Chrysler Airflow

[aerohead]

Found this online.Pretty fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG55Bf9nWHk

[oldtamiyaphile]

I wonder where people went to see this promotional material? Was it a cinema ad? I don't imagine they'd be playing it on loop at the dealers.

[freebeard]

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2007/07/29/sia-flashback-mopars-star-cars/

By 1936, if the Airflow had had better sales, Chrysler might have produced the Star Car. The two prototypes were tested for 200,000 miles. The first one (seen in the rear) had a conventional front end. The second had the waterfall grille ahead of the water-cooled five cylinder radial engine and front wheel drive.

[steddie]

looks a lot like a vw beetle of 1938

[mcrews]

nice find!!!

[steddie]

maybe thats where the German leader got the idea from in the first place

[freebeard]

mcrews -- I found a lot of stuff in the Hemmings blog a while back. For instance in 1951 Studebaker commissioned a prototype from Porsche (the Type 542) that delivered with two engines, water- and air-cooled 120° V-6s.

SIA Flashback – A Studebaker by Porsche | Hemmings Daily

steddie -- The front hood and fenderline is very similar, but that's about it. Chassis construction and drive train are all different. The progenitor of the Beetle is more likely Josef Ganz or Hans Ledwinka.

History is fun! End of threadjack, sorry aerohead.

Edit: I'm reneging, but maybe I can drag this back on-topic. I went poking around on Hemmings/SIA site looking at the GM and Ford rear-engined experiments linked at the beginning of that post and found this:


http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2007/06/10/sia-flashback-fwd-bendix-swc/

A one-off prototype from the Steel Wheel Corporation (really Bendix) that could easily be mistaken for an Airflow (it has DeSoto grill and headlights). Designed in 1932, finished by 1934; never shown in the USofA—it went to Europe to promote Bendix products

2nd Edit: Man, that thing is weird. Worm gear differential. Steam cooling (!) for the flathead engine. Front A-arms mounted to the engine block/transmission.