Museum nets a pair of 'Sharks'

Created by a talented local man who died young, two novel cars are donated to the St. Petersburg Museum of History.

By JON WILSON

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 1, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- The car turned heads -- no, yanked them around -- when people started seeing it 40 years ago.

It looked like a space ship, people said. A super-swift race car or a predatory fish.

Henry Covington used his garage and back yard as a production plant. Away from his day job, the talented young designer worked into the wee hours and surrendered weekends to perfect the creation he nicknamed El Tiburon -- the Shark.

National automotive magazines like Road and Track featured the project, comparing Covington's work to such famed automobiles as the Maserati and Lamborghini.

The story is one of passion, perseverance and tragedy.

A heart attack killed Covington at age 38. It was a Sunday afternoon in May 1962, and he had been working on the car. Although a number of the autos were produced, the potential of Covington's design would remain a matter of speculation.

"I think it would have been really popular if my dad had stayed alive and had been able to promote it a little better," said John Covington, who lives in Texas.

The project remains a significant if little-known piece of local history. It will be preserved, thanks to Geoffrey Hacker, the St. Petersburg Museum of History and Northeast High School's automotive technology center.

Hacker, an industrial psychologist who is also a car enthusiast, owned two of the estimated 12 cars produced. He is donating them to the museum.

Variously called the Covington Special, the Tiburon, the Covington Tiburon or simply the Shark, the auto is believed to be the only one designed and manufactured here.

"In 1961, this was the car of the future," said Sam Bond, museum director. "This is a unique piece of our area's history."

Bond, Bruce Yurman and John Moes on Monday moved the cars from storage on 22nd Avenue N to Northeast High School, where automotive students will restore them during the next year or so. The students will work under auto body instructor Andy Burke and automotive technology teacher Stephen Chappie.

"The kids are going to love it," Burke said.

One of the cars will be on display at the museum, while the other will be made road-ready for possible use in parades, said curator of collections Rebecca Jacobsen Hagen.

When Bond rolled up the storage garage door Monday, the first sight of the cars drew a surprised remark from Moes. "Is it aquatic?" Moes asked.

Towed up 16th Street N to the high school, the low-slung, streamlined vehicle drew stares from motorists, just as its prototype did more than a generation ago.

Henry Covington's project was a point of high interest in Westgate Manor, a post-war subdivision cut from pines, palmetto and pasture. Part of Disston Heights, Westgate Manor was raw enough that cattle sometimes escaped their grazing ground and wandered close to the new tract houses.

"The car was the attraction in the whole neighborhood," said Olga Covington, Henry Covington's widow.

"There wasn't a moment of peace in the house. People would stop to offer comment. Sometimes they wanted to buy it right there," she said.

The Covingtons lived on 58th Street N, which soon became a busy road where motorists could spy the car.

Neighbor Glen Gums engineered the molds for the car's fiberglass body. He eventually produced four convertibles and Tampa resident Frank Cacciatore built eight hardtops, Hacker said.

The Covington Special story continues to this day because of Hacker's interest.

Born the year and month that Henry Covington died, Hacker, 37, said he was a teenager when he first saw one of the cars in Clearwater. He tracked it down and bought it, getting it in shape for shows in the mid-1980s. It appeared at such venues as Countryside Mall. Hacker located another of the cars in California.

Others of the dozen built probably exist, possibly in the Tampa Bay area, Hacker believes. The mystery is, where?

The idea is tantalizing to Hacker, and he continues to search. He already has collected reams of documents, photographs, magazines and clips related to Covington's project, hoping to construct the definitive history for the museum.

He encourages anyone with information to e-mail him at grhacker@aol.com.

Henry Covington also won notice as a watch designer, developing one for Elgin Watch Co. called the Black Knight. According to newspaper accounts of the time, it set an Elgin sales record.

Another design was named the Lord Elgin Covington, said John Covington, an electrical engineer who won an Emmy in 1991 for significant contributions to television show lighting.

James Covington, Henry's other son, was a longtime journalist in Pinellas County. He was a photographer for the old Clearwater Sun and later edited a chain of small newspapers covering parts of the county. He died in 1997 at age 51.

How to help

Anyone with information on the remaining cars may contact Geoffrey Hacker at grhacker@aol.com.

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