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Hot Rods Chrysler air flow

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by birdman1, Jan 20, 2020.

  1. birdman1
    Joined: Dec 6, 2012
    Posts: 1,591

    birdman1
    Member

    Whatever happened to the airflow? It would be a nasty hotrod
     
  2. Jack E/NJ
    Joined: Mar 5, 2011
    Posts: 836

    Jack E/NJ
    Member
    from NJ

  3. Boneyard51
    Joined: Dec 10, 2017
    Posts: 6,442

    Boneyard51
    Member

    My Dads favorite car! Me.....not so much! Lol








    Bones
     
  4. My dad bought one after WWII, he said it was a great car. This was one of the first cars designed in a wind tunnel. Too bad it never caught on with the consumers and not many were made or sold. It was quite an innovative car for the time.
     
    wraymen and chryslerfan55 like this.

  5. squirrel
    Joined: Sep 23, 2004
    Posts: 55,942

    squirrel
    Member

  6. A friend has one that has been sitting a long time. Don't know what shape it's in but i'm sure he would sell it. It's not listed on his website (Partsofthepast.com), but i know he has one.
     
  7. Ed Hegarty & Dave Dozier's #404 XX/VGC '34 DeSoto Airflow (with a supercharged '39 Chrysler 323ci Straight 8 flathead) was campaigned at Bonneville in the '80s & '90s:

    Dozier_Hegarty Trailing Edge T-Shirt (pic by 50Fraud).jpg
    image by @50Fraud

    Dozier_Hegarty DeSoto Airflow - in line - 1989.jpg
    Dozier_Hegarty DeSoto Airflow - in pits - 1989.jpg
    Dozier_Hegarty Desoto Airflow - trunk - 1989.jpg
    Ed Hegarty DeSoto Airflow - Dave Dozier Supercharged Chrysler Straight 8 - 1989.jpg
    Dozier_Hegarty  DeSoto Airflow -  1990.jpg
    images by @HEMI32

    Both Dave & Ed have passed on :( ... but Ed's son, @Mike Hegarty has continued to run the #404 Airflow at B'ville:

    Hegarty_Dozier DeSoto Airflow (by no bux rod).jpg
    photographer unknown - posted by @no bux rod

    Hegarty_Dozier DeSoto Airflow with  Supercharged Chrysler Straight 8 by Cub Barnett.jpg
    photographer unknown

    Mike Hegarty - #404 DeSoto Airflow Bonneville racecar.jpg
    image by @HEMI32
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2020
  8. Frank Carey
    Joined: Oct 15, 2009
    Posts: 574

    Frank Carey
    Member

    That's surely the one I saw on my bucket list trip to the salt in 2001. I think it has a Ford flathead. There was something under the hood that nobody could identify. Somebody finally figured out it was a home-made intercooler. Typical of the unusual stuff that shows up thete.
     
    town sedan and VANDENPLAS like this.


  9. cool car,, not all hotrods have to be Nasty.
     
  10. stanlow69
    Joined: Feb 21, 2010
    Posts: 7,348

    stanlow69
    Member Emeritus

    A few years ago, there was one down the road from you at the Missouri Valley Iowa swapmeet for sale. Incomplete and cheap. $3000 ? Any pic`s of the fenderless one from the east coast.
     
    chryslerfan55 likes this.
  11. X-cpe
    Joined: Mar 9, 2018
    Posts: 1,959

    X-cpe

    25/30 years ago Ken Smith, Wheaton, MD built one. Bright yellow (maybe also magenta at one time), featured in one of the magazines at the time.
     
  12. so cool and slippery at the same time for the 30's.......
     
  13. gene-koning
    Joined: Oct 28, 2016
    Posts: 4,041

    gene-koning
    Member

    I would love to do one, but I can't get past the "buy in" point. Those people are pretty proud of their rusty remains. Gene
     
  14. Any incomplete Airflow is just a parts car. Sometimes 'rare' ain't that special. Kinda like having one of only three Mercedes, and yours is missing some parts and the other two are finished and owned by people you know ain't never gonna sell. You don't have a Mercedes, you just have Mercedes parts.
     
    woody45, Texas Webb and chryslerfan55 like this.
  15. stanlow69
    Joined: Feb 21, 2010
    Posts: 7,348

    stanlow69
    Member Emeritus

    ........
     
    rod1 and chryslerfan55 like this.
  16. Rickybop
    Joined: May 23, 2008
    Posts: 9,606

    Rickybop
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    town sedan, LAROKE, Rich S. and 2 others like this.
  17. birdman1
    Joined: Dec 6, 2012
    Posts: 1,591

    birdman1
    Member

    Always wanted to go to the Henry Ford museum. I have been to the Harold Warp museum in nebraska.and the stuhr museum. There was a airflow sitting next to a shop here when I was a kid.
     
