Jewell Park, the site for this year's meet, is a one-block green space just off the main drag in Pacific Grove. It has a small activities building in one corner and a bandstand on another - the rest is grass, with big trees on the edges of the park. Club pres. Rick Alexander had worked with the local Chamber of Commerce to get permission for the show and I knew the cars would look great on the grass - like a mini Concours. I rolled up a little before 8AM and waited for everyone to arrive - This will go down as the first time in history that I was the first one there!
I was poking around on Cliff Reuter's Etceterini site the other day, doing some research on Giaur cars for an upcoming issue of the Tin Block Times (the Crosley club newsletter I edit). The site is a never-ending source of wonders - no matter how many times I visit, it seems like there is always another surprise awaiting...
Back in the good old days, many sports car folks had the idea of sticking a bigger motor in a Crosley Hot Shot to get a little more oomph out of Powell Crosley's racing roller skate.
Ed Almquist has a long and storied history as a Hot Rod speed equipment pioneer, and the story of his foray into fiberglass sports car bodies has recently been explored in some depth. Though the story of the Almquist company is becoming better known, the stories of the dreamers and schemers who built themselves an Almquist have gone largely untold.
Almquist was one of the very first names I came across when I got the idea of looking for a Crosley powered sportscar. Back then (1997) fiberglass bodied Crosleys weren't particularly more expensive than a Hotshot or Super Sports, unless it was one of the few with major race history, of course. They were just considered old 'kit' cars, back then, so there wasn't a huge following... even if they were harder to find than a stock Crosley.
Just came across a neat shot of a JPL (Jet Propulsion Lap) Motorsports Club meet from 1952 on the NASA website. Most of these space pioneers had MGs, but there's a Crosley Super Sports and a Ford Model A (probably a hotrod) nestled in among the brit iron. Plenty of cool stuff in the background including a Willys wagon and a Hudson Hornet.
Here's a blowup of the Super Sports, or click on the main photo to see it bigger.
While waiting for Liv to finish the shopping I usually wander into the mag aisle at the supermarket. I flip through Hemmings and Hot Rod and see what's up in the world of cars I can't afford, but I was happily surprised to find Vintage Motorsport in stock last summer. The Javelin cover story didn't light my fire, but I did a double take when I flipped past this pic in the middle of the book... Ernie McAfee was one of the original California hot rodders- he ran modified Fords at the dry lakes in the thirties and developed into quite a mechanical engineer. Either poor eyesight or his aviation industry work kept him out of the army in WWII- he was busy developing his speed technology while a lot of his buddies had to take a few years off. Post-war he got involved in road racing, engineering a modified MG that became his calling card for bigger and better (and faster) things. He and John Edgar kept tinkering with the car, including adding a cool custom body. (Sadly the car was wrecked for the racing scene in the 1959 film On the Beach -which you need to see if you haven't already!) Until I saw that photo I hadn't realized that McAfee was ever affiliated with Crosleys. I knew that he raced and sold Siatas, (above he's ready to take off in one in the Carrera Panamericana) but he specifically ordered non-Crosley engined cars. He was getting the largest motors available in those tiny beasts, making what were in essence micro-Cobras now that I think of it. The article doesn't go into any detail about the HotShot other than that the photo was taken at Palm Springs in 1951. McAfee was at one time affiliated with Bill Devin (who got his start racing Crosleys) so that may have been the connection. In any case, it was a happy surprise to find- especially in the grocery store. The bummer part of the story is McAfee's death at age 37 in a nasty wreck at Pebble Beach in 1956.
VM keeps a backstock of most of their back issues- you can order a copy online if you're interested in getting the full story...
I spend somewhere near 40% of my waking hours obsessing over old cars. Usually, this obsessing revolves around an improbable American micro car from the midcentury period-- the Crosley. My fascination began with a quest to strip down my life by driving the world's simplest car.
Turns out that nothing is as simple as it seems.
