Here’s a mind twister: Crosley, the niche micro-car maker, was the donor platform for a kit car known as the Scorpion (aka Skorpion). While thousands of Fieros, VWs, Model As and Ts, and various British cars have given their lives to support fiberglass kit cars, the Crosley stands among them like the shortest guy in the family photo, donating some 28 chassis so co-conspirators Ralph Roberts and Jack Wills could produce a tiny glass fiber sports car barely larger or more powerful than a carnival bumper car. Roberts was a designer at LeBaron in the 1930s and Jack Wills was a fiberglass maestro – together they made boats for the military during WWII. In peacetime, the pair turned to kit car manufacturing, eventually designing the 1952 Skorpion you see here on eBay. The asking price is $32,952 or offer, and the car is located in Ocoee, Florida. This example has been restored though as we’ll see it does show some wear.
The four-cylinder is Crosley’s 44 cu. in. conventional iron block engine, making about 26 bhp in stock form. But this car sports Nick Brajevich (Braje) speed equipment including an exhaust header and a sexy finned intake manifold. Maybe those will get you another half a horsepower! The typical transmission is a three-speed non-synchro manual. Crosley pioneered four-wheel disc brakes, so we can hope there’s “whoa” for all that “go”.
No doors greet you to ease entry; instead, you’ll grab that handle and jump on in, landing on the flat bench seat, with a broad armrest the only upscale accouterment. Rearview mirrors are mounted on the windshield frame – how clever! Oh, and there’s no weather equipment, not even a wiper blade, so fair weather sailing only, please. The speedometer tops out at a hopeful 70 mph. The multi-gauge contains virtually everything else – fuel, amps, oil pressure, and water temperature. That gauge is my favorite thing about this car.
The rear deck carries the spare, and I bet that weight is a useful counterbalance to the passengers and the engine. The paint is average, with haziness and orange peel evident under the unforgiving fluorescent lighting. The bumper shows wear from almost every angle. One thing’s for sure: you won’t likely be in the company of another Scorpion at the local micro-car show. Values are elusive since Scorpions don’t come up for sale often, but our own Russ Dixon covered this project car about a year ago, with no motor and an asking price of around $8000. Seems like a case of beauty in the eye of the beholder, right?
“Here I am, rock you like a hurricane”,,no, not that Scorpions, but never heard of it. ( I realize I need a new hobby) While Crosley is well known, this I suppose could be a Hotshot on steroids, as if. Everybody had an idea, unlike today, where why bother. I’m sure news of British roadsters would soon grace our shores, looks a lot like a TR2, and the race was on. I think some companies were still flush with cash from the war, and could go out on a limb and see what happens. There was no market research to speak of, either it took or it didn’t. Sadly, the Crosley didn’t. All about timing. Americans were just getting their first tastes of V8 power, burning rubber and such,, these didn’t have a chance. Now, 30 years later, when small cars were the norm, perhaps, but not in the 50s. I’d be scared to drive this today with all the behemoths out there.
In the late ‘50’s my older brother built up a Crosley Hotshot motor using Nicks speed parts and got 58HP! Having bought a Nash Metropolitan for $6 with a seized motor he installed the Crosley..The days of shade tree wrenching at their best.
From the first picture I thought this was a toy car, or even a pedal car for kids. ….😂😂
it looks like a customized nash met…
Looks like a Met got jiggy with a bumper car behind the geek tent at the carnival.
Then maybe a Panhard Dyna got in on the act.
I love kit cars! Take the humm drum and make it fun! Like the Blakely Bernardi I owned ( sold and relocated go future repurchase) it was a 1974 pinto wagon. Then there is my new purchase a Klipp fiberglass dune buggy ( looks like a Manx) it was a 1965 VW sedan. My wife is watching me read this article and is getting nervous, she wonders how I can afford another toy, so does my banker.
I have seen many micro cars and would like to own one but not in my immediate future …,, so my wife says!
Fascinating story! Very interesting car. Seems very expensive though I wouldn’t know.
Crosley Car Owners Club: groups.io/g/Crosley and http://www.facebook.com/CrosleyCarClub
Interesting trivia. The Aeronca Aircraft Company manufactured a plane model C3 that was a high wing open cockpit design powered by the same Crosley engine that’s in the car. 28 hp. It was known as the Flying Bathtub.
MAYBE MIXED YORE PLANES…MOONEY MITE USED IT, BELT DRIVE, IN 7…AERONCA C-2 & C-3 WERE CABIN PLane w/aeronca 2-cyl opposed, 38 or 40 h.p. have flown c-3, 2 aboard…be blessed,grateful, prepared, nik
Huh?
wow, looks like fun, made for buck’n through the park on the 4th of July!
Looks more like a Goggomobile Dart to me!
Never saw one of these before — but it looks like its era, and it looks like fun. And Crosley DID catch-on — for a while, usually as a handy economy runabout second car before families generally had two cars. Saw lots of ’39s and earlier postwar Crosleys, before the brand faded from negative publicity about flimsiness. After all, that was the time of Preston Tucker, Mad Man Muntz, and the Henry J.: what an era to be young!
Wait! What? Hold on a second. You mean . . . that’s not a kiddie pedal car?
“…a carnival bumper car…”
was my thought after I realized it was not a
1/32 (or whatever) glue together hobby shop
boxed model (Revell, Italeri, or ARII companies).
Bumper’s not metal I guess…
How could this be street legal with no wipers or front blinkers or inside rearview mirror or an unframed windshield like that?!
Joe,
If this was titled as a Crosley or was created decades ago and titled as a Skorpion, most states will issue title & tags for antique car status, without requiring any inspection. Remember, it wasn’t until the beginning of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards requirements starting in 1964, that there were any government regulations stipulating what the minimum standards were.
Like an open brass-era car, I guess: never drive it in the rain! I think there are exceptions on street-legalty: your classic(?) car does not require seat belts or turn signals if it never had them. And I guess you COULD drive safely with those two side rear-view mirrors. But WHO is seriously going to take this puddle-jumper out on the ROAD? — I would fear getting CRUSHED. If you have a few acres, drive it around on your property!😁 Or, park it behind a store display-window someplace to attract curiosity-seekers…
First off, it has double the wheels of a motorcycle and body protection against weather and the like.
Has anyone else noticed that this looks like a strange downsized distortion of an MGA?
Should I have said, “mutation”? Seriously, the moment I saw this car, I kept asking myself what (that I already knew) it reminded me of — and I couldn’t place it, for the life of me. Then, going through things in my home, I ran across the January, 1959 issue of (I think it was) Motor Trend, covering the new 1959 cars — and the second I saw the MGA, my mind clicked, “THERE it is!”😊