Crosley was a small, independent American manufacturer of subcompact cars, bordering on microcars. At first called the Crosley Corporation and later Crosley Motors Incorporated, the Cincinnati, Ohio firm was active from 1939 to 1952, interrupted by World War II production. Their station wagons were the most popular model, but also offered were sedans, pickups, convertibles, a sports car, and even a tiny jeep-like vehicle. For export, the cars were badged Crosmobile.
Crosley introduced several "firsts" in American automotive history, including the first affordable, mass-market car with an overhead camshaft engine in 1946; the first use of the term 'Sport(s-) Utility' in 1947, for a 1948 model year convertible wagon; and the first American cars to be fitted with 4-wheel caliper type disc brakes, as well as America's first post-war sports car, the Hotshot, in the 1949 model year.
All of Crosley's models were lightweight (1,100 to 1,400 pounds (500 to 640 kilograms)) body-on-frame cars with rigid axles front and rear, and engines with less than 1 litre (61 cubic inches) displacement. With exception of the late introduced Hotshot and Farm-O-Road models, the vast majority of all Crosleys were built on an 80 inches (2.03 metres) wheelbase, and with leaf-springs.
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History
Pre-war beginnings
Industrialist Powel Crosley Jr. of Cincinnati, Ohio, owner of Crosley Broadcasting Corporation and the Cincinnati Reds baseball team, amongst others, had ambitious plans to build subcompact cars. Crosley had been wanting to build automobiles ever since being a young man -- in 1907, Crosley formed a company to build an inexpensive automobile, the Marathon Six, in Connersville, Indiana, but it failed. From there, he moved to work for several auto manufacturers in Indianapolis and Muncie, Indiana. After several more failed attempts to manufacture his own cars - one of them a cycle car - Crosley finally found success in auto accessories. In 1916, he co-founded the American Automobile Accessory Company with Ira J. Cooper. By 1919, Powel and his younger brother Lewis M. Crosley had sold more than a million dollars in parts and were diversifying into other consumer products. Crosley then made his fortune selling inexpensive radios, like the "Pup" in the 1920s, and hit it big all over again in the 1930s with refrigerators that had shelves in the doors.
Like his cheap, small, 1920s radios, Crosley felt his cars should come at a minimal cost - a philosophy that resulted in bare-bones, pint-size vehicles. With the able assistance of his brother Lewis, a graduate engineer, Crosley developed assembly plants at Richmond, Indiana, and Marion, Indiana. The first experimental prototype was the 1937 CRAD (for Crosley Radio Auto Division) with only 18-inch (46 cm) rear track. In April 1939, the first production car was shown at the Indianapolis Speedway. It was a two-door convertible that weighed under 1,000-pound (454 kg) - initially offered at US$325 for a two-passenger 'convertible coupe' or $350 for the four-passenger 'convertible sedan', considerably cheaper than its nearest competition: the American Bantam that sold for $449 to $565.
The chassis had an 80-inch (2.03 m) wheelbase and used beam axles with leaf-springs - half-elliptic springs in front, and quarter-elliptic springs in the rear. Under the hood were both the 4-gallon gas-tank and the motor - it was gravity-fed from the tank mounted above it, so the car could do without a fuel pump. The engine was a small, air-cooled Waukesha two-cylinder boxer, much like that of the Citroen 2CV, that had the fan as an integral part of the flywheel. The engine was connected to a three-speed transmission which provided power directly via a torque tube to the rear axle, thus eliminating the need for joints. However, this arrangement was judged unreliable, and conventional universal joints were fitted starting in 1941.
Production for 1939 was 2,017 units, but in 1940 merely 422 cars were built. For 1941, a range of new body style variations of the 48-inch (1.22 m) wide car were introduced to expand the line-up: a station wagon, two panel vans - one of which without front cabin roof, called "Parkway Delivery", and a pick-up and "Covered Wagon" that could convert into each other, by means of a removable back seat and detachable soft-top over the rear section. Crosley built almost 2300 cars in 1941, and when it introduced its first metal-topped model, the Liberty Sedan, for 1942, pricing across the model range was from $299 to $450.
