Designed by Henry Covington of St. Petersburg Florida in the early 1960’s, the Tiburon Roadster - also known as the “Covington”, and it’s sister car the Tiburon Convertible, remain the only cars designed, built, marketed, and sold in the Tampa / St. Petersburg, Florida area.

The original prototype was built by both Henry Covington and Glenn Gums in St. Petersburg Florida in 1960. From 1961-1962, Frank and Patricia Cacciatore built the production versions of the Tiburon Roadster through their company “Cacci-Craft” in Tampa Florida. Production of the Tiburon Hardtop came to a halt in May 1962 upon the death of Henry Covington at age 38. Convertibles were later produced by Glen Gums through his company “Glenn Industries”, from 1963 to 1965.

Covington integrated the aerodynamic theories of Dr. Augustus Raspet from Mississippi State University with his own theories on proportion and form to create the final design of the Tiburon Roadster. Noted for its aerodynamically designed body - which extends fully underneath the car right to the rear wheels - the car was designed to maximize speed, and minimize aerodynamic drag and ground effects. In fact, the faster the car is driven, the closer to the ground the body drops.

The car on display was built in early 1962, and is the 6th and final car to be produced by Cacci-Craft. It is also of note that this was the only car to be bodied on the chassis it was originally designed for - a 356 Porsche. In addition, this body was both mounted on the Porsche frame and customized in several ways by Gene Winfield of Modesto California in the early 1960’s. Gene was a close working associate of George Barris of custom car fame.

The Tiburon Roadster is currently on long-term loan to the Tampa Bay Auto Museum from Dr. Geoffrey R. Hacker who purchased his first convertible shark in 1980, and the Tiburon Hardtop on display as recently as 2005. Geoff has continued to research the history of the car, and locate remaining Shark hardtops and convertibles for the past 25+ years, and enthusiastically worked with Alain Cerf, owner of the Tampa Bay Auto Museum, to jointly place the car on display for all to enjoy.