These Centurian E350 pickup conversion vans are the family haulers you didn’t know you needed. Pop quiz, hotshot. There’s a vehicle that wears the Ford emblem that’s a van, with a pickup bed, and seating like a camper. Do you want it? Would you drive it? What do you do? What do you do?! With that conundrum out the way, we welcome you to another choice episode of Ford Made What?!?
It’s a van that has the seating arrangement of an RV, a pickup bed in the rear, and does guard duty as a member of the Toxic Avengers. Confuse your in-laws, impress children, and infuriate your local HOA with your oddball choice in transportation this fall!
If you are a longtime fan of the Blue Oval then chances are you have a passing sort of knowledge of the Michigan based outfit known as Centurion Vehicles. The company’s bread and butter were modifying trucks with a mix of bizarro genius and a healthy amount of gumption. A couple of their products besides these E350 pickups were an extended SUV-ish Bronco and a four-door F-Series crew cab. Now, just like Centurion, Cabriolet was also based out of Michigan and offered customized crew-cab pickups with luxurious interiors to make the owner’s time on the road that much more worthy of Robin Leach’s attention.
These Econoline vans were sliced behind the side doors, had an end cap added, and then were mated to a pickup truck’s bed. Just right behind the captain’s seat in the Cabriolet E350 is a slightly offputting set of the stock van doors and custom fiberglass parts laid onto a cutaway Ford RV chassis. The pickup bed was a bit too shallow to toss anything of real merit into it. However, you could definitely carry a couple of rad BMX Huffy bikes back there.
As mentioned earlier, the Cabriolet models created rolling do-it-all Ford models with luxury interiors to boot. Rich wood-trimmed items are spread throughout with upholstery and trim that’s every bit as welcoming as a hug from Mr. Belvedere himself. The Cabriolet also came with other creature comforts such as power windows, power locks, air conditioning, cruise control and, a sweet tilt wheel.
Under the hood of both the Centurion and Cabriolet was the tried and true fuel-injected 460ci V8 engine that was every bit as robust and dependable as Dalton. That powerplant was mated to a transmission equipped with overdrive to produce a decent 245 horsepower and 400 ft/lbs of torque. You won’t win any races in the E350 van conversions but towing will be accomplished quite easily.
The more I think about who might have bought one of these in the heady days of the 1980s, it conjures up visions of a guy walking out of Over the Top. He’s thinking, yeah, I want a truck…but I have a family…but I need space in the rear too! Hmmmmmm YES!!! Wonder Twin powers, activate! Form of: Swiss Army Knife on wheels!!! (Yes I know Zan turns into water and Jayna turns into animals exclusively but cut me a break.)
That’s all for the two biggest companies behind the E350 conversions but maybe not the last we’ll hear from them on the Ford front. However, I’m sugar crashing hard from eating too many Whatchamacallit candy bars while writing this and I need to lay down. Oh, and yes, those are Chevy taillights slapped onto the rear and my left eye twitches a bit every time I see them.
