Start with what the Chrysler Airflow is: a 4-door sedan / 2-door coupe with 298.65 CID Chrysler flathead engine#Straight-8, built from 1934 to 1937, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Oliver Clark.
How it came about
The Chrysler Airflow is a full-size car produced by Chrysler from 1934 to 1937. The Airflow was the first full-size American production car to use streamlining as a basis for building a sleeker automobile, one less susceptible to air resistance.
Chrysler made a significant effort at a fundamental change in automotive design with the Chrysler Airflow, but it was ultimately a commercial failure due to a lack of market acceptance and controversial appearance. Chrysler also marketed a companion model under the DeSoto brand, the DeSoto Airflow, and the appearance was also offered on the Chrysler Imperial. In 2022, Chrysler announced that the Airflow name would be resurrected for an electric crossover SUV.
The hardware
The engine is 298.65 CID Chrysler flathead engine#Straight-8; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Drive goes through a 3-speed manual floor shift. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is CW Airflow Custom Imperial: 146.5 in / Airflow Eight: 123.5 in / CV Airflow Imperial Eight: 128.0 in / CX Airflow Custom Imperial 137.5 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
In the Chrysler line-up the Chrysler Airflow has a clear place: it replaced the Chrysler Royal; the factory was Highland Park Chrysler Plant, Highland Park, Michigan, United States. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Chevrolet Suburban, the Bugatti Type 57, the Bugatti type 49 sedan. Its Chrysler stablemates include the Chrysler Falcon and the Chrysler Chronos.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Chrysler Airflow — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.