1934 Crossley 3.2Lt Sports Tourer

Description

The Crossley Brothers established a business in Manchester in 1867 manufacturing pumps, presses and small steam engines, success coming in 1876 when they began building a new four-stroke engine under license from Otto and Langden of Germany. By the turn of the century the company had branched out into building cars and a notable feature was its adoption of an early production line system. Crossley emerged from the Great War in good financial shape, having supplied a military version of its 20/25 model in enormous numbers, and through the 1920s a range of high quality cars were marketed in small numbers, some of which found their way to the Colonies, including Australia. Car production resumed after World War I and a new model, the 19.6, was launched in 1921 and joined in 1922 by the smaller 2.4 litre 14 hp model that would become the company's best seller. The 19.6 was replaced by the 2.7 litre 18/50 in 1925, fitted with Crossley's first six-cylinder engine and this was enlarged in 1927 to 3.2 litres in the 20.9. Crossley had specialised in military vehicles in WW1 and with re-armament in the 1930s for WW2, car making was run down, and stopped completely in 1936, although the firm had a claim to fame as the first British maker to offer a factory-fitted car radio in 1933. Bus production resumed in 1945 but no more cars were made. Taken over by AEC (Associated Equipment Company) in 1948 (itself later taken over by British Leyland), production at the Crossley factories finally stopped in 1958.