During World War II, the Crosley became attractive because of gasoline rationing and the good mileage it could achieve: 50 miles per US gallon (4.7 L/100 km; 60 mpg-imp). Crosley was the last company to cease production of civilian vehicles in 1942, after building another 1000 units -- partly to aid Crosley sales to facilitate fuel conservation, and partly because the War Production Board needed time to determine a use for Crosley's small factories.
War time production
Crosley Corporation was involved in war production planning before December 1941 and, like the rest of American industry, focused on war-related products thereafter. The company made a wide variety of products, ranging from proximity fuzes, radio tranceivers, field kitchens, 1/4 ton trailers, to gun turrets. Powered gun turrets for PT boats and B-24 and B-29 bombers were the largest contract.
But Crosley also produced a number of experimental vehicles for the US war effort. Crosley's auto manufacturing division, CRAD, in Richmond, Indiana, turned out experimental motorcycles, tricycles, miniature Jeeps, a self-propelled gun, and a variety of tracked vehicles, some of them amphibious, during the war. All were powered by the 2-cylinder boxer engine that powered the original Crosley auto. Crosley had nearly 5,000 of the engines on hand when auto production ceased in 1942, and hoped to put them to use in his miniature war machines.
One vehicle prototype was the 1942/1943 Crosley CT-3 Pup, a lightweight 4WD jeep-type vehicle, transportable and air-droppable, using a C-47 Skytrain. Six CT-3 Pups were deployed overseas after undergoing tests at Ft. Benning, Georgia. The 1125 pound Pup project was scrapped; seven of 36 Pups built are known to survive.
Post-war continuation -- notable innovations
Civilian car production resumed at the Marion facility in 1946 with the newly designed model CC -- the Richmond facility had been sold during the war years.
In this period, Crosley introduced several "firsts" in the American automobile industry, including:
- first mass-produced slab-sided / ponton-style car, the model 'CC', introduced in 1946, together with the Frazer / Kaiser of the same year.
- first mass-production overhead camshaft engine, the CoBra (for Copper Brazed), carried over from military production, also starting in the 1946 model CC,
- first use of the term 'Sport(s-) Utility' in 1947, for the 1948 model year (albeit for an open model based on the wagon, not a wagon on a truck chassis),
- first American cars to be fitted with 4-wheel caliper type disc brakes, in the 1949 model year -- (the Chrysler Imperial introduced four-wheel disc brakes as standard equipment on Crown Imperials at the beginning of the 1949 model year, but they were not of the caliper type), and
- first American post-war sports car, the Hotshot, also in the 1949 model year.
In 1950 Crosley brought the Farm-O-Road model, a 63-inch (1.60 m) wheelbase utility vehicle, decades ahead of the John Deere Gator and other small Utility vehicles. From 1950 onwards, Crosley's main models gained roll-down instead of sliding side windows.
Crosmobile
Crosleys were built under the Crosmobile marque for overseas export. Crosmobiles were simply badge-engineered Crosleys, and were identical to standard Crosley models except for having Crosmobile-lettered hood and rear badges and hubcaps and instrument-cluster demarcations. The purpose of differentiating the exported Crosleys was to avoid confusion or conflict with Great Britain's non-related Crossley marque. Crosmobiles not only made it to Europe, but also elsewhere, including Cuba.
Production and demise
After a total pre-war output of 5,757 units, post-war production started out with 4,999 in 1946, and then moved into five-figure numbers -- producing over 22,500 cars in 1947, Crosley's sales topped in 1948, with 24,871 or 27,707 cars sold, depending on source, however the CoBra copper and stamped steel "tin block" engine proved a major misstep. Though it had proven reliable in military use, it fared poorly under less diligent civilian maintenance. The CoBra was replaced with a redesigned, more reliable, conventional cast-iron engine in 1949, but the company's reputation had taken a hit -- sales crashed to 8,939 in 1949, and 7,612 cars in 1950. Adding the Crosley Hotshot and a combination farm-tractor Jeep-like vehicle called the Farm-O-Road in 1950, also could not stop the decline.
