 Mike Grimes sent me
these pictures from the Kansas Aero Museum at
McConnell AFB in Wichita. It is the Crosley
power unit out of a Mooney Mite complete with
propeller.
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 Mike gave this
description "The
distributor
has eight leads coming out. The rotor has two
fingers that point 180 degrees from each other so
that when the coil fires two of the leads get the
voltage. One wire goes to the right side and
the other to the left side. Two spark plugs in
each cylinder. It's a tin block engine with
the early 3 bolt water pump. Light weight
welded up exhaust manifold is used."
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 Tom Parks (right) Is a
collector of little Crosleys. He submitted the
photo below back in 2005 for Crosley of the Month, but
I needed two photo and it got filed. I ran in to
Tom looking over the latest models at his primary
supplier's booth, Randy Best (left) of Roycass, at the
2010 Nationals so I got my second photo.
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 Here is Tom's collection
5 years ago, I'm sure it has grown since then.
Tom has limited space and his method of collecting
allows him to have many different years and models in
a fraction of the space. Most are from Roycass,
the leading supplier of Crosleys today.
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 This great looking 52
belongs to Gary Allen of Minneapolis, here is the
story of the car as told by Gary. "I bought the car in
1955 when I was sixteen from a foreign car dealer
that use to be in Bloomington MN, south of
Minneapolis. They wanted one hundred fifty
dollars for the car and I only had one hundred so I
offered that and they took it. The car came up
here from the Rochester, MN area and had eleven
thousand miles on it. It was light blue and in
pretty good shape except that someone had painted
the top half olive green with a paintbrush."
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 "I stripped the car and painted it 1950
Mercury metallic blue, drove the car to Washburn
High in eleventh and twelfth grades, and off and on
for three or four years after that. I Put
twenty four thousand miles on the car before I
stopped driving it. It was pretty rusty by
then so I just stored it for a number of
years. About fifteen years ago I did a frame
up correct style restoration and painted it a bright
red. I have only driven it a couple hundred
miles since then so it still looks like a new
car." Here is a rear shot.
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 Joe McKee send me these
photos of his latest project. Here is his
description: I
can now claim to be essentially finished with the
restoration of a 1952 Crosley VC. I really
enjoy this tiny, unique car. Few people here
in Arizona have ever seen a Crosley so it gets a lot
of attention. I had many conversations with Crosley
Club members and received great advice from
everyone. I should acknowledge some of the
usual suspects such as Dave Anspach, Neil Daglow,
David Edwards, Butch and Fonda, Tim Freshley, Dave
Potts, Fred Syrdal, Chuck Kohler, Ted Dellacamera,
Pete Kirk (master Crosley engine rebuilder in
Phoenix) and lastly but not least, Dave Keilholtz
who got me started on this project with his four
Crosleys in Show Low, Arizona. These people
solved so many challenges for me along the way.
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 It has a Fiat 4-speed transmission from the
early 60's. Synchronized in 2nd, 3rd and
4th. Very smooth to drive. The
engine is a Homelite will high lift cam and all of
the Braje items including oil pan, side covers, and
manifolds.
My next goal is to attend the annual meet
in Ohio, which would be a really long drive in a VC.
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 This month we have two
more from the Pete & Paula Radford collection.
Their cars have been featured several times and they
keep getting more great cars for me to use. The
descriptions are theirs. Pete and Paula have
dual citizenships in NJ and PA.
Our '42 liberty sedan. It has just 4250 miles on the odometer. |
 Our "Hot Rod" It's built on a late '50
Crosley station wagon frame & running gear, from
a car that was totaled in the mid '60's from what
the builders son told us when we bought it. It has a
Braje intake, & valve cover & a Chuck K.
header. Supposedly it has a 3/4 race cam, & some
more engine modifications, also from what the son
told us. I can tell you it's really quick for a
Crosley!
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 This month we are in Ray
Roberts garage in Colorado with his former Racing SS
complete with Ford V8 60. He is doing a restoration back
to its racing form.
He is using the "manual" VC lift method to reinstall the body. |
 Helping
is
Joe
Borgering, Tom Botkin's grandson Daniel, Blake
Philpot, Jurgen Steinert, myself, and not shown but
directing or taking pictures, Tom Botkin and Pat Riley.
Here is a shot of the body before the lifting started. |
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  Here are some of the Hotshots and Super Sports that were shown the last time the VC was the Spot Light class back in 2000. At that point in time, it was probably safe to say that there was never more VCs in one place before, even at the factory. |
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 Don Miller of PA owns this nice Crosley powered Jacques tractor. Never heard for sure how many Jacques were made with Crosley engines but I have heard guesses in the 200-300 range. |
 Here are a couple of more views - Front and Rear Drive |
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 Paul Gorrell's Hotshot #1,
the prototype that all future VCs were derived from, had
the #1 spot in the Spotlight class for 2011. He
tried for many years to buy this Hotshot, it was at the
Crosley dealer in his hometown of Burlington, IA.
He watched it go from a car that was being driven around
town, till it was sinking into the ground with a block
wall laying on top of it when the wall gave way.
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 The dealer would not sell it, Paul finally bought it at the estate auction after he died. Since there was nothing left he could restore, all that would be left if he tried would be the serial number plate, he strapped it to a trailer and painted signs on it to point out the differences from production. |
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 Since I mentioned last month about the other interesting thing Paul Gorrell brought to the 2011 Nationals I decided to do back to back Paul since it was a close decision last month which to show first and the Hotshot #1 won out since VC was the spotlight class for 2011. So here is his other display, Paul got this sign in very bad shape many years ago and tucked it away. |
 The dealer made it from a sedan that was badly damaged that they parted out. It originally just had tires hanging out the bottom for the illusion of a car. Paul got the idea of making it drivable some years back and started looking for parts that would fit in the 8" cavity he had to fit everything into. He finally found the last few parts and now he has "Skinny". Here is a rear shot and a YouTube video. |
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  Many Crosley collectors like to keep a low profile, not draw to much attention, well Jak Phillips of New York is not in than group. |
  He pulled into the Nationals this year with his H-Mod, or as he calls it PH-Mod, pulled by his custom camper van. Jak tells me he draws a bit of attention where every he goes. A mighty Phine setup, as Jak would say. |
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