crosley sports cars from the 50's

hey guys. kinda stumbled into an interesting idea yesterday. saw an ad in craigslist for a crosley wagon and thought hey that would make a neat econobox around town daily driver. I got to looking into crosleys a little more and started to lean more into the hot shots. lightweight sporty cars have long been a fascination with me. the more I looked the more interested in them I became. I came across a picture of bill devin (of devin body fame) driving his first sports car race in a modified crosley hotshot. I've only seen two front end pictures of it and it looks much cooler than the stock hotshot.

I know a hotshot won sebring for time/vs displacement as well.

anyone have any pictures of racing crosleys?? here's the pics of devins crosley:




vs a stocker:

 

A Crosley Super Sport is the "one that got away" for me. Had a chance to get one at a decent price (fixer upper) but did'nt for the lack of garage space. Dumb on my part `cause I kick myself when I think about that little car.

 

Go here:http://sports.racer.net/index1.html -vintage- crosley- and there is a bunch of Crosley info/pics. There's even a book available detailing Crosley sports racers.

 

I think i've actually got a lead on a hotshot. I saw one taken apart and stored in the rafters of a barn where I was looking at machinery for sale about 10-15 years ago before I even knew what one was. I just talked to a guy I work with who lives right around the corner from the place and I asked him if he knew who owned the barn. Turns out his son is friends with the owners son and he had heard a story about a car in the rafters. I should find out pretty soon if my memory is correct that it was a crosley and if it is actually a hotshot.

 

My little rail from 1965. Crosley, 44 c.i., stock three speed trans, narrowed Crosely rear end, Wico magneto, hand pump pressurized Moon fuel tank.. Neat little engines.

 

cool setup ya got there. what kinda times did it run?? they never made much for power, don't think I've read anything that claimed much more than 55hp out of one.

what is the carb you have on that thing?? Look gianormous !

 

Now THAT is a cool litle ride... gives new meaning to "econorail".

Pimp pressurized? Did you bitch-slap the tank into submission until it would deliver fuel? j/k

 

Be sure you have the later cast iron block and not the early COBRA block.

 

so i've read. lots of corrosion issues.

 

APBA had a 750CC class that were all Crosleys was replaced in the mid 60's

 

ran 15's...carb in the photo was a Rochester, replaced with one 97 for obvious reasons. Two of us teenagers would stuff it front first into a Chevy station wagon with the rear tires sitting in the gap between the car and the tailgate, roped it in and off we went. Had a blast driving it around the neighborhood...
Sold it for $150 in '66...

 

Crosleys were the engine of choice for three quarter midgets in the 50s-60s before the jap 750 m/c engines blew them off the track. One of Mario Andrettis' first rides was in a Crosley powered T/Q on the N.J.- Penn. circuit.

 

Here's mine, but I don't think it will be too economical with a full race Olds 215 under the hood.......

 

I just had a 1960s flashback! You nailed it, that's one sweet ride!

And we need more pics.

 

just found out the crosley hotshot I remembered being disassembled in the rafters of that barn was correct, but not for sale. Gonna have to stow that little tidbit of information away for a later date I guess.

 

Just sold my 50 station wagon monday. I've owned a 51 super sport. In my opinion the super sport is safer than the hot shot. Super sport has doors.

 

never talked to anyone that actually drove one. what is it like to drive?? handling, power, transmission reliability. wondering if it would make a cool summer ride for back and forth to work. how much difference was there between the wagon and the super sport?? pretty much the same car, just a longer wheelbase and different body correct??

 

You want a Crofton Bug motor..... biggest and best of the car type motors

You can also convert a Bearcat outboard but it's work.

I did a Super(?) Sports(??) for a guy once. When finished I couldn't close the door if I was sitting in it.

I remember one station wagon chopped and made to look like a Santa fe Super Chief........ you sat thru the roof..... was pretty neat Sat in a lot in Signal Hill CA for years. Sadly gone one day

 

they only made a couple hundred of the crofton bugs. I'm sure there aren't too many left. I've read about the bearcat motors. thought it was more of just swapping cylinder/head assembly?? what else is involved?

if i wanted to really hop one up I'd stuff a motorcycle motor in it. 1k lbs with 170hp and a 6 spd gearbox would be CRAZY. especially if I decided to keep the rest of it stock lol.

 

I would LOVE to have a little Crosley roadster to bomb around in.

 

Yup Couple hundred Bugs........ So?

 

I am now the owner of a running 47 wagon . would like to find some BRAJE SPEED EQUIP.

 

does it have the original cobra block or the ciba block??

 

You NEED the book I'm reading now if Crosleys trip your trigger

"Vintage American Road Racing Cars 1950-1970". Sort of an encylopedia format with as little as one paragraph about a team/car, up to a couple pages for the more productive fabricators.

Covers both professional efforts and amateur built one-off specials. I am freaking amazed at how prominently Crosleys figured in early sports car development. They're everywhere in the backyard specials

 

Stock Crosley is about like drive a model A. Not very fast and not a good driver in traffic.

 

I was going to use the drivettrain from one for a rod, but have been told that it's getting really hard to find engine parts for these. They are tiny little cars. We actually put two engines, a transmission, radiator, 4 wheels, a front suspension, rear suspension, and a bunch of other misc. inside of a Scion XB and drove over 100 miles back to my house with it.

 

that bad eh?? figured given the "sports car" usage that it had that it would at least handle decent. I don't expect it to have anything like quick acceleration but......

 

crosley motor in a rod?? that's like going backwards... stock model A's make more horsepower. the key to these cars is they weigh about 1000 lbs. not surprised about the parts fitting in the scion. I saw a pic of a guy who put an entire station wagon body in the back of a full size van.

 

Early sports cars made like 47 horsepower and weighed very, very little. Handling decent is a relative term, yes the suspensions may have been crude but look at the handling ability of domestic production cars from the same timeframe. Crosley was a popular foundation just because of it's gokart proportions. Guys were making sports cars out of anything tiny that moved.

 

After death of the Crosley as a motorcar in 1954(?), the parts lived on. The engine was used for military and industrial power units for many years, and became the Bearcat marine engine which was in process of being upped to 95HP when the factory burned in the late 70s/early 80s and that was the end of that. The transmission was used in Kabota garden tractors and was available new, just chnage the shift top, in the 80s. The rearend lived on under Cushman trucksters, both 3 and 4 wheel model and perhaps other commercial vehicles as well.