More central trouble came from the ever more lavish cars being turned out in volume by the Big Three car makers and priced, in some cases, only little higher than a new Crosley. Sales dwindled to 4,839 units in 1951, and in 1952 only 1,522 Crosley vehicles were sold. Production ceased that year and on July 3rd, the final Crosley came off the production line. Crosley sold about 75,000 cars in total before closing down the operation in 1952.
A plan to sell the Crosley auto concern to Nash failed to materialize, when Nash merged with Hudson. Crosley continued building engines for a short while to fulfill a government contract, but eventually the rights to the engine were sold. The plant was sold to the General Tire and Rubber Company.
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Models
Model summary
Pre-war production with Waukesha Model 150 air-cooled opposed twin engine:
- 1939: Series (C)1A - Convertible Coupe and Convertible Sedan
- 1940: Series (C)2A - Convertible Coupe, Convertible Sedan / Deluxe Sedan, Station Wagon and Parkway Delivery
- 1941: Series CB41 - Convertible Coupe, Sedan and Deluxe Sedan; Station Wagon, Panel Delivery, Parkway Delivery, Covered Wagon and Pickup
- 1942: Series CB42 - Convertible Coupe and (Deluxe) Sedan, Station Wagon, Panel and Parkway Delivery, Covered Wagon, Pickup and steel-top 'Liberty Sedan'
Post-war production with 1946-1949 CoBra water-cooled straight-four engine
- 1946: CC Four -- fastback Sedan and Convertible coupe
- 1947: CC Four -- fastback Sedan, Convertible coupe and Pickup (roundside)
- 1948: CC Four -- fastback Sedan, Convertible coupe, Station wagon, Panel van, Pickup (square), and 'Sport Utility' convertible wagon
Post-war production with 1949-1952 CIBA water-cooled four-cylinder inline engine
- 1949: CD Four including Deluxe Sedan, Coupe, Station Wagon, Pickup Truck and Panel Truck; VC Four including Hotshot Roadster and Super Sports Roadster
- 1950: CD Four including Sedan, Super Sedan, Coupe, Super Coupe, Station Wagon, Super Station Wagon; VC Four including Hotshot Roadster and Super Sports Roadster; FR Four including Farm-O-Road (in various submodels)
- 1951: CD Four including Business Coupe, Super Sedan, Station Wagon, Super Station Wagon, Super Coupe; VC Four including Hotshot Roadster and Super Sports Roadster; and FR Four including Farm-O-Road.
- 1952: CD Four including Standard Business Coupe, Super Sedan, Station Wagon, Super Station Wagon, Super Coupe; VC Four including Hotshot Roadster and Super Sports Roadster; FR Four including Farm-O-Road.
Crosley CC Four (1946-1948)
Crosley resumed civilian car production in 1946 with the largely new model CC, designed by the firm of Sundberg & Ferar of Royal Oak, Michigan. The slightly larger and more aerodynamic model CC featured an all new body and engine. The chassis, suspension, brakes, and the rest of the drive-train were carried over from the pre-war models. Together with the Frazer / Kaiser of the same year, the 1946 Crosley CC was the first American mass-produced slab-sided / ponton-style bodied car. The post-war Crosleys also had a new, water-cooled, straight-four CoBra engine, carried over from military production. Although not much larger in displacement than its predecessor, power output was doubled to 26.5 HP, improving the car's performance, with a claimed cruising speed of 50 mph (80 km/h), while fuel economy remained excellent at 35 mpg-US (6.7 L/100 km; 42 mpg-imp) - 50 mpg-US (4.7 L/100 km; 60 mpg-imp). Additionally, the CoBra (for Copper Brazed) was America's first affordable mass-production overhead camshaft car engine, built in five-figure numbers after Duesenberg built some 650 OHC Straight Eights from 1921-1926.
Introduced as a steel roof, two-door, two-box fastback sedan and a fixed profile convertible (with fixed side windows and frames, like the Citroën 2CV and the 2007 Fiat 500), the car also became available as a pick-up - initially with a pickup-box with the same rounded rear-side panels as the sedan (roundside pickup). In late 1947 a station wagon was added, as a 1948 model, as well as a panel van - a derivative of the wagon, but with a different floorpan to yield a flatter floor. The panel delivery also had a side opening rear door, as opposed to the Station wagon's above/below split tailgate, while the basic sedan had no outside trunk lid - access to the luggage space was only from inside the car.
