This car is affectionately known as the “Geoff Crossley Special,” it was built by Geoff Crossley in England between 1968 and 1974, and it’s powered by a fire-breathing Buick V8 that’s been modified for racing use.
Crossley himself was a well-known racing driver in England, having won in excess of 40 trophies from over 200 race starts, and regularly racing alongside some of the legends of the time, including future Formula One World Champion Jackie Stewart.
Fast Facts – The Geoff Crossley Special
- This unique race car, affectionately known as the “Geoff Crossley Special,” was hand-built over 6 years by renowned English driver Geoff Crossley, taking over 5,000 hours of labor. Crossley was an accomplished racer with over 40 trophies and 200 starts, competing alongside legends like Jackie Stewart.
- Powering the car is a 3.6 liter Buick V8 modified for racing with four Weber carbs, performance intake/exhaust manifolds, Iskenderian cams, Mallory ignition, and a performance valvetrain. The lightweight aluminum engine has a shallow sump for low mounting, and low ground clearance.
- The spaceframe chassis uses 350 feet of aircraft-grade steel tubing, while the svelte aluminum body panels were hand-shaped by Crossley. The design incorporated lessons from Crossley’s decade-plus of successful racing experience.
- After completion in 1974, Crossley actively campaigned this special at events like Barbon Manor Hill Climb, racing against top drivers. The car remained in excellent original condition, now offered with trailer at auction in July 2024, estimated at £30,000-£50,000.
The Buick 215 V8
The 215 cubic inch (3.5 liter) Buick V8 would make it debut in 1961. It was an advanced engine for the time with an aluminum alloy block and heads, a motorsport-friendly bore x stroke of 3.5″ × 2.8″, and at the time of its release it was the lightest V8 engine in production in the world – weighing just 318 lbs (144 kgs).
The Oldsmobile F-85 Cutlass was one of the production cars fitted with a version of the Buick 215 V8, an all-aluminum engine that was ahead of its time, and very lightweight at just 318 lbs (144 kgs). Image courtesy of Oldsmobile.
The engine would be used in both naturally-aspirated and turbocharged forms in the Buick Special and the Oldsmobile Jetfire respectively, and versions of the engine would be used in a number of others including the Oldsmobile Rockette, Cutlass, and Turbo-Rocket, and the Pontiac Tempest and LeMans.
Ultimately the production of the all-aluminum engine in the USA would be cut short, as the engine was eventually replaced with an all-iron V8 of a similar design that was cheaper to produce and easier to maintain.
This wouldn’t be the end of life for the Buick 215 V8 however, the rights to the design and the tooling would be bought by British automaker Rover. They would produce their own version of the engine, the Rover V8, for decades powering everything from the MGB GT V8 to the Rover SD1, and cars from TVR, Marcos, Morgan, Triumph, Land Rover, Range Rover, Ginetta, Leyland, Bowler, and more.
Building The Geoff Crossley Special
Geoff Crossley built this vehicle by hand as his own personal race car, it’s said to have taken him over 5,000 hours of labor stretched out over the six years between 1968 and 1974. There are plenty of amateurs who build cars of varying degrees of quality in their garage, but it’s important to note that Crossley wasn’t one of them – he was a professional.
Originally from Poulton-le-Fylde in Lancashire, England, Crossley worked as a foreman in a specialist body repair shop. He had also been building his own successful race cars since the late 1950s, his first was a Lotus-Climax that had been wrecked which he then then rebuilt by hand.
The Geoff Crossley Special is a completely unique racing car with a bespoke spaceframe chassis and hand-shaped aluminum bodywork that was built by Geoff Crossley in the late 1960s and into the 1970s.
In the 1960s he would build his first self-designed Crossley-Climax sports car, this would be the vehicle he would race with significant success over 10 years alongside some of the motorsports biggest names, including Jackie Stewart, and amassing 40 trophies from 200+ race starts.
Towards the end of the 1960s he decided to build a new car from scratch, incorporating all the lessons he had learned from years of hands-on racing. He developed his own spaceframe chassis using 350 feet of lightweight high-grade aircraft-specification steel tube (both square and round section), then clothed it in a series of svelte alloy panels that were individually hand-shaped before fitment.
A lightweight Buick V8-derived engine was fitted, it’s a highly-modified engine with a displacement of 220 cubic inches or 3.6 liters.
This engine is fitted with four twin-choke Weber carburetors, multi-branch inlet and exhaust manifolds, and it has a shallower-than-standard sump allowing the engine to sit lower. Internally, the engine has Iskenderian racing camshafts, a Mallory ignition, and competition valve-gear that retains the hydraulic lifters.
Crossley is said to have raced the car for the first time at the Barbon Manor Hill Climb, then at a number of similar events and circuit races through the mid-1970s. As is often the case, the car took a back seat when children came along, however the car is said to have always been looked after, tinkered with in the garage, and kept in excellent condition.
The Geoff Crossley Special uses a highly modified Buick 215 V8 designed for racing. It’s topped with four twin-choke Weber carburetors and internally it has Iskenderian racing camshafts, a Mallory ignition, and competition valve-gear that retains the hydraulic lifters.
It’s now coming up for sale for the first time in history, it’s being offered for sale by the family of its original creator, and it comes with its own purpose-built trailer to make it easy to transport to and from various circuits and hill climbs.
If you’d like to read more about the Geoff Crossley Special you can visit the listing here. It’s due to roll across the auction block with Bonhams on the 12th of July with a price guide of £30,000 – £50,000 or approximately $38,000 – $63,400 USD. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bonhams
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