Crossle 5S sports racer

Hi Everyone,

I am a brand new member and I was hoping gather race history of a new car I just purchased. The car is a Crossle 5S sportsracer- the first sportsracer they built- originally owened by John Crossle. The car was purchased by from Fantasy Junction in California- www.fantasyjunction.com You can see photos of the car on their "sold" listings.

In any event, the car was built in 1962 and raced in Ireland mostly as far as I know. I would really appreciate any race photos or results that any members may have.

Here's the ownership history as far as I know- 1962- John Crossle and John Dickson, 1964 Gerry Kinnane, 1965 Malcolm Templeton(but I think it was raced by David Baird?), 1966 Joe Fairley- then off to the Transport Museum in Ireland for a while and finally to the US where it was raced in the late 80's by Ben Murrillo.

I purchased the car in the last month- it needs restoration and hope to be racing soon.

Thanks in advance,

Paul

One results from Martin Krejci's site here:

http://www.wsrp.ic.cz/natgb1964.html#3

Vince H.

1962 sounds a bit early to me for a Crosslé 5S; to my knowledge they only appeared in 1963. The first two cars have been the John L'Amie car with a 1.5 liter Climax engine (yours according to fantasyjunction's discription) while the John Crosslé / John Dickson car has been a different car.

Gerry Kinnane has raced a car with V8 Ford power only as late as 1966, if I am not mistaken. In his sales ads during 1966 he always claimed 1965 as year of build which rather seems to refer to a 7S than a 5S. Entrant of Kinnane's car was usually Robert Ashcroft Racing.

David Baird's car appeared early in 1965 as you state but with 1098 cc Ford engine - again I am not sure whether it was a 5S or 7S. He and Gerry Kinnane were both present in Bishopscourt on 06/05/1966 which excludes that this was one and the same car.

It appears that the current owner of Crosslé, Arnie Black, has well traced the history of all of these early sport racers and he is certainly appreciating hearing from you. His mail address is arnie@crossle.fsnet.co.uk or you could try to contact him through his webpage http://www.crossle.co.uk/

Edited by r.atlos, 08 December 2009 - 00:55.

David Baird's Crosslé was, in fact, still on the market in 1968 through Motor Racing Enterprises Ltd. (MRE) in Penn, Bucks., meanwhile equipped with a 1500 cc Ford pushrod engine. In 1970, it appeared again with ASC Cars of Henley, Oxon.

Judging by the strange shape of its rollbar, I reckon it ended up in 1971/72 with Ennerdale Racing in Canterbury, Kent, now disguising as the "Ennerdale SP6".

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the responses. The information that I have (that was first posted on this thread) is in fact from Arnie at Crossle. He stated that my car was not the John L'Amie car but was in fact the John Crossle car. Build date was winter 1962, and it was first raced in 1963 according to Arnie.

Thank you very much for the responses so far- they do help clarify what we know already.

Any further information or photos would be greatly appreciated.

Best,

Paul

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the responses. The information that I have (that was first posted on this thread) is in fact from Arnie at Crossle. He stated that my car was not the John L'Amie car but was in fact the John Crossle car. Build date was winter 1962, and it was first raced in 1963 according to Arnie.

Thank you very much for the responses so far- they do help clarify what we know already.

Any further information or photos would be greatly appreciated.

Best,

Paul

Paul

I've recently been doing a piece of research into the Crossle 6F single seater cars and have been searching through the negatives of a local photographer who took a lot of Irish racing photos in the 1960's. I know there are b&w photos of most of the 5S, 7S and 9S sports cars while they were racing here in Ireland. I going up for another look tomorrow and will see if I can spot any of John Crossle or John Dickson in the first 5S which was indeed built in winter of 62. Also to clarify for r.altos, John Lamie had three Crossle sports cars, a 5S with 1.5L Coventry Climax, a 7S with a 4.2L Ford V8 and a 9S with 2.0L BMW. It was indeed John's 7S that Gerry Kinnane had and it was a 1965 car.

Alan

Paul
John Lamie had three Crossle sports cars, a 5S with 1.5L Coventry Climax, a 7S with a 4.2L Ford V8 and a 9S with 2.0L BMW.

Alan

Just for the record - the correct spelling of John's name is L'Amie

Thank you again Alan.

Paul

Judging by the strange shape of its rollbar, I reckon it ended up in 1971/72 with Ennerdale Racing in Canterbury, Kent, now disguising as the "Ennerdale SP6".

This from David Saville-Peck:

"...OK. The history of SP6 is as follows: ( as best I can remember..!!)

