These Crossley Regis cars in UK above are:
- BLJ 17 is a 10 hp, four cylinder car originally grey but later painted black. It is chassis number 100378, Engine MC 1724 of 1935. BTD 272 is a 12 hp, six cylinder car exhibited on the 1936 Olympia Motor Show, the last that Crossley Motors attended and is chassis 101036, Engine JMC 188 first registered on 1st November 1936. It was used as a taxi by Harwoods of Darwen, Lancashire before being sold back to Crossley Motors in November 1940 when it was used by their Bus Salesman, Mr Whittaker until being sold in 1955. It was originally maroon but repainted black at some date by Crossley Motors. The car is shown in a Crossley livery of light brown and cream. Externally, only the radiator grills are different between the 10 and 12 hp Regises. Both cars were in daily use at this time by the owner, P E Caunt who took this photograph in June 1964 at Bacup Brow Farm, Moston, Manchester, UK.
- My ownership and interest in the Crossley Regis began on 14th July 1962 when I first purchased a Regis 6 cylinder car - BTD 272 above - painted in a non-standard grey and black livery. (Valspar paint of the times!) By 1964 the car was in the Regis livery shown above. Within a year, I bought AOL 313, the only Regis I bought as a scrapper. The garage roof had fallen in on it so I used it for spares. Later, BNF 624, another 12/6 car was purchased since the steering needed work before the next MOT Inspection. Then came CXW 468, a well - worn car that was owned by a 70 year old gentleman who had had it since about 1940. BLJ 17 was the first four cylinder car - shown above - that was in nice condition and came with a spare, reconditioned 6 cylinder engine. By 1966, I decided to update my everyday car and bought a 1953 Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire in May and kept it until May 2004, having brought it to Australia in 1982.
Photographs of several examples of Crossley Regis cars will be found on the "Gallery 1" page of this site.
In the Construction pages, are photographs of the car under construction. An additional collection of photographs during this period are shown in "Gallery 2."
"Gallery 3" has photographs covering the period during which the car has been on the road during 2009, 2010,2011 and the start of 2012.
"Gallery 4" has details of 2013 onwards.
In the ENV Type 75 Preselector Gearbox Manual page are photographs of all pages and drawings in the manual which can be saved to your own computer and printed to form an Instruction Manual.
MAGAZINE ARTICLES: Articles describing this car have appeared in the Australian magazine "Restored Cars", Number 199 of March/April 2010 and the English "The Automobile" Volume 29, Number 2 of April 2011. The assistance of Michael Ware in the latter Publication is gratefully appreciated.
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Last Updated: - 25th February 2013 - Specification pages: WARNING ABOUT REMOTE OIL FILTERS! 18th May 2013 - Ruskin Body number badge photo showing badge on the Regis's dashboard added to Gallery 4.
Links: www.crossley-motors.org.uk/ This is the site for the Crossley Register in UK and is well worth a visit.
The archives of the designer of the Crossley Regis, Mr C F Beauvais are held in the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney and can be viewed on-line at: www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/? irn=163467&img=162391
This badge was fitted to all Regises built with Crossley Motors Ltd bodies. It was fitted to the front door sills on both sides of the car.
This revised badge shows that the body was built by Ruskin Motor Bodies Ltd., , but restored by R W caunt & Sons between 1998 and 2009. (Actual body frame completed in 2006, hence body number RWC01/2006.)
An Australian Crossley Regis!
This Regis is a 10 hp car found in Umina Beach in 1998 in a dismantled state with the body completely dismantled and needing a full rebuiild. The car was back on the road in January 2009. See The Australian Regis page for full details.
This car is Chassis 100389, Engine MC 1742 of 1935. The chassis was exported to Australia and the body built by Ruskin Motor Bodies of Melbourne, Victoria. The body was built to the English Regis outline although Ruskins offered their own body style if customers wanted something different.
It appears that Crossley Motors in UK sent a set of UK Regis model panels to Ruskin Motor Bodies for a car to be built using these panels to show what the UK design was like. The car featured would appear to be this car. A search for "Crossley Regis" in Google will find hits for the Argus newspaper of Melbourne, Australia for various dates between 1935 and 1937 mentioning this importation of English panels. Further checks for information will be made of the Ruskin items in car magazines of the day in the Mitchell and State Libraries of NSW in due course.
The original chassis plate was missing from the car but in September 2009 became available through the help of Motorden of Brisbane, an ebay automotive badge dealer from whom I bought the plate. Motorden's help is very much appreciated, especially since the correct chassis and engine numbers can now be displayed on the car.
The car is shown at The Broom Factory, Wallalong, NSW which is the headquarters of the Bowthorne Motor Club.
Photo P E Caunt. November 2009.
Crossley Motors Limited of Gorton, Manchester UK were builders of cars, buses, commercial and military vehicles for over fifty years. The last car model built by the Company - and sold in reasonable numbers - was the Regis in 10hp, four cylinder and 12.9hp, six cylinder forms between 1934 and 1937. Crossley Motors Limited was set up about 1910 as an offshoot of Crossley Brothers Limited, makers of stationary engines of high quality and reliability.
Australian Crossley Regis design:
The design below shows a Ruskin Motor Body design based on a Crossley Regis chassis. The photographs were published in July 1936 in the Coach and Motor Body Builder of Australia and New Zealand, the lower view also coming from the Crossley Motors archives owned by the Crossley Register of UK.
