Gary Gabelich - "Plenty Boss, Man. Plenty Boss."

Unlike most car geeks, I wasn't much of a gearhead when I was a kid. No subscription to Hot Rod or CarToons, no shelf of carefully-constructed Revell car models, no posters of scantily-clad girls posing next to race cars. I certainly noticed old cars on the rare occasions that I saw them, and did have a passing interest in kid-candy like the Munsters Koach, but my Dad was so OVER being an auto mechanic by the time I came along that there was no romance under the hood. 

The only time I really remember being enthralled by a car as a kid was when we stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats on a road trip. I was fascinated by the lunar landscape - and by the idea of cars going hundreds of miles an hour out there in the middle of nowhere. We stopped at a gas station in Wendover and I bought a postcard of the rocket-shaped car that then held the Land Speed Record: The Blue Flame, driven 622 miles an hour by Gary Gabelich. I still have that postcard.

You can imagine my surprise when I discovered last month that Gary Gabelich got his start in a Crosley.

SoCal Skorpion For Sale - CHEAP!

I did an old-fashioned spit-take when I saw David Wheeler's recent post on the "Crosley Automobiles... Fun Little Cars page" on Facebook: Crosley Skorpion for sale, $5000.

Wink, Booger & Crosley

Recently bought this 1948 snapshot of "Wink, Booger and Crosley" - with an annotation like that, how could I resist?

Goodbye, Lil Garage

A strange day: the funky little shed that has been my workshop/garage/practice space for 12 and a half years, is gone. 

2017 West Coast Crosley Meet Report - Part 2

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!

VOTE!

Vote, people.

It's Election Day here in the US. We all kvetch and complain about our choices, and most of us take this right for granted, but let's remember that less than half the people in the world have any real say in how they are governed, and less than 20% live in a true democracy. We are lucky.

Photo found somewhere on the web - I believe this was taken at the Hershey Swap Meet a couple of years ago, but don't know more than that.

AMAZING Color Film of Watkins Glen, 1952

I don't know how I missed this fantastic color footage of the '52 Watkins Glen race when it first made it to the internet at the beginning of the year, but wowzers, I am making up for lost time. Twelve and a half minutes of AMAZING color footage of the last-ever races at the original Watkins Glen course, replete with Cunninghams, Allards, C-Type Jags, and of course, Crosleys! And every time you turn around, there's ANOTHER Siata.  Unbelievable.

The Crosley Cruise: 2015 West Coast Crosley Club Meet - Part 2

I headed over for the Crosley Cruise kickoff at Thomi's Cafe on Sunday morning.  As luck would have it, my station wagon had developed a slight water pump leak over the weekend - I greased the zerk fitting and kept my eye on the temp gauge.  Luckily I'd brought a jug of water just in case, and borrowed another from Mike Blackburn who had decided at the last minute not to do the tour.  Mike's water jug sprung a leak as soon as I loaded it in the car.  So far, so good.

Prelude to the Crosley Cruise

Since 2015 was the 30th Anniversary Meet for the club, I had suggested that we do something we'd never tried before: a two-day meet, with a Crosley-friendly driving event scheduled for Sunday. While my proposal was overwhelmingly approved at our 2014 meeting, I came to find that my idea was going to be more of a struggle than expected.

2015 West Coast Crosley Club Meet - Part 1

I'm still recovering from the festivities at the West Coast Crosley Club's 30th Anniversary shindig this past weekend in the Gold Country: three days of Crosley shenanigans, 70+ Crosley fans, 23 Crosleys (or variants) and 160 miles in the driver's seat of a 26.5 horsepower mighty mite really takes it out of you.

Denver or Bust: Part 2, There and back again

Continued from Part 1...

Leaving Minden, Tim's Transit cruised across Nevada like it was on rails, and we couldn't even feel the extra weight of the trailer.  We'd opted for Highway 50, the Loneliest Highway, since it had more stuff to look at along the way, and we made it to Eureka, Nevada (population 610) that night.  As luck would have it, Tim had a friend who owned a house there, and though he wasn't home, he was happy to let us stay - the key was under the mat.  We were out the door by 6:30 the next morning, and wonder of wonders, found a tiny coffee hut on the main drag that, A) was open; and, B) served fresh-brewed espresso!

