Rare Fiberglass Sports Car: 1952 Crosley Skorpion
Update 12/20/22 – The asking price of this fiberglass oddity has been nearly cut in half! Will that be enough to find it a new home though? Find it here on eBay. Thanks go to Barn Finds reader Sisuman.
From 11/4/22 – Powel Crosley was a manufacturer of microcars who began said production after World War II but ran out of steam by the early 1950s as demand for new cars greatly exceeded supply. The Skorpion (also known as the Scorpion) was not so much a Crosley product as it was a kit car that could be built on a Crosley chassis. As few as 28 may have seen the light of day, so when one like the seller’s project pops up, they’re few and far between. Located in Costa Mesa, California, this one is missing a drivetrain but otherwise looks solid. It’s available here on Barn Finds Classifieds for $15,000.
Before 1939, entrepreneur Powel Crosley was known for making radios and refrigerators. He stepped up his game by putting together small 2 and 4-cylinder cars in Indiana and Ohio. While they were advertised as “America’s most needed car,” the reality was they weren’t because Detroit could sell anything on four wheels after WW2. It didn’t help that at first, you could only buy them in department stores until the company had enough momentum to build a dealer network.
In the early 1950s, Crosley already had two tiny sports cars, the Hot Shot, and the Super Sport. So, these cars (or most anything with a Crosley chassis) could serve as the basis for the Skorpion, a fiberglass-bodied car that was sold largely in kit form with Crosley’s 44 cubic inch inline engines and 3-speed manual transmissions. It was the brainchild of designer Ralph Roberts, but the heavy lifting was done by body man John Wills. Only four actual cars were built by them with maybe two dozen more sold as kits.
The seller’s little machine must be one of the 24 kits. The body and interior look okay, although the windshield frame looks as though it may be bent. There is no motor or transmission, but if you can source that pair and throw some TLC at the rest of this little car, you might have a nice little runner (or you could give it a full-blown restoration). Mileage is said to be only 1,500 but no title is available and the seller has been unable to find its VIN tag. While the asking price is $15,000, the seller will entertain offers and interesting trades.
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Comments
Well, I doubt THIS Scorpion will “Rock you like a hurricane”, looks like a mini Muntz. You talk about a guy in the wrong time era, Crosley was the guy. His ideas 30 years later could have had some merit, but GIs coming heckbent out of the war, wanted guts and flames, not puddle jumpers. I suppose, in the right setting, this could be a lot of fun, as long as the beach is only 6 blocks away.
Crosley was the ultimate entreprenure I agree. Electronics and the combustion engine were in their infancy when he was at peak productivity/creativity.
De Forrest was similar in perspective for business and that’s why Crosley & De Forrest partnered to form De Forrest Crosley superheterodyne radios. If Amelia Earhart had understood superheterodyne radio communications she wouldn’t have gone missing in 1937.
Bob
This looks like a kids car that would be at an amusement park.
One that kids would pretend to drive. Brings back good memories.
Yeah the odometer shows 1500 miles, that was a lot for that motor. the motors in those crosley’s were notoriously junk. made out of stamped steel.they were lucky to get 1500 miles of use from those motors.
Depends on the year.
You’re talking about the COBRA (copper brazed sheet metal) engines that were in the early 4 cylinder cars. Nearly all of those have been replaced with the later CIBA (cast iron block) engines by now.
Cast block Crowley’s have an impressive racing history and lived on in many different applications, Homelite outboards for instance.
I would probably opt for a factory produced HotShot over the offering here however I enjoy the historical interest of the effort…
*Crosley’s
(Manual correct vs. autocorrect)
Bentley – Stu’s got ur pointer as correction (thnx)
At first I thought I was $1500.00 and that was a good deal. I was wrong .All set to go to Harbor Freight and get the big V Twin engine.
The original 1950 prototype auctioned for $24k…..
https://www.trucksandauto.com/auctions/17861/lot/129214504-1950-Crosley-Skorpion
Hard to believe but the odometer reads 43665 miles. Will get that corrected in the listing.
Also hard to believe the spedo goes to 100. :)
I don’t fear anything. Nothing at all. Nothing in this entire universe scares me… Except that speedo. Even I wouldn’t dare hit 100 in that thing!
Always inappropriate B.S.
Do love the speedometer tho, how Art Deco is that?
No title, no vin tag, no motor, no trans., $15K, NO SALE!!!!!!!!!!!
There should be a date cutoff after which you can’t list cars for sale on Craigslist anymore. This seller has had the same cars for sale on Craigslist for five years.
At first glance at the top picture, I thought it was a kiddy car or a car from the cartoons. I remember Crosley cars back then, but they were so dinky and underpowered. The joke was “stick your foot out and trip it”….
The price is $7,950 now.
I double-dog dare someone to LS this.
Crosley invented shelves in the refrigerator door (called the Shelvadoor) and a V-shaped handle on the front of the door that opened the door on the side of the handle you grabbed. We had on at the transmitter building of one of his stations, WLW in Cincinnati, and it was still working in the early 2000s. He was an interesting guy, whose dream was to make cars. His brother was the accountant that kept him tethered to Earth. He thought radios were too expensive so he put WLW on the air with tons of power so you wouldn’t need an expensive radio to pick it up. His little radio sold for $7.00. It was the first 500, 5,000 and only 500,000 watt station in the US. For quite a long time, it was the only station on 700am except for a day timer in Alaska. You could regularly hear it in 38 states at night and 9 in the daytime.
Someone should inform management that one of their bumper cars left the fair grounds.
I’d seen the other 2 ‘sports cars’, wagon, p/u, etc but not this. 2022 means you’ve shown me 2 cars I’ve never seen B4. Well behind ’16 for 4 (or wuz it ’17, uh oh).
Be the first on your block to have the neighborhood kids point and laugh at you! Be sure to wear the red wig and nose, for optimal effect!
Or you could try compensating for shortcomings by buying a really tall pickup truck with six-inch tailpipe and six wheels that never get dirty, and tailgate people with all eight headlights set at high-beam.
Hey somebody tell Howard A a ‘puddle jumper’ is a small prop passenger airplane, not a small car.
British Ford Populars, Anglias and Prefects were known all over the western world as “Puddle Jumpers”.