seen them at rodeos and State fairs. Long live the truck.