From the arrival of the station wagon, the pickups were built with the wagon's straight rear panels, giving a wider, more square rear box. In 1948 Crosley added bolt-on grille-bars and a chromed bull-nose to the front for the '48½ model year, and introduced a new convertible wagon variant without doors, dubbed the "Sports Utility." The vehicle was advertised with a quarter-ton payload capacity for utility use, and its rear seat was optional. The entire range of CC models were based on the same two-door car and frame. The 1948 Station Wagon became the most popular model Crosley built, with 23,489 units made.
A 1947 test of the Crosley sedan and convertible determined that "There is leg room for a man as tall as six feet two or three but due to the over-curve of the top and the window design, he may have to duck to see left or right", and unless he is narrow-shouldered "he will have to ride these things side saddle or not at all". Further, the tester felt that the engine lacked bottom-end power, and that the true cruising speed was between 35 and 40 mph -- the car will do 50 mph, and he drove one faster than that, but at these speeds "the little 4-cylinder engine screams like a banshee with the hot-foot" and driving felt quite uncomfortable. Also, the inside door handles were placed too far back, and the two-piece, sliding door windows made it impossible to comfortably drive with one arm out of the window. On the other hand the tester deemed that 'the chassis rides exceptionally well", ".. undoubtedly the best of the miniature type ever made in this country".
Crosley CD Four (1949-1952)
In 1948 Crosley replaced the CC with the 1949 model year CD. Front and rear bodywork were redesigned on the sedan / coupe and convertible, though rear bodywork on the station wagon and pickup remained largely unaltered. A significant change was fitting the cast-iron block CIBA engine instead of the stamped-steel CoBra engines, that were lighter, but required more maintenance, or else would yield reliability problems.
For 1949 and 50 there were standard and Deluxe models. The '49 model year still had sliding glass side windows in the doors, but from the 1950 model year, roll-down windows and electric wipers were offered. For 1951 and 1952 the front was again redone; the Deluxe model replaced the standard model as the bottom of the range, and 'Super' models were introduced as the new top of the line.
The CD models started with the same 6" mechanical brakes as previous Crosleys on the 1949 model, but switched to 4-wheel Goodyear-Hawley aircraft-type disc brakes in May 1949, However, they were short-lived, and only continued through mid 1950. The alloy disc material was found to rust, and had freeze-up problems in parts of the country where salt was used on the roads. So 9" hydraulic brakes were phased back in, and these remained til the end of production.
Crosley Hotshot
After building only bottom-end of the market economy cars since its inception, Crosley introduced a little sports car in 1949, the doorless Hotshot roadster. It also featured a largely new, dropped frame - both more low slung, and for the first time with a wheelbase that diverged from all the previous Crosley models' 80 in (2.03 m) wheelbase by 5 inches (12.7 centimetres) extra. The rear suspension used a combination of coil springs, assisted by single leaf quarter-elliptical leaf-springs that doubled as torque-rods, and the car had disc brakes on all four wheels. The engine was placed behind the front axle, for a front mid-engined layout. The 137 in (3.48 m) long Hotshot, introduced for $849, weighed just 1,095 lb (497 kg). But to go racing, the weight was further reducible to 991 lb (450 kg), by temporarily discarding such things as the detachable windscreen, and the non-folding (stowed) soft-top and side-curtains. There was no trunk lid -- the spare wheel was mounted on the down-sloping rear deck, above the rear bumper, and access to the rear stowage room was by folding the seat-backs forward. Powered by a 26.5 HP CIBA engine, the Hotshot was capable of more than 80 mph (130 km/h).
A Super version of the HotShot was added in 1950, featuring solid hinged doors and a fold-down top that didn't have to be stowed, and "full red plastic leather upholstery and lining". For 1951 and 1952 the Super Hotshot was simply renamed the Super Sports.
