Mortal remains....but potential?

[Tony Griffiths]

What to make of this?
Click the above to make the link
Austin/Bantam special.
1938 single-seater race car with a Crossley engine and gearbox.

[Ray White]

Is it really worth that much?

Personally, I wouldn't touch it.

[Martin Prior]

Should there be a link with this, Tony?

I wonder whether the "Crossley" engine and gearbox is an Austin unit from a licence-built German Willys-Overland-Crossley, or is from a "Crosley" (one S), an obscure US microcar built from just before to just after WW2.

EDIT; Sorry, didn't recognise the link for what it was. The engine certainly isn't Austin/WOC and neither is the chassis. I think that the whole thing is based on a Crosley.

[stuartu]

It looks to me as if the engine is a sohc Crosley, as in the Slingshot. There were some engines used in hydroplanes I believe and I think they also formed a basis (with a DOHC head) for some of the more exotic Morettis. I see there is a spare engine.

IMHO an interesting project. I have sometimes thought that I could find a use for a Crosley engine or two.

Regards,

Stuart

[Hedd_Jones]

Whilst it will probably make a very interesting and unusual car, it seems to me that your going to either be very lucky or will have to tell a lot of lies to get it road registered.

[Chris Garner]

Didn't one or two Crosley engined Bantams / American Austins race under The Automobile Racing Club of America rules in the '30s / early '40s?

[Duncan Grimmond]

I'd certainly consider taking something like this on, right up my bodywork street but I'd have to see it first and Cardiff is a very long way away...I'd never get there and back in a day
I love the little arrowhead vents in the bonnet sides though how effective they'd be is a moot point.

[JonE]

I love it when it was the garden feature. And that crazy manifold. Presumably clears the sump somehow?

[Mike Costigan]

There seems to be precious little Austin about it; maybe the main chassis rails started life as an Austin, but I'm not convinced. Also, there doesn't appear to be any rear suspension; is the rear axle bolted rigidly to the chassis? And as Hedd suggests, it will be virtually impossible to get it road-registered without some plausible and inventive back-story

[Howard Wright]

Hi All

No matter whether or not it is registerable or what engine it has or whether it has any Austin in it. I love the look!  If it had an Austin chassis and engine I’d be lusting after it.

I’d ditch the spare wheel!

Cheers

Howard