Urba Centurion #4

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by GreenHornet

I would probably set it at 4" for around town and 3" for competition like at the Green Grand Prix.

Makes sense. Anyway, what kind of adjustable suspension setup do you consider to use?

[GreenHornet]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

Makes sense. Anyway, what kind of adjustable suspension setup do you consider to use?

Hey CR,

Most people who purchase the adjustable suspension for the Spitfire and GT6 cars go with 1" reduction. So for the Spitfire you can do a max of 2" drop down to 3" ride height without negatively effecting handling.

As far as what kind of adjustable suspension there are several manufacturers of adjustable suspension Spax, Gaz, Koni to name the most common. I will probably go with the Gaz as they are the middle road units. They are ride and height adjustable. These will workout very well for the Centurion due to the decreased curb weight in comparison to the Spitfire cars.

[Geofly]

Great ride! I didn't even known their was such a car out there. Perfect eco car.

[GreenHornet]

Hi Geofly,

Welcome to ecomodder and thanks for stopping by. I also tend to think the Centurion is a perfect ecocar. There is not a lot of them rolling around these days. There is actually only two currently in running form and one of those is in a museum. Mine was running when it had the 3 cylinder engine under the hood but I have decided to use a two cylinder Kubota engine along with numerous other modifications to further its fuel miser potential. So currently the car is not running and will be rebuilt with all of my modifications and ideas.

There is a bit of mystique to these cars and the true potential of these cars are not yet determined. Crazy Jerry with Centurion #3 has done a wonderful job of showing the world that this car has much more potential than what was first thought. The first Centurion achieved 128mpg @ 35mph speeds and only sported a top speed of 65mph. This is hardly awe inspiring and I believe Crazy Jerry brought the Centurion to a level we can not only live with but be very happy with. Crazy Jerry with his modifications has achieved a max mpg of 250 multiple times at the Green Grand Prix and is able to go over 80mph. No car currently on the road comes close to this except VW XL1. The true beauty of the Centurion is that it can be built for ecomodder prices not the $100,000+ price tag the XL1 costs.

[GreenHornet]

Over the weekend I made a really big move in getting the Centurion back on the road again. This past Thursday I stumbled onto a local Craigslist add for a Triumph GT6 car. The car was in pieces and being offered for $1,200.

This is how the Craigslist ad read

"Body and frame is a 1967 MKI. Engine is a GT6+. Motor has new gaskets,fuel pump,timing chain. Comes with many spare parts. Body needs usual sheet metal work. The floors are out of it but comes with new floor pans inner,middle and outer rocker panels. Rear quarter panel patch panels too. Does not come with a bonnet but I have the bubble out of a GT bonnet that could be grafted into a spitfire bonnet. The rest of car(about 95% complete) came from a 70 GT6 car. Roto flex rear suspension with new donuts. New OEM shocks and new brake calipers. Front suspension has already been rebuilt. Does not come with a set of wheels but it is on a rolling frame. This would be a fun project to bring back to life or good for a spit6 build or for spare parts..This is a project build....If you have the time and skills...The round tail cars are getting harder to come by. Also forgot to mention comes with a rebuilt differential as well."

The part of the add that really interested me was the part about the suspension, brakes and last but not least the rebuilt differential. These parts are all interchangeable between the Spitfire and GT6 cars. My intentions for the Centurion was to purchase all of these parts anyways over the next year and half due to the fact they are not cheap and I am not rich LOL. Triumph parts are not getting any cheaper these days. So I figured at this price and from what the add listed I could sale some of the parts I will not need and make my money back then essentially get all of these parts I needed for free. This would save me a ton of money in the long run.

The guy new he was giving away this basically but did not care because he needed the room to finish up his Spitfire which was the most beautiful Spitfire I had ever seen to date! The paint job on it was a masterpiece to say the least. In the add he said that "The rest of car(about 95% complete)" was misleading in that the 95% come to find out when I got there was virtually either new or rebuilt parts it was pretty unbelievable to be honest. Not only that but all the older used parts that was original on the car was also part of the deal. So basically I had mechanically two sets of everything old and new There was storage racks filled with boxes and boxes of parts for this car. The guy would not part it out it was all or nothing. So I decided to take the plunge. It took me 3 trips with a van and a trailer to get it all back home!

