Vintage Thing No. 83 - Chrysler Heston Airflow

At the National Railway Museum in York, to emphasize the importance of streamlining in pre-war industrial design, some inspired person had arranged for a Chrysler Airflow saloon to be parked next to the Duchess of Hamilton. The Duchess of Hamilton has been rebuilt with the eye catching fairings it had when new. Many streamlined engines lost them during WW2 when speeds were slow and access problems hampered maintenance. Mallard is probably the most iconic of Britain's wind-cheating locomotives but the LMS engines were their great rivals. And they had go-faster stripes.

So what would the streamlining enthusiast have chosen for his motor car? From stepping off the Coronation Scot hauled by the Duchess of Hamilton to his Schneider Trophy winning Supermarine seaplane, our man would have travelled in a Chrysler Heston Airflow.

The Chrysler Heston Airflow - Chrysler Charlton Heston Airflow sounds impossibly heroic - was the UK version, modified for use in Blighty by the importers based in Kew, who had a penchant for naming the UK-market Chryslers after London suburbs such as Kingston and Richmond. Shame there wasn't a Chrysler Tooting. Anyway, the looks of the original Airflow proved controversial in its home country so the Chrysler Heston Airflow was re-styled slightly. Personally I think it looks better for it.

It struck me long ago how outward looking American car manufacturers were before WW2. Many black and white films from that era based in far flung corners of the world have Chevies and Dodges serving as taxicabs. The US was exporting cars, penetrating markets they subsequently gave up on. After WW2, the US auto industry had enough on its plate satisfying domestic demand and satisfied expansionist aims abroad by developing local designs for specific markets.

In some ways the Chrysler Airflow and its contemporaries pointed the way to later Detroit thinking about "world cars" for the Heston variety featured right hand drive, servo brakes and an overdrive gearbox. Other Chrysler models even had small bore motors to deal with the ludicrous tax system based on a car's RAC rating, which was a function of its cylinder bore. But whatever the regional differences, all Chrysler Airflows, whether built in the US or Canada or tweaked by the concessionaires at Kew, were recognised across the globe as being the same car.

The original Chrysler Airflow looked like no other car when it was introduced in the US in 1934. Photo : Randy Stern

As far as I know the Duchess of Hamilton never went into a wind tunnel but the Chrysler Airflow was born in one. Carl Breer, Fred Zeder and Owen Skelton set out to determine the most aerodynamic forms and the Airflow was the result of their endeavours. Wilbur Wright was also consulted on the cars aerodynamics and their studies showed that the typical American car of the thirties cleaved the air more cleanly if travelling backwards - a slight usually heaped just on the Austin Allegro.

It seems obvious now but if you paid attention to the aerodynamic form you got free horsepower or used less fuel. It also gave your products impact and excitement.

But the Chrysler Airflow was a bit too rad. When I first saw one I thought it ugly. The years have been kinder to it but back in 1934 it was too extreme. The Heston version is easier on the eye.

Less streamlined than the original Airstream, I reckon the Heston looks better.

On paper, the Airflow had a lot going for it. It had a semi-monocoque bodyshell and was famously strong with publicity films showing it tumbling down a cliff before being driven off again. There was no structural wood and its power-to weight ratio was an industry leader. The packaging was good, too, with the widest front seat in its class and an umbrella handbrake to make the most of this broad bench seat. The engine was mounted further forward to achieve a 50/50 weight distribution and increase space further, with the passengers seated between the wheels rather than on top of them.

At its launch, the Chrysler Airflow was upstaged by Buckminster Fuller's "Dymaxion" car, which looked even weirder, although this was not a production car. Fuller described it as a study into the taxing mode of a flying car but it suffered a fatal accident, prompting claims it was unstable.

The main problem with the Airflow was that the welding processes in manufacturing often failed, compromising build quality and structural integrity. Its looks counted against it and competitors capitalised on this with slur campaigns. Unfounded rumours suggested it was unsafe and that "ground hugging weight" made more conventional cars hold the road better.

Chrysler reacted quickly and produced the Airstream, a much more conservative design in keeping with the rest of the industry's idea of what streamlining should look like without having actually been - well, streamlined. In Britain, the Airstream became the Airglide, because that pesky limey outfit Singer had already registered the name as a trademark as the enthusiasm for all things streamlined and fastbacked spread.

