re: Crosley HotShots...
------- Forwarded message -------
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 10:23 am PST (18:23:51 UT)
From: CHARLES C STEVENS <STEVENS @ MP068>
To: PHILIPPE TUSLER <TUSLER @ MP050>
cc: CHARLES C STEVENS <STEVENS @ MP068>
Subject: Re: British Cars Digest
In-Reply-To: Your message of 4 Jan 1995 9:31 am
Message-ID: <DBEM23509A0D32@MP068>
>O.K. Any Mace has stumped me. Anyone know what a CoBra motor for a
>Crosley HotShot is?
Yup. It's a *SHEET METAL* fabricated engine. The original four-cylinder
postwar Crosley engine. The outer case was COpper BRAzed together. The
"block" weighed in at some ridiculously-low figure like twenty pounds. The
power-to-weight ratio of this circa-750-cc powerplant was phenomenal. This
engine was actually much favored in Europe for that reason; I seem to remember
the Italian racing marque OSCA originally being powered by this engine.
Unfortunately, the plates that formed its structure tended to come un-brazed
from each other (partly, perhaps due to electrolytic effects -- highly likely
considering the dissimilar metals used in its construction?). As successful
as this engine was in the European racing circuits, it did not hold up well
in day-to-day American driving, and was replaced early on in the product line
by a more conventional cast-iron block of similar displacement and
configuration. I even seem to remember some sort of factory-sponsored
warranty-replacement program on this subject, unusual for the era.
There was an early Crosley roadster powered by an air-cooled opposed twin.
I don't know if it carried the "HotShot" model name. But I do remember
that the CoBra, as well as the cast-iron block version, was the engine
that powered the earliest Crosley sedans as well as the later HotShot
roadster that I think was based on them.
YMMV; all this is from memory.
-Chuck Stevens
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*Philippe Tusler - El Toro, CA | "MILOU" '57 MGA Roadster *
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