I bought the remains of a Crossle Sports Racer in approx 1969/70 – I don’t remember the details, but I think I traded a Porsche 356 for it..??
I built the car with numerous modifications, different bodywork although based on the original, and with a Mk11 1098ccs Cosworth with DCOE Webbers and Mk9 Hewland.
I raced the car in many events in 71/72 but mostly in the Motoring News/Castrol GT Championship in the up to 1150cc class.
I do have programs from Thruxton, Snetterton, Lydden Hill, Brands Hatch, Silverstone and Oulton Park where I raced the car.
I crashed the car comprehensively at Oulton Park in about June/July 1972. Rolled over at Old Hall corner..!!
The remains were stolen from a storage shed on the Sturry Rd in Canterbury in late 1972/ early 1973 – I had come to Canada in September 1972.
The car was also featured on the Duckhams stand at the 1971 Racing car show.
Running modifications that I remember were:
Cut down rear bodywork that exposed the rear wheels from the rear
Roll over bar changed 3 times – from U hoop to full width to braced full width
Moved the engine/gearbox forward 3”
Many problems with engine/gearbox mounts.!!
Crown & Pinion problems – the Mk9 Hewland was basically a modified VW box
Clutch problems – early steel plate AP clutch
Modified oil feed to side oil pump drive
Several changes to spring rates and shocks
Changed to Firestone YB11 tires – the hot ticket in those days before slicks

I am sure I have more photos - somewhere, but this is one when I got married to Felicity on September 25th 1971 and we left for Honeymoon in the car.!! ( Didn’t go too far before changing over to my BMW 1600 Ti “Mangoletsi” for our trip to Europe..France/Spain/Monaco)



I was reasonably competitive in the 1150cc GT class and set a few class track records along the way

It would be fascinating to learn what happened to the car and even WHO stole it..!!??..."

Vince H.

This from David Saville-Peck:

"...
I crashed the car comprehensively at Oulton Park in about June/July 1972. Rolled over at Old Hall corner..!!

I recall a chap who went into / over the outside barrier at Lodge in - I think - a Sunbeam Tiger many moons ago in my marshalling days.
Said bloke spent most of the rest of the day with note book and pen watching the racing and noting anything he deemed dangerous about Lodge Corner.
He seemed to want to present his damning evidence to the RAC to either get Lodge modified, or Oulton Park closed.

The reason for mentioning this was that if you were to ask me his name, my response would be "I'm not sure, but it was something like Saville-Peck".

Is this the same chap?
Was it a Sunbeam Tiger, or the SP6 referred to?
Was his crash at Lodge, not Old Hall?

Thinking about it, the Sunbeam Tiger could have been a different accident that ended upside down on the inside of Lodge.

Hi VInce,

Sorry it has taken me forever to respond to your post about David Saville-Peck. From what I understand this is not his car- but I could be mistaken? Do you have any additional photos you can share with me in the period or perhaps contact info for David Saville-Peck so we can confirm the history of the car?

Thanks much
Paul


This from David Saville-Peck:

"...OK. The history of SP6 is as follows: ( as best I can remember..!!)

I bought the remains of a Crossle Sports Racer in approx 1969/70 – I don’t remember the details, but I think I traded a Porsche 356 for it..??
I built the car with numerous modifications, different bodywork although based on the original, and with a Mk11 1098ccs Cosworth with DCOE Webbers and Mk9 Hewland.
I raced the car in many events in 71/72 but mostly in the Motoring News/Castrol GT Championship in the up to 1150cc class.
I do have programs from Thruxton, Snetterton, Lydden Hill, Brands Hatch, Silverstone and Oulton Park where I raced the car.
I crashed the car comprehensively at Oulton Park in about June/July 1972. Rolled over at Old Hall corner..!!
The remains were stolen from a storage shed on the Sturry Rd in Canterbury in late 1972/ early 1973 – I had come to Canada in September 1972.
The car was also featured on the Duckhams stand at the 1971 Racing car show.
Running modifications that I remember were:
Cut down rear bodywork that exposed the rear wheels from the rear
Roll over bar changed 3 times – from U hoop to full width to braced full width
Moved the engine/gearbox forward 3”
Many problems with engine/gearbox mounts.!!
Crown & Pinion problems – the Mk9 Hewland was basically a modified VW box
Clutch problems – early steel plate AP clutch
Modified oil feed to side oil pump drive
Several changes to spring rates and shocks
Changed to Firestone YB11 tires – the hot ticket in those days before slicks

I am sure I have more photos - somewhere, but this is one when I got married to Felicity on September 25th 1971 and we left for Honeymoon in the car.!! ( Didn’t go too far before changing over to my BMW 1600 Ti “Mangoletsi” for our trip to Europe..France/Spain/Monaco)



I was reasonably competitive in the 1150cc GT class and set a few class track records along the way

It would be fascinating to learn what happened to the car and even WHO stole it..!!??..."

Vince H.

Ben Murillo brought the car this thread was started for to at least one Westwood Historic Weekend in the late eighties.