Inside an American Airflow. Photo : Trekphiler

In subsequent production years, the Airflow soldiered on but progressively acquired a more conventional grille in 1935 and a boot (or trunk) in 1936. The Airflow's final year was 1937 and its failure to inspire the American buying public has been cited by many historians as the cause for Chrysler's conservative styling from then on until Virgil Exner successfully persuaded the board to push the styling theme forward from the middle of the fifties. Some theories suggest that the Airflow made so many older Chryslers look so old overnight that secondhand sales and trade in values suffered, as if designed obsolesence had got out of hand. A more carefully managed approach to updating the group's cars was certainly the result.

Few Heston Airflows were sold in 1934 so many were kept in stock and sold the following year with updated grilles and an "L" added to the model designation, L being the engineering department's code for the 1934 model year. Thus the CU model Airflow became the CUL. Any not sold in 1935 had an M added to become a CUM in 1936. Therefore, a 1936 Airflow could've been built the year before or the year before that!

I think that by 1936 they'd given up making new Airflows although they were still offered until 1937.

The Heston Airflow had a baby brother in the form of the Croydon Airflow, which was a re-badged De Soto masquerading as a six-cylinder Chrysler. There was also a Royal Airflow, in actuality a Chrysler Airflow Imperial. Michael Sedgwick, the motoring historian, described these as elephantine, for they rode on a 146 inch wheelbase, weighed over 2 tons, did 10 miles to the gallon with a 6318cc nine bearing engine and could be had as a saloon or limo. Sedgwick reckoned only two Royal Airflows were imported, one sporting the updated grille for 1935.

That spare wheel cover is a lovely shape - but what does it do to the airflow?

So this 1935 Chrysler Heston Airflow is a rare survivor. Never common, it has somehow avoided fuel crises, being used as a stock car (the fate of many big yankee cars when the MOT test came in) and the terrible twilight existence of being old, fast and cheap, which is where I usually catch up with classic cars.

The powerplant was a typical Chrysler product of the time, a side valve straight 8. It doesn't sound very inspiring until you get to the cubic capacity - a rather superlative 5296cc from a bore and stroke of 82.5 x 123.8mm. The RAC rating was 33.8hp so it was expensive to run but the manufacturer's quoted horsepower was 122 at 3,400rpm on a 6:1 compression ratio. I haven't any torque figures but it was probably "adequate". An optional aluminium head pushed the CR up to 6.5:1 and later versions of this same 5 bearing engine put out 138bhp for a 90mph top speed by the outbreak of WW2.

In short, this was American state of the art. It was just the sort of engine that excited the chaps at Railton and Brough Superior, chaps who combined US engines with lightweight British chassis and coachwork to produce what Michael Sedgwick (him again) so aptly called "Anglo-American bastards." They had no pedigree but were pre-war supercars and something of a bargain compared with a Bentley or an Alvis or a Lagonda.

It strikes me, though, that the Chrysler Heston Airflow was already lighter than the average US sedan so could have rivalled these supercars and it's interesting to note that Chrysler in Kew seemed to have had the same idea.

In 1937, Chrysler UK briefly offered the Super Power Eight with this very engine. The bodywork was designed by racing driver and record breaker Capt George Eyston and built by Carlton and although it weighed 35 cwt it could nearly do the ton. About half a dozen were built and one survives although I've never seen it. Illustrations show a kind of British Airflow.

It also strikes me how similar The Chrysler Airflow was to the Citroen Traction Avant. These cars were contemporaries and pushed the boat out for technology. They looked lower and racier than practically anything on the road. Both caused huge problems for their manufacturers. But one car has entered the hall of motoring fame and the other one hasn't. One found a place in the hearts of its people, the other barely gets a memorable mention anywhere.

It's interesting to note that although we know who designed the original Airflow, those responsible for the facelifting have gone unrecorded.

It seems incredible that this is an anonymous design but Sir William Stanier certainly did not produce those lines. The question is, who did?

There's a fascinating parallel with the Duchess of Hamilton, here. Although clearly a Stanier pacific, Sir William Stanier hated streamlining! The designer responsible was probably Tommy Coleman, one of his senior draughtsmen.

Didn't he do well?