Scott Shultz 1943 - 2015

Scott Shultz was the very first Crosley guy I ever talked to.

2015 Orange Blossom Special - Fillmore Spring Meet

Back in the good old days (in this case the mid-eighties) shortly after the West Coast Crosley Club first got going, the powers that be decided to try having two club meets per year - the big meet in September, plus a smaller, more low key meet in the Spring.  Trouble was, there weren't that many members back then, so the Spring Meet never really caught on.  No one remembers exactly when they gave up, but sometime before 1990 we were back to one meet per year.

Twenty-five years later (more or less), we decided to try again.

New Tin Block Times Ready to Go!

Better late than never, nearly 200 copies of the new issue of the Tin Block Times, the West Coast Crosley Club newsletter, are ready to hit the mail!  Mike Stoner's kustom sedan leads the lineup on top, Raffi Minasian and his '53 Giaur at bottom.

Yes, That IS a Nice Farm-O-Road on Ebay

No less than four people got hold of me to make sure I'd seen the very nice 1950 Farm-O-Road that popped up on Ebay and was then spotlighted by Bring a Trailer this week. It also made waves over at the Crosley Gang site, so given all the excitement, I figured I should make a note of it.

Is this Chuck Koehler's Fibersport?

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...

Incredible: Putt Mossman's 1949 Crosley Thrill Show

Just noticed this INCREDIBLE photo of a Crosley Stunt Show: Jimmy Leach and His Death Duckers' Thrill Show of 1949 - 'The Show That's Alive With Death!'  Some lucky soul parted with $42 to win one of the coolest Crosley pictures I've ever come across.

A quick internet search turned up zero about Jimmy Leach and his Death Duckers, so I don't know how 'alive with death' the show was, but it seems to have been alive with Crosleys, including a pair of sedans, one of which is airborne over what looks like an uber-rare Crosley Sport Utility.  Seems like the Sport Ute should have had fabric doors, tho, so maybe this is just a cut-down wagon.  Whatever - this whole package is COOL.

The daring driver of the leaping sedan appears to have been Orren 'Putt' Mossman, a stunt driver best known for his motorcycle escapades.   By 1949 Mossman was a thrill show veteran, having been jumping, burning and wrecking two and four-wheeled vehicles for decades.  Despite a penchant for poor prep, and thus, severe injury, Mossman lived to a ripe old age, dying in 1994 at the age of 88.

Chuck Klein's Hot Rod Almquist Crosley

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.

Is this Harrison Ford With His Crosley?

A few months ago I stumbled across a scan of a vintage photo of a Pre War Crosley convertible with a boy in a t shirt leaning on it, staring into the camera.   It was posted on a 'good old days' themed thread on the HAMB hot rod site, and the the person who posted the picture didn't know the original source for the image.

From the boy's hair, clothes and the houses in the background I'd say the picture could have been taken anytime from the late thirties to about 1955.  Aside from the Crosley, it would be a fairly nondescript image - except that the kid in the photo is supposed to be future movie star Harrison Ford!

Ebay Watch: Woodland Farm-O-Road

It's unusual to see any Farm-O-Road for sale, given that there were less then 500 made - and it's even rarer to find one 30 miles from home - but that's what happened to me this morning when I spied this Yolo County driver listed on Ebay.

I don't know anything about this particular car - it hasn't been to any of the West Coast meets in the 15 years that I've been going, but it appears to be straight and fairly original.  The seller says it's had one repaint.

Farm-O-Roads were available with all kinds of options, including plows, well drillers, and this car has one of the coolest options: a hydraulic dump bed.

You might have noticed that the dump action grazes the seats... those are stock Crosley seats, but I don't believe they are correct for the Farm-O-Road.  Those appear to be seats from an earlier Crosley (a '46 or '47); by 1950 Crosley had moved to a more square-backed seat.  I'm still not 100% sure that the dump bed would clear the later seats either, but that's a question for the new owner.

Sure looks like a nice car, and I wish I'd had the opportunity to see it up close at some point.  The price is climbing - it's currently at $4,100 with reserve not met and eight days left on the auction!