John Crosthwaite

John Crosthwaite (1925–2010) was an English race car designer and engineer, active in both the United Kingdom and the United States.

Early Life

John Crosthwaite was born at Thornaby Hall, Thornaby-on-Tees, Yorkshire on 9 October 1925. He was godson to Harold Macmillan a family friend and local MP. He had three older sisters and a younger brother.

His father, Cedric, was in the Royal Flying Corps in the Great War and raced cars and motor cycles. John had a fascination with cars, motorbikes and aeroplanes from an early age.

John Crosthwaite examining Ford Mercury. Front wheel in mine hole. Greece 1949

During the war he worked at A.V. Roe & Co AVRO doing final assembly of Lancaster Bombers. Despite being in a reserved occupation he tried to join the RAF but during the medical discovered he was colour blind. He continued to volunteer for other services until AV Roe finally released him to join the Royal Marine Commandos.

Following the war in the far east he left the Royal Marine Commandos and joined the police force for a short period but he could not settle. He was offered a job in Malaya and as an adventure decided to travel overland. John bought a 1944 Canadian Ford Mercury V8 estate ex War Dept. and along with a friend travelled through France, Italy, then steamer to Greece. They encountered bandits, civil war in Greece, fuel shortages, mines and mine holed roads. They found a way across the closed border to Istanbul, Turkey where they were arrested and interrogated. On release they crossed into Syria through Damascus, then via Baghdad to Basra in Iraq and finally Ahwaz, Iran. Because of the awful state of the roads and despite ongoing repairs, the vehicle finally gave up. His friend joined the Iraq Petroleum Company, John returned home.

Career

On his return to Britain he went to work as an apprentice at Armstrong Siddeley. Here in 1952 he met Tommy Sopwith, son of the great T.O.M. Sopwith, who was also doing an apprenticeship at his father’s factory. They got on well and as Sopwith was interested in sports car racing and knew John was knowledgeable about cars he asked John to be his mechanic. In 1954 Crosthwaite worked with John Cooper of Cooper cars supervising production of Equipe Endeavour sports cars on Sopwith’s behalf. He was therefore in at the beginning of and influenced by the rear engined revolution in motor racing.

Colin Chapman in Lotus 11 at British Grand Prix, Formula 2 Race, Silverstone 1956 . John Crosthwaite on right leaning on car

Because of Equipe Endeavour's success, John was approached by other teams and drivers but he was quite happy with Tommy. However at the end of the 1955 season at Oulton Park, Tommy had an accident, rolled the Cooper Climax and was quite badly hurt after he ‘overcooked it’ on one of the corners. Tommy's father told him he could continue racing but only in saloon cars. John did not want to work in saloon car racing so he thanked Tommy and decided to move on. Whilst racing at Aintree John had met a young lady, Joan, and was smitten. They married in April 1955 and with a baby on the way he needed to support his family so tried to decide on the best team to join.

In autumn 1955 he joined Colin Chapman who was starting Lotus cars. Crosthwaite was Chapman’s mechanic and they raced all over the UK, at Le Mans, Imola and Monza. He worked alongside Graham Hill, then a gearbox mechanic and Mike Costin, the 'Cos' in Cosworth.

In late 1956 the Suez Crisis meant that petrol was rationed in the UK and motor racing banned. Colin Chapman asked if Crosthwaite would go to the USA with Team Lotus as he needed a senior mechanic to prepare the Lotus cars for the Sebring 12 hour race in March 1957. Following the race Crosthwaite went to work for Jay Chamberlain the Lotus importer in California. He also found a lot of work successfully preparing Coopers and Lotus cars for races in California and Nevada.

Early in 1959 racing driver John Biel introduced Crosthwaite to anglophile and race car enthusiast Buddy Hull. Buddy had come into some money and was very keen to get involved in building race cars himself. They started as a partnership, Hull as MD and financier and John Crosthwaite to design and build a Formula Junior for their company Dolphin Engineering. This was a single seater mid-engined car with a fibreglass body. The regulations stated that the car’s engine/gearbox were based on a production car of 1000cc or less. The chassis, suspension and bodywork were unrestricted. The chassis was a straight tubular steel space frame. The engine was a 1000cc Fiat, the gearbox an inverted Fiat 600, it had pressed steel wheels and the fibreglass body was made with advice of a local boatbuilder. The front suspension and brakes were modified parts from a non-runner N.S.U. Prinze that John had. The rear suspension he designed and manufactured himself. Late in 1959 the prototype was raced at San Diego and finished 5th. They decided to tidy up the prototype and go into production with the Mk 1 Dolphin. This tidying up turned into a lot more than that so the only thing left of the prototype was the basic chassis frame and bodywork. World Champion Jack Brabham test drove the Mk 1 Dolphin at the Riverside track. The Dolphin Mk 2 used a tuned Ford Anglia engine sourced from Mike Costin and was successfully raced by ex pat Ken Miles. Original Dolphin cars are still raced today and have been raced at Goodwood Revival

John Crosthwaite on left. Bud Hall on right. Jack Brabham driver in Dolphin mk.1. Riverside Raceway 1960

Following the achievements of the Dolphin he came to the attention of Mickey Thompson a well known American involved in drag racing, land speed record attempts and motor racing. Thompson asked Crosthwaite to design a car to race in the 1962 Indianapolis 500. It featured a titanium chassis and unusually used a rear and stock Buick engine. It was the first stock engine to be raced at the Indy 500 since 1935. Working 12-14 hour days he designed and built the cars in 120 days.He was rarely home. Dan Gurney who later went on to a Formula 1 career was in ninth place until a leaking oil seal ended his race. He was placed 20th out of 33. .

