 Lewis Crosley, Powel
Crosley's right hand man, his go to Engineer and Brother.
|
 Lewis expounding on the virtues of the new Super Sports. These two photos were
furnished by Diana McClure, proud grandaughter of Lewis.
|
  This great display made
possible by Evelyn Fasnacht(TX) - Here is the story told by her
husband: My
wife became enamored a few years back with the VC Crosleys, and we
bought a 49 HS as our first three years ago. I have lots of car
projects and offloaded bringing the 49 up to a safe, dependable level
to Danny Kurtz (owner/operator of Restoration Techniques in Houston).
The 49 got finished and my wife started to drive the heck out of it
here in Houston – she is fearless in it which might not be a good thing
in Houston’s rush hour traffic. We then decided to move it out to Calif
where we spend part of each year. Out there we drove the heck out of
it(see photo below of that HS). We then bought a red 51 SS to replace
it and redid it with Danny's help. Next came the Class H Racer – pretty
nimble little car. Then another 49 HS I bought off a friend because it
needed so much work, I dug into it myself.
|
Then the white 51 SS. Around
that time I got a call from Danny saying he had become so addicted to
the VCs he had just bought one himself out of an estate in Florida (the
yellow 49 Hotshot, he loves those disc brakes).
The pictures to the left were taken before the Fasnacht's, Danny, and some friends caravaned to a meet in Houston's rush hour traffic. The reactions from the commuters was pretty funny – where did these little cars come from and where were they headed? We had a great reaction from the car meet attendees.  This is the one we drove 2500 miles last
trip out west to CA. What great cars they are! Interesting, it is only 2400 miles round
trip to Wauseon from Houston and VC is the Spotlight class in 2011.
|
 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.
|
 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."
|
 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.
|
 Here is Tom's collection 5
years ago, I'm sure it has grown since then. Tom has limited
space and his methode 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.
|
 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."
|
 "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.
|
 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.
|
 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.
|
 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!
|
Past Crosley of the Month Winners - Previous Page - Next Page |
|
