I think most of you must be too young to remember the Hotshot, so you
can't form a mental image of it. They are not thick on the ground; I saw
one at a car show last year, probably the only one I've seen in 30 years.
Unfortunately, I am old enough to remember seeing new ones, so forgive me,
I must jump in here.
I think Dick Harold has stated the Crosley history rather accurately.
However, while he is correct that the Hotshot was a roadster, I would
certainly not have said there was anything jeeplike or square about it.
Could you possibly be confusing the appearance of the Hotshot with that of
the Mini Moke, Dick?
The Hotshot had an envelope body with cut-down sides. It was rather
rounded and not at all squarish--not to my eye, anyway--and had a clear
family resemblance to the other Crosley models. I hate to say it, but if
you were to compare it to anything british, it would most resemble a
bugeye. The quality of styling was not as good, and it was smaller (!),
rather like a bugeye reproduced from memory by the Trabant works. That's
to give you the idea; the Hotshot of course preceded the bugeye by a
decade. I am trying to remember how the headlights were styled. I think
they were small separate units bolted on, not faired in as the lights are
on bugeyes, as strange as that sounds. There was nothing much in the way
of a grille, just a straight front bumper. There must have been an
opening for air beneath the bumper. Obviously, someone needs to find a
picture.
I do not believe the Hotshot name was used for any pre-war Crosley model,
but was used only for the sports roadster in the early 50s. The Hotshot
had the cast iron 4 cylinder engine, I believe with a few performance
mods. It was a fairly competent little sports car, and rather cute,
especially in the popular color combination of OE white with red
upholstery. They were raced quite a bit, stripped of their headlights,
which may account for my uncertainty about what they looked like *with*
headlights. Dick is correct; most americans then would have nothing to do
with anything that small. If they wanted a sports car, the MG was a
better car, was imported and therefore desirable, and hadn't the Crosley's
stigma of being cheap and tinny and domestic. Given a choice between a
secondhand TC and a new Hotshot at the same price, few would have chosen
the Hotshot.
At the time, people with imported sports cars were definitely a bit snotty
about them. Owners of the same make waved or honked (if the horn would
work) to each other. One's democratic instincts dictated whether one
waved back when waved to by the owner of a lesser (i.e. cheaper) marque.
Waves varied in enthusiasm, from obvious waves, through Queen Elizabeth
like gestures, to a bare-bones acknowledgment in which one or two fingers
were casually raised from the steering wheel and there was no attempt at
eye contact. I think very few would have waved in any fashion to a
Hotshot driver, whether he/she waved first or not. The wave attraction of
various imported cars, and the feeling of belonging to unofficial clubs
probably had a lot to do with which cars sold well and which did not.
Ray
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
On Sat, 7 Jan 1995, Dick Harold wrote:
> Date: Sun, 8 Jan 1995 01:16:20 -0500 (EST)
> From: Chip Old <fold@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us>
> Subject: Re: British Cars Digest
>
> On 4 Jan 1995 TUSLER%MP050@ECCSA.Tredydev.Unisys.com wrote:
>
> > re: Crosley HotShots...
>
> > 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.
>
> I don't remember what that was called, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a
> Hotshot. When I was a teenager a friend had one sans body, with a tractor
> seat and a box bed on back. It was supposed to be a farm utility vehicle,
> but he and I used it the way you would use a modern All Terrain Vehicle. It
> wasn't very fast, but it was a lot of fun.
>
> Chip Old
> Cub Hill, Maryland
>
> ------- clip here --------
>
> I'm not sure how we got on this subject, but.....
>
> Crosley began building cars in Marion, Indiana about 1939, as I remember.
> The cars were small and prewar models had a two cylinder air cooled 12
> horsepower Waukesha engine.
>
> Postwar production began in late '46. The '47 Crosley had a four cylinder
> water cooled engine called the "Cobra." (Someone on the list has already
> stated this and said it referred to COPPER-BRAZED which I believe is
> correct.) The engine was a 44 CID affair developing slightly over 26
> horsepower at 5,400 RPM. This was replaced in '49 with a cast iron engine.
>
>
> In addition to the regular line of cars, about '49 or '50 Crosley
> introduced the "Hot Shot" sports roadster. It was a tiny car by any
> standards and looked a little like a Jeep in that it had no doors and was
> almost square in design. It was definitely no more than a two person
> vehicle.
>
> Body styles for the standard line included convertibles, sedans, wagons,
> pickups and panel deliverys. Crosley production ended sometime in '52.
>
> My personal opinion is that these cars were a bit too Spartan for the
> times. People were into big road hogs with lots of chrome and extras.
> Nobody cared much about gas mileage when the stuff was going for $ .20 to $
> .35 a gallon. The idea of a small economy car that included few extras and
> had little to offer in the way of style and design failed to appeal to the
> American public.
>
> The Nash Rambler, the first really successful small car in America up to
> that time, came with lots of interior room in spite of its small exterior
> and included many extras as standard equipment. The fact that it got up to
> 35 MPG was simply a plus.
>
> Dick
>
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