John Crosthwaite with chassis of 1962 Indianapolis 500 car. Mickey Thompson machine shop, Long Beach, California 1962

The sponsors were very pleased with the publicity generated that year so for the 1963 Indianapolis 500 John produced the revolutionary Harvey Aluminium Special ‘pancake or roller skate car’ with the then pioneering smaller profile and wide racing wheels. Mickey Thompson took five cars to Indianapolis. Two of the previous year's design with Chevette engines and three 'roller skate' cars. Formula 1 World Champion Graham Hill test drove one of the cars but decided not to race because commitments in Europe meant he had insufficient time to practice. Al Miller raced one of the modified 1962 cars to 8th place.

Soon after the Indy 500 race in 1963 Crosthwaite was approached by and moved to work at Holman Moody the official race contractor for Ford. Ford wanted Holman Moody to give them a price to run an Indianapolis 500 car for 1964. It was far enough fron Los Angeles so he would not tred on Mickey Thompson’s toes. He wanted to work with Ford as they were by far the best engines and they were working on a real race engine not a modified stock. Jim Clark had finished second that year using a Ford engine. Holman Moody were keen for him to start straight away so they could quote a price for Ford. He drew up a chassis using some of the body panels as stressed members, semi-monocoque with the possibility of using a windscreen and enclosed cockpit. However, ironically, soon after he arrived he found that Mickey Thompson had abandoned General Motors and managed to obtain the Ford sponsorship based on Mickey’s 1962/3 performance (with Crosthwaite designed/built cars) and promotional skills. There was no work at Holman Moody in race cars but they suggested Crosthwaite could work on their racing boats.

While he had been at Holman Moody he had a phone call from Tony Rudd Chief Engineer at BRM asking him to go to Watkins Glen race track in New York State. Tony said that Graham Hill wanted John to join BRM and would he like to meet up and discuss details? John said he was busy at the time but when the Ford deal fell through he flew to England and agreed a contract. In early 1964 John returned to the UK to join British Formula 1 team BRM as chassis designer.His first job was to modify the suspension geometry on the P261. Next he worked on Tony Rudd’s ingenious monocoque and engine designs to find a way of mounting the engine, gearbox and rear suspension. His solution was to rigidly mount the engine to the monocoque at the driver’s seatback and the rear suspension on the gearbox/final drive unit. The engine mountings were designed to spread the load over the length of the crankcase to protect the expensive castings in the event of a minor shunt. This was patented by BRM and became the norm in racing.

He worked with legends Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart during some of BRM’s best years. It was his idea to surprise Jackie Stewart by making him a tartan driving seat for his BRM P261 at the 1965 Monaco Grand Prix. Graham Hill finished first and Stewart third. Both Graham Hill and particularly Jackie Stewart liked the way Crosthwaite set up their cars and he was asked by Ken Tyrrell and Matra (Jackie Stewart’s next team) to do consultancy work for them after he left BRM.

John Crosthwaite in duffel coat. Graham Hill in BRM P261. Testing at Folkingham Aerodrome 1965

He continued as a consultant, designed the chassis for the Bob Cumberford shaped car the Intermeccanica Italia, and helped Alan Mann Racing prepare Ford GT40s for the 1966 Le Mans 24 hour race and Spa. Graham Hill drove one of the cars.

Ray Wiggins at Reliant Motor Company was looking for a chassis specialist in 1967 and Crosthwaite moved there first as a consultant to modify the SE4 Coupe chassis and suspension so improving the ride and handling. They were pleased with his modifications and approached him for the job of Chief Engineer. There he designed the chassis for the Reliant Scimitar GTE working closely with Ogle stylist Peter Bailey. Later he drew up the chassis for the Tom Karen Ogle styled Bond Bug and the Kitten.

In the early 1974 he was head hunted along with five other car engineers and executives including George Turnbull by the South Korean company Hyundai Motor Company to help start up their now thriving car production company. This led to the production of the Hyundai Pony in 1975

By the late 70’s and ever restless he returned to England to start his own company, Reef Engineering, to produce and export open top cars for holiday resorts in the Seychelles and the West Indies. They were called Cubs, the chassis based on his Kitten design and the body styled by Peter Bailey. He also designed and produced motorboats and Icarus sailboards.

He was a member of the Car and General Technical Board for the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders from 1968 to 1974 and a member of the British Racing Drivers Club until 1974.

John died on 5 September 2010.