Crossle Owners Group

Information

Crosslé, based in Holywood, Northern Ireland, was founded in 1957 by John and Rosemary Crosslé.

Website: http://www.crossle.co.uk
Location: Holywood, Northern Ireland, UK
Members: 33
Latest Activity: Jan 4, 2015

Crossle History

The Crosslé Car Company Ltd. is a racing car manufacturer based in Holywood, Northern Ireland, UK. Crosslé was founded in 1957 by John and Rosemary Crosslé.

The company is known for its Formula Ford designs, and has produced cars for other national and international formulae, including Formula 5000, Formula Two and Formula Junior. It has also produced well-regarded cars for various classes in sports car racing. Many drivers who have since gone on to become household names drove Crosslé cars while in the early stages of their career. Among these are former Formula One drivers Nigel Mansell, John Watson, Eddie Irvine and Martin Donnelly. Former Jordan Grand Prix team owner Eddie Jordan also began his racing career in a Crosslé.

The Crosslé Car Company was founded by John and Rosemary Crosslé in 1957, and soon established itself as a manufacturer of high quality racing cars for those wishing to participate in the expanding motor-sport scene after the war. John Crosslé's attention to detail and value for money ideals, coupled with good design and sensible strong construction soon led to a rapidly expanding company.

Early beginnings in 1172 Ford Specials soon led to the building of replicas for John's friends. Formula Juniors and sports cars soon followed. Single seaters encompassed Formula Two and Formula 5000. A full list of cars produced can be seen on the historic section of the Website. The company became a real world leader when the formula Ford class was formed and was soon leading the field in both Europe and America.

Crosslé Cars soon became established as one of the leading racing car manufacturers in the world, and certainly the largest producer of competitive cars in Ireland. Many Irish drivers who went on to international success started their careers in a Crosslé Formula Ford.

Crosslé Cars is still very active in the production and restoration of all types of racing cars. The company is also a Hewland agent and can offer full rebuilds and spares service.

We are currently producing a new run of the 1966 9S sports car. The design has been modified to allow the use of the modern Ford Zetec two-litre engine. Great attention has been paid to low maintenance and running costs - see New 9S for more information.

Spare parts for all models are available. Virtually all these are ex-stock. However, parts for some low volume or very old models may take a little longer. Spare parts are available direct from the factory or from our agent in America, Porter Racing / Pacific Crosslé Inc. at www.porterracing.com

External links
Crosslé Car Company official website.
For a thirty year pictorial History of Crossle, click here:
http://www.crossle.co.uk/pdf/30yearsa.pdf

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Comment by Paul McMorran on June 8, 2010 at 12:42pm: Hi all, I've added an article on the 2010 Monaco GP Historique in which my Crossle 17F performed admirably in the 1-litre F3 race. Enjoy (I certainly did)!

HSCC News article.pdf

Comment by Scott Nettleship on June 8, 2010 at 11:29am: yes, I now have 2 races under my belt at VIR and having a great time. I did have to drop out of the last race when I discovered that both side engine mounts were cracked. They apparently were both previously repaired and broke at the welds. I talked to Porter racing and they are send 2 new ones.

Comment by Michael Henderson on June 7, 2010 at 1:57pm: Hi Scott, Welcome to Crossle ownership, you'll find the 45F to be a easy car to run. They're very strong & simple to maintain if you have a bit of mechanical ability, parts are always available from Porter Racing & Continental Race Services. The most important thing is to enjoy the car & have fun.

Comment by Scott Nettleship on June 7, 2010 at 1:39pm: Hello. Just sold my Lotus Seven I races for 6 seasons and bought a Crossle 45F. I have run a couple of races at VIR and having a great time in the FF.

Comment by Hamilton Macfarland Donaldson on January 12, 2010 at 8:39pm: Hi JUst joined the group, I own my fathers 14F the firs of the 3 14Fs, I have tracked many of the early cars and keep a registry of the other cars.

