by Jan Eyerman
To follow the development of the Crosley car and see its place in the American automobile industry, it is necessary to go all the way back to the turn of the century when R.E. Olds was building thousands of Curved Dash Oldsmobiles. These cars were essentially a light body, a small one cylinder engine, and four bicycle wheels. The first "light car" to be mass produced. Following Olds was the cycle car craze just prior to World War I. These cars were absolutely minimal vehicles usually powered by a motorcycle engine and selling for a few hundred dollars. The Model T quickly brought an end to these generally poor vehicles. A few survivors hung on into the twenties; the Auto Buckboard and the Auto Redbug - both ancestors of the go-kart. Then in 1929 a group of businessmen formed the American Austin Company to build the very successful British Austin 7 in the United States. This unfortunate company staggered on from failure to failure in the thirties, in the process re-organizing and changing it's name to the American Bantam Company and lodging in Butler, PA. As almost a dying gasp, Bantam invented the Jeep for the U.S. Army in 1940. The Army rewarded the company by ordering almost all of its Jeeps from Willys and Ford.
Other than the Bantam, there were no American Mini-cars in existence at the time. So, a possible market was there waiting, waiting for a product to fill it.
The 1940 Crosley models were announced on October 1, 1939, but the new line did not debut until the tenth. The line was now expanded from the two original models to four, a "Delivery" and a maple wood bodied station wagon were added. However production was down to a mere 422 for 1940, the per cent of the market was so small as to not be measurable. The 1940 Crosley had another distinction. All of the original engineering drawings are now in the hands of the Crosley Club. How the club got them is very interesting and also very curious. It seems that in 1973 the Willys-Overland club located a warehouse full of engineering drawings for the Willys car, all dating from before World War II. The drawings were purchased by the Willys club and were being cataloged by the Willys Club members when the 1940 Crosley drawings were found mixed in. These were offered to the Crosley Club and were purchased. How the drawings got into a warehouse full of Willys drawings is a mystery. There is no known connection between the two makers, although both companies were involved with light weight Jeeps during the war.
One possible reason for the minimal 1940 production was the early introduction of Crosley's 1941 models on July 28, 1940. The 1941 models were almost identical to the 1940 models with only one noticeable change. The 1941 line was again expanded to more body styles to bring the total offered to ten. Now available was a "Covered Wagon" (sort of a convertible station wagon), a parkway delivery and a panel delivery.
Powel Crosley was not content with only building cars, he also built several prototypes of motorcycles (one a three wheeler) boats and later a snowmobile. During the entire pre-war period Crosley managed to produce 5,757 cars, not an awful lot but definitely beyond the prototype stage.
In addition to the above mentioned snowmobile was a very interesting Jeep. Crosley did not participate in the initial trials for what became the original Jeep but became involved in 1942 in a project to build a special mini-Jeep. This was to be a special light weight vehicle capable of both being transported by a C-47 (the military version of the DC-3 ... and more about that later) and easily manhandled out of the mud by the troops. The first pilot model, called a CT-3 Pup, (no details on what the C or the T stand for or whether there was a 1 or 2) and was delivered to the Army in February of 1943. After the first one completed its tests at Fort Benning, Georgia (the Army's paratrooper training school), 36 more were ordered. |
At this point we can sum up the pre-war period. The pre-war Crosleys were something less than perfect; the lack of a closed model initially made the cars somewhat impractical and durability was not one of their strong suits. Cannonball Baker did manage a one and half times trip across the U.S.. By the end of the 1942 production models, Powel Crosley realized that much improvement was necessary in both the engine and body.
On June 20, 1944 Crosley Motors and Crosley Radio were separated, the Radio division was sold. The money obtained from the sale was used to finance the post-war cars. According to one story, the post-war Crosley was designed by some moon-lighting Hudson Body engineers in Detroit over a period of one to two days. The similiarity of the Crosley to the famous step-down Hudson does sort of support this. Whatever the case, the new Crosley was announced on January 20, 1946. The car was supposed to have an aluminum body and weigh less than 1,000 pounds. The Crosley can claim to be the first post-war slab sided car, an honor usually claimed by Kaiser-Frazer. Although announced in January, the first cars were not built until May 5, 1946. The first car was a 1947 two door sedan, with a normal steel body and weighing 1,150 pounds. By July 4 the Marion, Indiana factory had managed to build 149 cars. When it is considered that Crosley had 600 "Dealers" and had orders totaling 30,000 cars, this was a drop in the bucket. To speed deliveries to key markets, Crosley played a trump card that had been part of the development of the Pup - he could fly his cars in on DC-3's. Two Crosleys were flown into New York's LaGuardia airport for delivery to Macy's Department store. There was no problem fitting the two of them into a DC-3 airliner. The publicity from this was excellent.
