The Crossle Car Company, located in Holywood near Belfast is the oldest constructor of racing cars in the UK. John Crossle built and raced his own car in 1957 and shortly afterwards went into business producing Crossle cars for the Ulster Ford Formula class. Over 1,000 Crossle racing cars have been designed and built in the last 55 years, a remarkable achievement especially through the terrible troubles in Northern Ireland for many decades. The list of famous drivers who raced Crossles includes Nigel Mansell, John Watson, Eddie Irvine, Derek Daly, David Kennedy and Eddie Jordan.

The Crossle Car Company made a diverse number of cars for various single-seater
formula, many exported to the USA , as well as sports-racing cars and the current
ingenius sporting trials car. Many of these cars are still being raced to-day.

Arnie Black bought the Crossle Car Company in 1997, and Dr.John Crossle continued as chief designer – cum advisor.  Arnie, a very successful driver of Crossle cars in Formula Ford 1600 and 2000, and Crossle 9S sportscars, has now stepped down and handed the reins to Paul McMorran who is  the new Managing Director of the Crossle Car Company.

Born in Belfast in 1958, Paul studied at Belfast Royal Academy before taking a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Edinburgh . He workd at Harland and Wolff, the Belfast shipyard, learning welding and fabrication skills. He has 32 years experience in the petroleum industry, in South-East Asia, Middle East, West Africa and Continental Europe. From 1998 he held executive positions with major Russian oil companies.

As well as his engineering and business background, Paul is fluent in French and Russian.

He has raced a number of Crossle cars and won the ADAC Von Trips Cup in Germany , Dutch Historic Monoposto Championship, and the pre-82 Formula Ford Championship at Kirkistown.  He drove the ex-John Watson Formula 3 Crossle 17F to third place at the Monaco Historic race meeting in 2010.

McMorran brings a wealth of engineering and marketing expertise to the Crossle Car Company and in his own words he looks forward to “an exciting new chapter in the history of this unique company”.

New Crossle Managing Director Paul McMorran (left) with former Crossle racers Ken Fildes (Dublin) and Brian Nelson (Hillsborough).

The Crossle 12F (blue car) won the Formula B Championship in American in 1968, pictured with a the iconic Crossle 9S sports-racing car in the Crossle Car Company workshops.