New Midget

The newest entry into the scramble for the auto market was unveiled in Cincinnati last week. It was the sleek, compact little Crosley car, put out by Crosley Motors, Inc. Tall, balding Powel Crosley Jr. had not done well with his first car, a tiny, tinny affair. He has a much better chance with his new one.

The new Crosley has an aluminum, turret-topped body, protected by a coat of lacquer. From bumper to bumper, it is 145 inches long, 28 inches longer than the prewar Crosley. But it has the same 80-inch wheelbase. The car is 57 inches high, 49 wide, will carry four passengers at a top speed of 60 miles an hour, go 50 miles on a gallon of gas. It weighs only 1,000 pounds, in contrast to a Ford V-8's 3,000 pounds.

Most unusual was the radically different four-cylinder engine. Invented by Lloyd M. Taylor of California's Taylor Engines, Inc., it is made from sheet metal stampings instead of heavy forgings or castings, has cylinder walls 1/16 inch thick of chrome-molybdenum steel. The engine and parts are stamped out, then brazed into a single piece by melting pure copper into all the joints, baking in a hydrogen furnace. The engine is so light (58 lbs.) that President Crosley likes to show off by lifting it, holding it on his lap (see cut). Yet it develops 26 horsepower at 5,200 r.p.m.

Crosley, who has bought the patent rights, will make the engine in Cincinnati, assemble and install it at his body assembly plant in Marion, Ind. He expects to have the car in full production by March or April, will turn out a minimum of between 25,000 and 30,000 this year. At first they will be sold through 150 franchised dealers, eventually in department stores as well. The price is not yet set, but Crosley says it will be "around $700, maybe with $100 difference one way or the other" (ceiling price on prewar models $412 to $581). In any case, Crosley hopes it will be lower than any other car on the market.

He is no whit disturbed that the U.S. motorist has never cared enough for an undersized car to make it profitable to builders. In the present sellers' market, things may be different.

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