Well i have to say i don't go for all these huge big cars of the 50's and 60's does anyone have pictures of small classic cars? i really don't know what i'm looking for here to be honest austin sprites, i believe this is what they are called, are a small car like what i'm looking for not specifically looking for those cars but similar sized cars small compact agile any websites or other info you can point me to as well would be great not looking to build anything as i'm poor just want to learn more about them for the future incase i strike it rich or something
There were no mainstream "small" cars made in USA until the Falcon/Corvair/Valiant type started in '59-'60. The smaller cars from Europe have been around forever,,,,,,
The original poster of this question asked about small cars of the 50's and 60''s so in my humble opinion I would have to say that no, Crosley's are not mainstream enough. They stopped manufacture in 1952 and during my 60 years on this earth, living in the United States, I have never seen one in person. European cars like the Austin Healey Sprite, Triumph Spitfire, MG Midget were plentiful and popular in the 60's. Rich
Fod classic 'small' cars look to England... Fords.. Model Y, Anglia, Prefect, Popular etc. Y model is a clone of the 33-34 Ford, but about 2/3rd the size. Austin... A30, A40, Devon, Healy Sprite, Healy 3000. Morris... Minor, Major. Hillman... Minx, Husky, Superminx, Humber Vogue. That'll keep you busy! OK, here's a Ford Prefect from about 1949... Cheers, Glen.
I've seen Crosleys and even tripped over them in the junkyard and I'm much younger. Small, American 50s cars would include the Henry J, Willys Aero, Willys Jeepster pickup and wagon, Nash Rambler, 57-up Rambler and American, Studebaker Lark, and Hudson Jet. And there were easily 50 or 100 brands of foriegn cars that got imported to the US most all of which were small, English, French, German, Italian, even the earliest Japanese cars among others. Cars like Borgward, MG, Isetta, Toyopet, Hillman, Ford Escort, Morris, Austin, Renault, Peugot, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Volvo, and on and on.
I often think I'd like to get a late 40's / early 50's Ford or even an early 50's Chevy / GM sedan, as they somehow appear a bit smaller than the cars that came just after them. Or is that just an optical delusion? Gary
That Willys Aero ad illustrates an interesting point. I'm thinking that these were relatively compact cars in their day, but this advertisement goes out of it's way to make it appear to be as large as a full sized Chevy or Plymouth. Part of this illusion is due to the fact that most manufacturers at this time used illustrations instead of photography in their ads. About the only size comparison in this ad is the people seated in the car and if you study them, they're practically midgets. Their heads are incredibly small. They appear to be sittting about a yard apart with acres of hip and shoulder room. A photograph taken of this same car, from the same angle, with two average sized adults in the front seat would reveal a lot of the distortion and deception going on in these ads. With so few of these cars of this era on the road today, it can sometimes be shocking to stand next to or sit in one of them now and realize how truly small, or large, they actually are. What strikes me as odd is that as Willys and a few other makes were investing heavily to build and sell smaller cars, ads like this promoted them as something noticably bigger. It may have been more habit than aything else, but they may have also set some of their potential customers up for a bit of a disappointment when they actually saw the cars.
There is an ad with a lady sitting in a '60 Plymouth convertible that is the epitome of what you're describing. Either she is a 3 year old with progeria or the car is 40 feet long.
Hey, Claymart! You're right on with that drawing being HIGHLY stylized. They're a small car for thier time, but not as big as the car in the drawing. Maybe they only had children for models to sit in the car for the artist....
LOL! I seem to recall some Mercury ads from this era that were similarly exaggerated. It looked like a couple of civilians wandering around on the deck of an aircraft carrier!
It was pretty rare to see them on the road in the late 50s but I see all the restored ones at the shows. They even made an aluminum valve cover and dual carb hotrod intake for them.
Not exactly mainstream, as it was a mail-order kit available from the late 40's to early 60's. A road legal golf cart, the King Midget. I think I've seen a few in person. The one that sticks in my head was horrifically grafted atop a VW bug chassis. Speaking of which, Bugs were counter culture, but fairly mainstream themselves.
Maybe the small stuff wasn't as prevalent on the east coast? Out here, Crosleys seem to have been maybe not plentiful, but not uncommon.I can think of several around town, and most are original drivers. Metropolitans are anther common find out in this neck of the woods. I'm finishing one '30 Bantam coupe build for a guy now, and Have another i'm negotiating to get in soon. And before any body sights the no rust Arizona thing, remember we didn't have much in the way of population around here until the eighties...
killing me with this one...i had a 69 GT6+, with the overdrives ect...stored it one winter with a dude a co-worker knew..i went back by to see about something and found out dude packed up his shop and moved withing 2 months of my dropping off the car..i paid for 6 months storage up front....found out later from store next door that he was crazy over my triumph....crazy enough to steal it and move to god knows where....i still have the original title for it...tried running it thru dmv nationally ( mom's a retired Hamilton county cop) but never did turn anything up on it..it's still in the data base as a stolen/unrecovered...it was a perfect florida car, i was 2nd owner....damn i miss that one!!!!!!!68,000 original miles on it.......guy i got it from worked at one of the first triumph dealers state side...owner gave it to him on retirement...cool part was he was from england and worked at a dealer over there before coming state side...1980 i paid $1750 for it..and it needed nothing...flawless car...he had driven it up from fla to visit his grandson at UC...was going to give it to him for around town..kid wanted something else, so they thru it in the Trading Post with a pic...i bought it less then 1 hour after the TP was delivered to the local store where i knew it came out early on my side of town.. 2years later i rebuilt the front end..guy at the parts store billed me for one front end kit (trunions, bushings, everything!!) but handed me 2 kits...$90,,,,sold the last kit about 10 years ago on evilbay had a unique trials clock in the dash on passengers side...was told it wasn't an option, but he had it installed at the dealership....
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