So the good news is I have virtually every part I needed for the Centurion either new or rebuilt to get it rolling again. The bad news is I have no room to put it back together lol So now mission #1 is to spend the next few weeks organizing and building storage racks in the garage to make some kind of sense out of all of these parts as well as create a workable space.

[GreenHornet]

I decided to go out into the garage this morning and peak around a little at the splendid mess of parts I have going on currently. I wanted to post some picks of a few of the parts so you can get an idea of the gold mine I stumbled onto by dumb luck.

One of the parts that immediately stuck out at me was the transmission and bell housing. It was pretty darn shiny as a unit and I thought no it could not be an Aluminum bell housing but I figured why not I might as well pull out my magnet and just check it anyways. Sure enough it was Aluminum and I about fell over in complete utter disbelief I new I had hit the jackpot with this haul but this just keeps getting better and better by the box. Even the front disc brakes are shiny without even wiping off the dust. I will up date more pics later after I sit down and rest my head for a little bit I am still in shock.

Added some new pics. The engine is very clean and has quite a few new parts already installed on it. The valve cover could use a new paint job. The block has been recently painted. I found a new aluminum intake manifold, what appears to be dual rebuilt Stromberg carbs with new tune kits. new front disc brake calipers, new donuts for the rear rotoflex suspension, and some aluminum wheel adapters which will not work with the Centurion.

All of these misc parts came out of the first box I went through this morning. In that box there were also a bunch of new gaskets and poly bushings for mounting various parts like the rear differential which will work for the Centurion. Not bad for the first of many boxes to pick through.

[Frank Lee]

The abbreviation of "advertisement" is ad.

[Joggernot]

You definitely got your $1200 worth with those parts. Excellent find!

[GreenHornet]

Originally Posted by Joggernot

You definitely got your $1200 worth with those parts. Excellent find!

Hey Joggernot,

Yes this is turning out to be an extremely good investment. I can't believe all the new parts that are there. The other thing that I was very pleased with was the chassis of the GT6. It had recently been rust proofed and painted white which is exactly the color I had planned to paint the Centurion chassis. So what I have decided to do in order to save time and money I will just modify the GT6 chassis to except the Centurion body shell. This will be very easy to do and when I am done I will then have 2 Centurion chassis. This way I can rust proof the other Centurion chassis as money and time permits. The money I was going to put into rust proofing the Centurion chassis I can now divert else where to either the rear differential rebuild and aluminum upgrade or the carbon fiber driveshaft.

I will get installed the new GT6 front suspension, new GT6 front disc brakes, new steering rack, new 7/8 sway bar, new tie rod ends and new ball joints. I think the only parts up front I am going to purchase will be the tubular adjustable upper wishbones and Trunnionless Front Suspension Kit. I will down the road get the alloy Uprated Front Hub and Stub Axle Kit but for now might as well get some good use out of what I have.

I am still undecided what I want to do on the rear suspension. I am leaning toward the swing spring suspension which did come with my Centurion and is less complex but now I have a new rotoflex setup that came with the GT6 to ponder which does provide a true multilink rear suspension architecture. However the Rotoflex suspension is heavier with more parts and upkeep. I could purchase the expensive CV kit or go with a few other proven junkyard CV designs to cut some of the weight and eliminate upkeep. I think the lightest and least complex setup would be the swing spring but the CV setup would provide the best ride.

To many options to think about which is one reason why I am taking forever on this project

[GreenHornet]

In order to keep progressing on the Centurion project I will be selling some of my parts that I just picked up from the GT6 car. So far I have decided on the engine, rebuilt rear differential, and the 5 lug light weight aluminum wheel adapters.

I have had a chance to go through some more of the boxes and at this point I have decided to just sell off the mother load. Instead of collect more parts which I don't need I might as well sale the parts and get the remaining parts I need for the Centurion quicker. So this coming up week I will be taking lots of pics and getting the inventory figured out.

I have also decided to hold off on upgrades to the front suspension. I can do that down the road after I have got some good use out of the new parts I acquired. This will allow me to divert funds to the rear suspension and other parts that are needed far more at the moment.

There is a very good possibility that I could have my Centurion rolling under its own power again by the end of summer. I will definitely not have the body work done but mechanically I see little reason why I can't get it spinning the wheels again.