Regardless of its short life and small size, the Hotshot is remembered as an impressive sports car within its class. A Hotshot won the Sam Collier Memorial Endurance Grand Prix, (averaging 52 mph), as well as the "index of performance" -- an award which took speed and engine size into account -- at the 1950 Six Hours of Sebring; and a Siata 300 fitted with Crosley power won the SCCA's 12 hour Vero Beach race.
Throughout the 1950s, Crosley engines dominated 750 cc sports car racing, winning 10 out of 12 SCCA west-coast races alone.
Crosley Farm-O-Road
Crosley had produced different products for the war effort, including the 'Pup' 4x4 prototype, a tiny air-portable 4WD. In 1950, to broaden its line-up into the commercial and agricultural market, the Farm-O-Road was introduced - an ATV sized utility vehicle that looked like a small Jeep. It was a combination of a light tractor, a small pickup and a passenger vehicle, and was intended for rural customers who wanted a vehicle for doing chores around the farm, but which could also take them into town. According to Crosley, the Farm-O-Road was designed: "To do big jobs on small farms, and smaller jobs on big farms." Although it could be viewed as a precursor to today's Side by Side UTV's, the Farm-O-Road was fully street-legal, with a top speed estimated at 40 mph (64 km/h) on the highway.
The Farm-O-Road took its cues from the Jeep and the wartime Pup. It had a boxy, minimalist body, riding on a 63 in (1.60 m) wheelbase, and it weighed 1,100 lb (500 kg). The Farm-O-Road was powered by the same 26.5 HP 44.2 cu in (724 cc) CIBA engine as the other Crosley models at the time, mated to a three-speed Warner T-92 transmission with a two-ratio, PTO-capable range box mounted behind it. In addition to normal gearing, it offered a 4-to-1 low reduction. The base price was $795, or $939 with a hydraulic system including a hydraulically operated drawbar.
Options included dual rear wheels, a detachable pickup bed which could come with a hydraulic dump, power take-offs on both front and rear, a rear seat, a soft-top, and side window curtains. An extensive range of farm-implement attachments was available, including a 10-inch single bottom plow, a moldboard plow, snow plow, a cutter-bar mower, sickle-bar mower, three-gang reel-type mower, a rolling coulter, disc harrow, cultivator, hay rake, row crop seeders, fertilizer unit, row guide, velocity governor, hand throttle, radiator chaff screen, post-hole digger, and spring blocks. Crosley even offered steam-bent wooden front snow skis that could be strapped to the front tires to convert the Farm-O-Road into a snowmobile. For the rest, equipment was spartan. Most Farm-O-Roads had only one windshield wiper - a right wiper was optional; and a heater or radio were not offered.
Exact production numbers aren't known, but historians with the Crosley Automobile Club estimate less than 600 Farm-O-Roads were built. Later, Crofton Marine Engineering bought the rights and tooling for the rig and put it back into production from '59-'63 as the "Crofton Bug", resulting in another ~250 units. The Farm-O-Road measured 91.5 in (2.32 m) long (without the optional, detachable bed) by 48 in (1.22 m) wide (excluding the side-mounted spare wheel), and 56.5 in (1.44 m) high (with the windshield and top up), and offered 500 lb (230 kg) payload. Axles were rigid front and rear - as on all other Crosleys - with a 5.38:1 ratio Spicer 23 in the rear.
The little 1950 vehicle was also compared with the 1959/1960 M422 Mighty Mite, the U.S. military's smallest jeep, originally with a 65 in (1.65 m) wheelbase.
Engines
Waukesha Model 150 Cub Twin
The original engine is the Waukesha Model 150 Cub Twin, a 35.1 cu in (575 cc) or 38.9 cu in (637 cc) air-cooled L-head opposed twin-cylinder engine, putting out 14 HP at 3200 rpm, built by Waukesha Engines of Waukesha, Wisconsin, and used from 1939 through 1942. The engine was originally designed to power orchard sprayers. However, many of the over 12,000 built between 1938-44, were used in the pre-war (1939-42) Crosley mini-cars and the military during WWII, some of which were also used for Auxiliary Power Units (APU).
