The Origins of the Crosley Club By: John E. Aibel

Now that Fred and I had our Super Sport Crosleys, the next direction was to find parts and literature for our cars. When Crosley ceased building automobiles in 1952 there were thousands of Crosleys still on the road, and many Crosley-based specially built cars on the race tracks of America.

John Aibel's actual 1952 Crosley Super Sport

Ed Herzog had forsight to buy the leftover stock of Crosley parts from the Crosley Automobile Company. He also became the Original Equipment Manufacturer status for Crosley. I remember visiting his shop on Long Island, NY and buying new old stock parts for our cars. As an OEM he could supply new transmissions, tune up items and even “jewelry” like the flying bird hood ornament. 

1951 Crosley Hot Shot Hood Ornament

Yes, this was Crosley Heaven for us. Fred was able to build his Super Sport using a large amount of new old stock parts, including the engine.

Not only did we buy parts from Service Motors, but talking to all the car people in our area, we found individuals who had hoards of Crosley parts. Finding and talking to these individuals and convincing them to sell their gems was great fun. On one trip to the Hershey, Pa. car and swap meet I found a fellow whose Dad was a Crosley dealer. It was not long before a deal was struck and off went Fred and I to the Finger Lakes region of New York State. Then we heard that Ed Spreen had Crosley parts he would part with.

Fred’s crawl space basement was soon full of Crosley parts. We had these parts for years and only in the last twenty years or so we sold them off to the current Service Motors company. I am sure there are many Crosleys running with the parts we kept for so many years.

Hunting for magazines featuring Crosleys kept us very busy. One particular magazine was the August Road & Track. This issue had a wonderful article written by Phil Stiles about the one off Crosley Hot Shot race car that he co-drove during the 1951 Le Mans 24 hour race in France.  I remember reading this article in 1958, but now rereading it in the sixties gave me a new idea. Why not try and find this car?

I figured that the car still existed, but how could I find it? A letter to Road & Track inquiring if anyone knew the location of this historic car was sent. To my surprise Road &Track published my letter in their Letters to the Editor section. 

I was overwhelmed by the response I got. Unfortunately, no one knew the location of the car. I decided that I would start a Crosley Club, and using the list of people who responded to my letter I wrote the first newsletter. 

I advertised in Hemmings Motor News and started to gain membership very rapidly. The year was 1969, and the Crosley Automobile Club was up and running!