  18. plym_46
    Joined: Sep 8, 2005
    Posts: 4,018

    plym_46
    Member
    from central NY

    It got copied by some guy named Ferdinand Porsche and turned into a rear engined people mover for the masses. It was not very popular, folks weren't ready for such a change from the more conservative lines of it's contemporaries. Took about six years for the next generation of designers to break out there French curve templates.
     
  19. oldpl8s
    Joined: Apr 11, 2007
    Posts: 1,487

    oldpl8s
    Member

    All of the trim is Airflow only so hard to find and expensive. The coupes are rare, for example Chrysler only built 306 coupes in 1935.
    lml-35.jpg
     
  20. Here's a nasty hot rod on ebay for $4299.99:
    s-l400-1.jpg
     
  21. 41 GMC K-18
    Joined: Jun 27, 2019
    Posts: 3,565

    41 GMC K-18
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    The DeSoto Airflow is a very cool stylish automobile. This one is all stock, it belongs to a friend of mine. It was hard to get any really good shots of it in his tightly packed garage. Very cool split windshield that both sides that can be opened separately.
    DSC_1582 (2).JPG DSC_1583 (2).JPG DSC_1591 (2).JPG DSC_1592 (2).JPG
     
  22. moparboy440
    Joined: Sep 30, 2011
    Posts: 1,087

    moparboy440
    Member
    from Finland

    The atmosphere of a smart modern penthouse :rolleyes:
    [​IMG]
     
  23. Frank Carey
    Joined: Oct 15, 2009
    Posts: 574

    Frank Carey
    Member

    Back some 25+ years ago there was an Airflow street rod at NSRA York. I think it was chopped but I remember the car's name was Hairflow.
     
  24. town sedan likes this.
  25. RichFox
    Joined: Dec 3, 2006
    Posts: 10,020

    RichFox
    Member Emeritus

    What? You think that is a Ford Flathead V8? It's a Chrysler straight eight with a blower. No intercooler. Anyone who thinks that is a Ford V8 has to turn in their Hot Rodder card.
    at?
     
    LWEL9226, HEMI32, Hnstray and 2 others like this.
  26. foolthrottle
    Joined: Oct 14, 2005
    Posts: 1,402

    foolthrottle
    Member

    For me the problem is I knew it was a Chrysler inline 8, the other problem is I've always wanted one, oh the shame.
     
  27. RichFox
    Joined: Dec 3, 2006
    Posts: 10,020

    RichFox
    Member Emeritus

    I have a book for sale on Ebay you might want. DSCN0228.JPG
     
    mgtstumpy likes this.
  28. Hnstray
    Joined: Aug 23, 2009
    Posts: 12,355

    Hnstray
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Quincy, IL

    The similarities in design are apparent..however, you might rethink your comment if you do some research on the German (and neighboring Countries) advanced designs of the very early ‘30s. Not only Porsche, but Ledwinka and Kamm were all into aerodynamics in that era.

    Sort of like who ‘invented’ the first airplanes......we know who got most of the credit, but the same thing was going on in many places at the same time.

    I love the looks of that Desoto Bonneville car, so I mean no disrespect when I say it looks like a mashup between a VW/Airflow and a Divco, especially the Divco, which I think came a little later. Two things may be involved. One, ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ and two (more likely) things designed to perform a certain function often turn out looking alike, even when designed a ‘world’ apart, because that is what it took to achieve the goal with available knowledge and materials of the period.

    Ray
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2020
    town sedan likes this.
  29. Rusty O'Toole
    Joined: Sep 17, 2006
    Posts: 9,657

    Rusty O'Toole
    Member

    They stopped using the Airflow name but they never stopped building Airflow cars. Don't believe me? Compare any 1933 or pre Airflow car design to the 1934 - 37 Airflow compared to any make of car made afterward. You will see that no other car before the Airflow, looked like the Airflow, while every car made afterward copied the Airflow with chubbier fenders.
    Ferdinand Porsche visited the US in 1937 to bone up on the latest mass production techniques and design trends. He was well aware of the Airflow but the final version of the VW was copied off a rear engine experimental car built by Briggs for the Ford company. This prototype evolved into the Lincoln Zephyr and its designers used to brag about how they had improved on the Airflow design.

    upload_2020-4-21_15-54-40.jpeg upload_2020-4-21_15-55-5.jpeg
     
    mgtstumpy and town sedan like this.

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