Jim Allan of Ohio sent
these snaps of his hardtop CC sedan recently from a mid
winter outing.
He wrote - "Who
says you can't drive a Crosley through the snow?
Getting stuck isn't too bad."
Duane Gorrell of Iowa has
most of the parts he needs to put together one of the
rarer of the Crosley variants. This one flies, or at
least did at one time. 1948 Mooney M18 Mite with Crosley
engine. Here is another angle. The first 10 (plus one
that was a prototype) were made. All were recalled back
to Mooney Mite is Wichita, Kansas and had the Crosley
engine replaced with Lycoming engines after they started
breaking crank’s.
First thing you notice is
the huge distributor with 8 spark plug wires, that is
because it has spark plugs on both sides
with a trick rotor
to fire two plugs at once. Here is the engine tag. They ran
the propeller through multi V belts off the back of the
engine. When you tighten that belt it puts a big load on
the already fragile crank with no outboard bearing to
carry the load. Here is a factory photo of the plane in flight
and the engine
mounted in the plane.
Matt Hellberg, of Iowa,
believes his grandfather bought this 39 Convertible new
(he had two). He is helping his Dad get it back in shape
for show and go.
He recently got it running
but is having carb issues, hopefully a good
cleaning/rebuild will help. Here
it is after it's first bath in 30 years.
April 28th was the 80th
anniversary of the unveiling of the Crosley automobile
at the Indianapolis Speedway. From dates on photos it
apparently was a multi day affair, the above photo was
dated May 1st.
Here is Brother Lewis,
Powel and Powel's Grandson/Son Lew at the big
announcement day at Indy. Don't miss the big celebration
at the Nationals this year.
Crosley Automobile Club
has come a long ways in 50 years. Founded in 1969 by
John Aibel and a simple letter to the editor of Road
& Track asking if anyone knew of the location of Le
Mans Crosley and from the responses a club was formed.
The first meet in NJ in 1970 had 2 cars, 4 cars at 1972
meet in Maumee Ohio and the above turn out at our first
year in Wauseon in 1973 14 cars. 2019 the 50th year of
CAC should have the largest turn out ever, well over 100
cars are expected. Don't miss it.
Cars and owners from left
to right are: 1 - Al Holsopple 51 Station Wagon, 2 -
Deane Sherman 48 Sedan, 3 - Jim Bollman 52 Super Sport,
4 - John Holsopple 52 FOR, 5 - Jim Welter 51 Sedan, 6 -
Glen Oches 50 Hot Shot, 7 - Al Holsopple 52 FOR, 8 -
Dave Stamper 50 Hot Shot, 9 - Bernard Bahle 51 Super
Sedan, 10 - Jim Batsford 49 Station Wagon, 11 - Bill
Exline 51 Super Sport, 12 - Patty Stamper 50 Station
Wagon, 13 - Al Holsopple, 51 FOR, 14 - John Holsopple 61
Crofton
A few more pictures
from the Big introduction of the first production
Crosleys 80 years ago this year at the Indianapolis
Speedway.
Hope to see a bunch of
PreWar Crosleys at the big 50th celebration of the
Crosley Club forming this month. Hope to see you at
Wauseon.
Jeff & Kelly Gladden's (VA) 1952
FarmOroad. Jeff is regional director of CAC and
president of the Keystone Region. Even though his FOR is
an AACA National Senior winner he drives it all the
time. This shot was taken at the Cruise-In at Wauseon
Ohio that around 18 Crosleys went up to participate in
during the National Meet.
Jeff cruising down the highway at the
Nationals. When I decided to chose Jeff's FOR as this
months CotM I had a hard time picking what pictures to
use since he is everywhere at the Nationals and I have
lots of pictures to chose from. One of the other thing
Jeff and many other Crosley people do is give rides and
let kids (and sometimes adults) sit in their Crosleys, here
is one of many pictures I found.
Our 4 Youth Mechanics being interviewed
for a local TV station at the 2019 Nationals. Lizzy on
the right was our first and she has finished her light
green CC sedan. Jackson was our 2nd(Left side) and he
has finished his blue with white stripe Hotshot. Ben got
his youth car last year and has it completely a part and
is starting to put it back together (middle right). Lane
is our latest mechanic(middle left),
Lane Williams our 4th and newest Youth
Mechanic and his new project car. The car couldn't make
it to the Nationals but he has already been retrieved
from the member that donated it and Lane has started
work on it.
Here is the Hotshot Harry Black(PA)
built. Here is the story he sent me. "I am a
product of the '50's, graduating from high school in
1956. I remember in about 1952 wakling by the Kaiser
/Frazer & Crosley dealership in Uniontown, PA with
3 other friends, and having an encounter with a
Crosley Hotshot. This was in the days that the show
room window was right along the sidewalk, and a
display pad was on an outside corner of the building,
A Hotshot was sitting there facing out on about a 60
degree angle. We each picked up a corner, turned the
car around and stood their, thinking that was a better
view!! We then just walked away."
"I restored several cars over the
years, but never got to a Hotshot. Now, in retirement,
I have made an all wood model with a 30" wheel base
and bumper to bumper length is 47-1/2" We have a great
wood shop in the retirement community I live in and a
member with a CNC machine that embossed the hubcaps
and cut the "Hotshot" fender emblem. Thought you might
enjoy the pictures!"
Here is a close up of the dash detail.
Here is a close up of the dash detail.
I always like all the
Crosley garages around the Nationals, here is Al
Calvin's 2 car garage
This has been a
favorite garage for years, it is the BBQ carport
over behind the Yankee Garage. At Fair time it is
used for BBQing chicken.
I don't know much about
these pictures but have been waiting for a good time to
use them. They were labeled as Howard Murrill of TN with
his 51 Crosley.
He looks like a proud
owner of an almost new Crosley in 1952 and thought they
would be a good welcoming in for 2020.
CAC Vice President and
National Meet Chairman Jeffrey Ackerman's 1950
FarmOroad. He bought it from Paul and Suzanne Weimer at
the National meet 1999. "It has been a National show
winner several times over the years. Both of the girls
learned to drive on this FarmOroad. Heather, at age 15
helped restore it in 2000, She now drives it
occasionally when home.
Samantha has been driving it around the
house since age 13. Now, at age 16, she has shown it
at the National meet the past three years. If you
have attended the National meet recently, You
probably recognize this FarmOroad as the one that
never has time to cool off, as Samantha typically
goes through two tanks of fuel at the meet ! I am
glad to see these Crosley kids having fun with this
fine FarmOroad."