My 14F is in a slow restoration process but hope to have it up and about some time in the future

Comment by Michael Henderson on January 9, 2010 at 8:47am: Hi Christoph, The only 9S Crossles eligible for the HTP are the ones built to 1966 specification. These can use the BMW M10, or Lotus twin cam engines, the Zetec cars are different in too many ways to make it possible to get HTP papers.
I work for Crossle, we very rarely had engine problems with our own & customer cars, so it would be best if you keep the Zetec in your car. The whole package of engine, gearbox, brakes & tyres in the Crossle are perfect for sprint & endurance racing.
I know this is the Crossle Owners Group, I don't actually own one but since I've been building them for many years hopefully I qualify. I do have a Chevron B20, but that doesn't really count here!

Comment by Christoph Waller on December 19, 2009 at 2:49pm: Hi Alan, thank you for your very(!) interesting detailed infosabout the "S" Sportsracer. I did not know that there were such few cars! Yes, for shure, mine is one of the HTP 9S. My dream would be the very light and powerful LS1 V8 in my 9S, especially because of the effortless presentation of huge power, torque and mainly the reliability of this simple and in millions produced engine. Some friends of mine race theyr cars in club-races at Spa, Hockenheim, Monza, Dijon. But they had at least 3 total losts of engines (con rod breaks thrugh the block!) And this scares me a little... The stage three of the dunnell-zetec engine with 220 HP seems to be a little fragile...?!
But a conversion to V8 would be a huge and expensive project also because of the hewland transmission, who can cope with just about 250 Nm (180 Pound/feet) and the LS1 has about 480 Nm (350 pound/feet)
My Caterham S7 HPC with a stock Vauxhall 2,0 16V engine has covered about 50'000 M on road and track without having any troubles with hte drivetrain or something else. I do not expect this in the same way from the Crossle, but i think i wouldn't drive it so often, like the seven. But I will see...
I bought mine in august this year, but it doesn't passed the very strictly "swiss.mot" until now, but its VERY cold winter anyway. So I have to wait until spring for my first ride...
Thanks again for your effort and some future informations also about the HTP 9S

Comment by Alan Drysdale on December 18, 2009 at 2:46pm: Hi Christoph
The original Crossle Sports Racing Cars were manufactured in the period 1962 - 1966 and comprised three models:
Crossle 5S: Two cars were built for 1963 season for John Crossle and John Dickson (shared car) and John L'Amie. Four cars were built for 1964 season for Charles Eyre-Maunsell, John Dickson, Brian Nelson and Irish Racing Cars (Mick Mooney) - driver, Tommy Reid.
Crossle 7S: Three cars were built for 1965 season and raced by John L'Amie, Mervyn Wingfield and Jim Cooney. A fourth 7S was built for Belfast man, Jim Hughes, who planned to convert to road car use with a fully enclosed body and Oldsmobile engine. This project took many years to complete and was only fully completed when Paul McMorran, a forum member, acquired the car a few years back. You can find a photo of this car under Paul's profile.

Crossle 9S Three cars were built for the 1966 season, a V8 engined car which David Harrison campaigned in the British Hillclimb Championship and two 2.0L BMW engined cars for John L'Amie and Mervyn Wingfield to campaign in the European International 2.0L Group 6 Championship.

For the 1966 season, Brian Nelson's 5S, which had originally been fitted with a 2.5 Daimler V8 engine, was updated to 9S 'ish' specification and also fitted with a 2.0L BMW engine.

While a total of thirteen 'S' models were built in the period 1962 - 1966, two further 9S models were subsequently built by Crossle from spare chassis and parts for Simon Brien and Stephen Patton. Indeed Stephen built his own car as he worked for Crossle at the time. In many ways it was Stephen'c car that reignited the interest in the 9S model and led to the reintroduction of the model under the HTP 9S guise in 1991. I assume it is an HTP 9S model that you have. I don't know how many of the HTP models have been built but will check with Arnie as I'm currently trying to help him piece together the driver histories/ownerships of the original twelve 'S' cars when they were raced in Ireland.

Comment by Christoph Waller on December 18, 2009 at 3:59am: Hi, joined the Group yesterday. As owner of a Crossle 9s, roadlegal in switzerland, ( newer raced!) I'm interested in all about 9S's. I already contacted twice arnie black from Crossle itself, but there comes no reaction... Hopefully here are some guys, who knows interesting things about the 9S.
Does sombody knows how mwny 9S were buildt?

Comment by Jim Keller on December 6, 2009 at 2:25am: Just joined the group. I have a Crossle 12F Formula B currently being restored. It should be done soon, I'll post pics then.