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.
I wonder if we've ever discussed them before? https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/chrysler-airflow-one-tough-car.510853/
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.
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: image by @50Fraud 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: photographer unknown - posted by @no bux rod photographer unknown image by @HEMI32
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
I was impressed with this one at the Henry Ford Museum. Sent from my VS835 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
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.