It was replaced in 1946 with the CoBra (for "Copper Brazed"), a 44.2 cu in (724 cc) overhead-cam four with a 2.5 in (63.5 mm) bore and 2.25 in (57.2 mm) stroke. That engine in turn was replaced in 1949 by the new and more reliable CIBA (Crosley Cast Iron Block Assembly) engine utilizing five main bearings.
Crosley CoBra (1946-1949)
The CoBra (Copper Brazed, also known as "The Mighty Tin") was originally developed by Lloyd Taylor, of Taylor Engines in California, for military use aboard PT boats and B-17 Flying Fortress bombers. The engine was made from sheet metal rather than cast iron like most other engines. This was done to get a thin, uniform wall thickness and thus avoid the creation of hot spots around the combustion chamber that could ignite the fuel, causing pre-ignition (knocks), which in turn limited the compression ratio. These engines were used mainly to power generators, refrigeration compressors, etc., and were widely praised for their successes in the war effort.
The engine was adopted for automobile use in 1946. It was a small, lightweight engine with single overhead camshaft driven by two sets of bevel gears and a vertical shaft at the front of the block. It was America's first overhead camshaft automobile engine to be produced in five-figure numbers, after Duesenberg built some 650 overhead cam Straight Eights from 1921-1926. The unitary block and cylinder head weighed only 14.8 pounds (6.7 kg) dry; complete with all accessories (including the flywheel) weighing only 133 pounds (60 kg). The engine displaced 44 cu in (724 cc) and produced 26.5 hp (20 kW) at 5,400 rpm and 33 lb?ft (45 N?m) @ 1200 rpm. Because of its remarkable power to weight ratio, and super efficiency for its time, the CoBra engine has been compared to Ford's 1.0 litre inline-3 EcoBoost engine. Longevity was measured in hours and was strictly controlled by equipment maintenance schedules for the wartime duties, but corrosion became a problem for these engines in civilian service. This problem with these automotive powerplants had tarnished Crosley's reputation by 1948.
Crosley CIBA (1949-1952; 1955)
The Crosley CIBA (Cast Iron Block Assembly) was a more traditional and more reliable engine utilizing a cast-iron block. Nevertheless it had a unique design. Instead of a removable cylinder head -- the combustion chambers, valve seats, cam supports, ports and cylinders are one casting, and the crankcase is another. In both the early and later cast-iron engines, the crankcase is aluminum. The 44.2 cu in (724 cc) engine produced 26.5 HP @ 5,400 rpm and 32.5 lb?ft (44 N?m) @ 3,000 rpm.
When Crosley Motors, Inc. was sold, the engine was renamed "AeroJet" and production continued. Production of the AeroJet ended in 1955 and the engine rights were sold to Fageol and later to a series of different companies ending in 1972 with the Fisher-Pierce Bearcat 55. Maritime modifications mostly included increasing displacement and converting the engine to operate with a vertical axis.
In Europe the Crosley CIBA would be used to great advantage in 750cc sports car class, eventually maturing to a double overhead camshaft (DOHC) design used in the Bandini 750 sport internazionale as well as Nardi 750LM and Siata Amica.
Notable Crosley owners
- Gordon Baxter (HotShot, story in his book Bax & Car & Driver: The Best of Gordon Baxter)
- General Omar Bradley
- Humphrey Bogart (Two-cylinder Crosley)
- David Carradine (VC Super Sports)
- Kenny Delmar ('Senator Claghorn' on The Fred Allen Show)
- Tommy Dorsey
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1951 CD Surrey)
- Geraldine Farrar (Two-cylinder Crosley)
- Paulette Goddard (Two-cylinder Crosley)
- Pamela Harriman (purchased the first 1939 Crosley)
- George M. Humphrey, Secretary of the Treasury
- Art Linkletter (1952 CD Sport Convertible)
- Alex Raymond, Flash Gordon cartoonist (Crosley-Bandini)
- Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York (1950 HotShot)
- Gloria Swanson (Two-cylinder Crosley)
- Boy George (VC Super Sports)
- Fred Waring (Two-cylinder Crosley)
- Frank Lloyd Wright (1952 VC Super Sports)
- John Westling (1947 2 door coupe)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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