When shown to the public on August 27th 1946 a crowd of over 9,000 people showed up. Something over 1,000 people wanted to place orders, but unfortunately the orders had to be limited to ten per day. For all of 1946 Crosley managed to build 4,999 cars (4,987 sedans, 12 convertibles and 8 pick up trucks). The price was $853.58 for the two door sedan - compare that with $1,072 for a Chevy two door sedan and you can see that pricing was to be a problem all through the post-war period. By February of 1947 Crosley was quoting a 30 to 60 day delivery, by comparison, there was a one year wait for a Pontiac. |
1948 was to be Crosley's year, production reached its peak of 27,707 and Crosley was actually the country's largest producer of station wagons (wagons accounted for 23,489 of the production). But unfortunately the bad publicity of the early stamped engines and the gradual meeting of the demand for new cars by the bigger car manufacturers began to tell. The new 1949 models were announced on December 16, 1948 and in 1949 production crashed to a mere 8,939 cars and trucks. A new line was added - the DeLuxe, the cars featured squared off styling, more room, improved interior and exterior appearance . . . and nobody bought them. Crosley had managed a new car for 1947 and another new one for 1949 (by Detroit's definition!) while everybody else struggled for one new design in that period. What happened in 1949 was the subtle change going on in America - "bigger and better", more cylinders, more horsepower, longer, lower etc. Oldsmobile created the horsepower race with '49 Rocket V-8, Chevy dropped its old style and got a new, larger body, so did the Ford and Plymouth. All of a sudden it seemed, the country changed. One of the last things people wanted to do it seemed was to economize. That social change spelled doom for the Crosley.
On the last day of 1950 came what is Crosley's most famous racing victory. A completely stock 1950 Crosley was entered in the first internationally recognized road race in the U.S., Sebring. Crosley number 19 entered by Fritz Koster and Ralph Deshow pulled a first place on formula. Fritz and Ralph were two totally different drivers, Ralph drove the Crosley flat out (he claimed the handling was so good and the top speed so low that he didn't slow down for most of the turns!) gaining valuable time. He then handed the car over to Fritz who had a reputation of "keeping the car together". Evidentially this was the right combination as the Crosley led (again on formula) for the entire race. The little car covered 288 miles in six hours, an average of over 66 MPH! At the time of the race an interesting story was told. It goes as follows: Fritz and Ralph had wrecked their car in practice laps and happened to see the Crosley in the spectators' parking lot. They talked the owner (Gus Ehrman) into letting them race the car. I have not been able to verify this. If true, the Crosley would indeed be as stock as anyone would want!
Crosley was quite successful in racing and a modified Super Sports did quite well at LeMans until the voltage regulator quit. Needless to say, Crosley Hotshots and Super Sports were extensively used as the basis for various home built racers. Added to the land victories, the engine was used in boats and again was a winner. Many companies came into business to supply high performance parts which could squeak the little four banger out to over 100 horsepower. The power output of the engine compared very well with contemporary European Grand Prix engines (on a horsepower per cubic inch basis).
On November 13, 1950 the 1951 line was introduced and for the first time the Crosley sported a real propeller in the middle of the grill. Production, which was bad in 1950, fell to only 4,839 in 1951. 1952 was to be the last model year Crosley and was introduced on November 26, 1951.
The now inevitable end came on July 17, 1952, after a production run of only 1,522 cars. Powel Crosley called it quits. From 1949 to 1952 he had lost between three and four million dollars on the car. Compared to Kaiser's loss of fifty million between 1945 and 1954 this was not much - but it was all from Powel Crosley's personal funds. General Tire bought a controlling interest in the company by obtaining 317,077 shares at twenty cents each. Production of cars had stopped somewhere around July 4th but the plant was still building engines to meet government contracts.
This should be the end of the story, but it isn't. The Crosley engine and the Farm-O-Road were too good to die. The engine kept going in boats - the Marine Division of the Aero-Jet General Corporation produced the "Vee Drive" and Fageol continued engine production at least through the late fifties, several other companies produced versions of the Crosley engine for marine use in to the 70's, the Bearcat 55 being one of the last. The engine continually popped up in cars - such as the Panda in 1956 and was used by various Italian Sports cars in the fifties (such as Nardi, Bandini and Siata).
The Farm-O-Road went back into production as the Crofton Bug on a very, very limited basis around 1960. Even Lloyd Taylor, the original designer of the "tin engine" kept at it. In 1958 he produced the "Super Sports" engine - a two liter tin engine which produced 145 horsepower (Taylor - where were you when Crosley needed you?) But that engine never made it the way the original "three quarter liter" engine did in the Crosley. In the 1980s Taylor was still making fabricated steel engines, and tring to sell his ideas. He had a 150 hp and a 186 hp version that passed California emission tests in 1981.
With the scrapping of the dies, there will never be any more Crosleys. Not that somebody didn't try though - Ed Herzog (owner of Service Motors in the 50s, 60s, &70s) attempted to get production going back in 1952 but could not raise the money. He did manage though to buy most of the left over parts at the factory. Thanks to Ed, a lot of Crosleys are still on the road.
It is interesting to speculate as to what would have happened if only Crosley had hung on for a few years more . . . in 1956 the big foreign car surge began and people were buying cars, that were no where near as good as the Crosley, in great numbers. Had Crosley continued for only three years more, they might have ridden the crest of the small car boom that occurred. The money that would have made the company would probably have carried it through until 1973 brought the need for small cars again.
All that is left now are the cars and a devoted group of Crosley owners who will probably keep the little cars rolling along and thumb their noses at Detroit every time one of the big three claims some "fantastic" first - like four wheel disc brakes in a low priced car . . . Crosley had it all - over 40 years ago.