One of the first Crocker 'big twins', serial #8 from 1936, a 'small tank' model, to be raffled off. The Crocker was a limited-production factory hot-rod, and equalled the HRD Series A Rapide twin, introduced the same year, as the fastest production motorcycles in the world. Curiously, both machines had about the same production figures - 'around 75' - and both are obscenely expensive today
Just in time for the EJ Cole auction in Las Vegas (I'll be your 'color man' on the podium), in which a Crocker will be sold among many other very rare American machines, comes news of the Megabike Raffle. The basic premise is simple; as a fundraiser for the Amelia Island Foundation, Dale Walksler of the Wheels Through Time Museum has put up one of his Crockers (#8, an original 'hemi-head' model) as the grand prize in a raffle. There will be a limit of 5000 tickets sold, and each ticket is $1000, although there's a discounted rate for buying multiple tickets.
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Dale Walksler with the engine that started the ball rolling...
Dale found the engine of #8 from a fax image of the serial number (36-61-8), and managed to secure this super-rare early hemi-head Crocker motor from the estate of Jack Reddeman of Fresno. Reddeman had collected some famous Crocker machines, including the Sam Parriott land speed record racer, which used twin carbs. The whole machines were long gone, but an engine remained from the pile - #8. (Read more about Crocker history here)
David Uhl's painting 'The Discovery', part of the grand prize
The Crocker isn't the only prize - the winner also gets and original David Uhl oil painting 'The Discovery' (of Dale uncovering the bike in a barn), plus $100k in cash. Yow. Every ticket included a lifetime membership at the Wheels Through Time Museum, and a print of the David Uhl painting. Check out more here; somebody is going to win a Crocker.
