| Crosley? What is a Crosley? In the early part of the 20th century, Powell Crosley Jr; genius, inventor, entrepreneur, and self-made millionaire, was well known for his appliances, including refrigerators, washers, air conditioners, but mostly for his radios. He owned what was at the time, the largest radio station,WLW, located in Cinncinati, Ohio. Crosley also owned the major league baseball team, Cinncinati Reds. Despite all of his successes, his dream was to build a car and make it affordable to the masses. In 1937, Crosley released its prototype vehicle refered to as the CRAD (see pic below), which stood for Crosley Radio Automotive Division. In 1939, the Crosley automobile company released its first of many to come autos. The original Crosleys were powered by a 2 cylinder air cooled engine with about 13.5 horses. It was available in either a convertible coupe or convertible sedan. In 1940, more designs were released that included covered wagons and deluxe sedans. The cars were priced around $400, varying a little for different body styles. With the approach of World War II in 1942, Crosley, as did many auto makers, used their resources for the war efforts. Crosley built a multitude of vehicles and useful machines for the war effort, including electric generators, jeep vehicles, track driven tanks or "tugs". As the war wound down, Crosley could get back to his task at hand, building cars. He unveiled his new postwar design (CC) in 1946. It was available as a sedan with a few convertibles produced late in the year. In 1947, he released the all-steel wagon. The postwar (CC) cars were powered by a water cooled 4 cylinder engine with 26.5 horses. The engine was unique in its design as well. It was constructed of stacked layers of tin sheets that were brazed together with copper. The engine was known as the COBRA (CO-pper BRA-zed). The engine, due to its light weight was actually extremely successful. However as the engine aged, water would find its way between the laminated layers of tin and warp the engine, and that would be the end of the engine. Crosley introduced a cast engine that became the engine used in his cars until the end of production in 1952. In 1949, Crosley released its new body style (CD) and the release of his roadster, "sports car", the Hotshot (VC series). The Hotshot was a success and became the first car to win at Sebring in 1950. In 1950, Crosley released the more "street version" of his roadster, the Super Sport. Essentially, it was the same car, however, had actual doors and a folding convertible top. Crosley, being the genious that he was, was the first to do alot of things that has been carried through on cars of today. Crosley was the first American auto maker to use disc brakes on all four wheels. He was the first to release the slab style car, the first post-war production sports car (HotShot), first to produce a sport utility vehicle, first to use an overhead cam engine in low cost vehicles. Crosley was simply ahead of his time. In his time of production, no one cared or was concerned with economics. They wanted the biggest, highest gas guzzling car they could find. They didn't want a small economic car that could get fuel economy of 55 miles to the gallon. The cars, though the contained many breakthroughs and modern ingeniouses, they became the objects of many jokes and pranksters found themselves picking the 1,000 lb cars up and placing them in the most unusual of places. You can hear story upon story of someone who had gotten together with friends and picked one up and placed it in the doorway of a high school or city hall. Nonetheless, despite the fact that these breakthrough autos didn't make it in their day, they are truly a treasure today. They are a true piece of automotive history and reason that we have many of the conveniences and aspects we have on cars today. |
