Rare Rides Icons continues the history of Imperial today, after Part I left us neatly at what would become an unfortunate aerodynamic turning point. Ready for some Airflow?
Imperial’s big sweeping fenders lead into wide running boards while driving lamps presented themselves on stalks in front of superbly upright and formal chrome grille work. Bodies were of the coachbuilt variety, and wore badges by LeBaron and Dietrich, among others. But it was a new era of aerodynamic design at Chrysler, and all of those legacy looks had to go.
The basis for what became the third-generation Imperial of 1934 was Chrysler’s Airflow. Chrysler had big, bold aspirations with its new car, and proudly proclaimed the Airflow as the first full-size domestic production car that used streamlining as a basis of design. Smooth shapes punched much cleaner holes in the air and meant less resistance. That meant better performance, much quieter operation, and an entirely new profile for the full-size automobile.
The Airflow project was in its design phase in the late Twenties, as Chrysler engineers conducted wind tunnel testing with the assistance of one Mister Orville Wright. The end goal was to discover the best, most natural forms for wind resistance that could still be applied to a passenger car (since it couldn’t just be an airplane fuselage). Today a designer would breathlessly call it an organic design methodology but such terms were not lexicon then.
By April of 1930 more than 50 tests had been conducted with scale model shapes. What Chrysler found was the en vogue formal two-box shape was generally more aerodynamic if it were driven backward. Alongside the education about streamlining, engineers considered new construction methods. A separate chassis with a coachbuilt body on top was heavy and inefficient, even if it was what the public was used to (and desired).
“But what about a unibody?” said Chrysler. Less weight and more rigidity meant a better car, so they set to it.
The unibody construction and the aerodynamic body were breakthroughs never before seen in the automotive world. The Airflow and its counterparts wore full steel bodies with steel structures underneath, foregoing the traditional involvement of dead trees. Chrysler was very pleased with its design, which also lent itself to much safer weight distribution. Two-box cars had too much weight over the rear wheels with their heavy bodies and engines aft of the front wheels – a problem that was exacerbated when they were fully loaded. With around 75 percent of the weight at the rear, very stiff leaf springs were necessary which made for a harsher ride. In less than ideal traction conditions, it also meant dangerous oversteer when the back tires broke free and then swung the car around like a pendulum.
Airflow addressed this problem by moving its engine forward, over the front wheels. That meant the passenger compartment was moved forward too, so weight was concentrated in the middle, and nobody was sitting over the rear axle. As a result, the cab-forward Airflow had around 54 percent of its weight over the front wheels, which made for a near 50:50 weight distribution when loaded with people. No harsh rear springs were required, which made for much better ride quality and handling.
The breakthrough aerodynamic “Imperial Airflow Series” was introduced in 1934, with a new slogan, “The car of tomorrow is here today.” Gone were the past coachbuilding offerings, as Imperial’s factory shapes were limited to a two-door coupe, four-door sedan, or longer four-door limousine. When it debuted there were three different wheelbases on offer: CV at 128 inches, CX at 137.5 inches, and the longest CW of 146 inches. CV models used a 324 cubic inch (5.3L) Chrysler inline-eight, which for the first time was the exact same engine used in its Chrysler counterpart. CV cars were more affordable than their Imperial predecessors and started at $1,625, or just under $34,000 adjusted. The mid-length CX was limited to four-door body styles called Sedan, Limousine, or Town Limousine.
CX was a decent jump in price to $2,345 ($48,700 adj) and left plenty of room for the cream of the crop Series CW. The 146-inch wheelbase CW came with length and pricing, its full name the Imperial Custom Airflow Series CW, as the Custom name returned to denote a top trim. Like CX, CW was available as Sedan, Limousine, or Town Limousine, but it used the largest 385 cubic-inch (6.3L) inline-eight. That engine was an entire liter larger than the largest available on the Chrysler Airflow. For all its grandiose nature, the CW asked an even $5,000, or $103,900 adjusted. Transmissions on baser Imperials were a three-speed manual, while longer wheelbase customers received a four-speed manual with overdrive.
In the early Thirties, the Imperial was in the (more conservative) super luxury class alongside the Rolls-Royce Phantom III, Cadillac Series 90, Packard Twelve, and the Mercedes-Benz 770. In its first year, Chrysler shifted 2,277 CV cars, 106 mid-level CX, and 67 top-tier Custom CWs. Given those figures, a problem was immediately apparent to Chrysler: The vast majority of consumers hated how the Airflow design looked, in any guise. They were put off by its radical shapes, big sweeping grille, and lack of a trunk. The year after the Airflow, Chrysler released a new version of the more common Six model called the Airstream. While it was basically a heavy refresh, the Airstream wore more conventional Chrysler looks. Chrysler hoped it could sell Airstream along with the halo Airflow models and drum up additional sales.
But they didn’t have to drum up anything, as Airstream immediately outsold the Airflow. Airstream was more traditional and thus more appealing, and cost much less than the Chrysler Airflow, much less the haughty Imperial. Airstream outsold the Airflow five to one in its debut year, and nine to one in ’36. Meanwhile, the Imperial series was renamed C-2, C-3, and CW for 1935, and was largely a continuation of the prior year using leftover materials made for the 1934 model year.
Actual changes for 1935 included a slight resizing of the CX (C-2), which shrunk its wheelbase from 137.5 inches to 137. The CW picked up that length however and grew from 146 to 146.5 inches. The already limited sales from Imperial’s debut year remained stable in 1935, with 2,598 C-2s, 125 C-3s, and 32 CWs. Airflow’s end was near.
1936 was the final year for the Airflow Imperial, as it bowed out a year earlier than its Chrysler sibling. New for its curtain call was a distinctive mesh grille, a revised (no longer smooth) rear that allowed a luggage compartment for storage aside from the spare tire, and a roof completely made of steel. The final cars were renamed again, to Series C-10, C-11, and CW. The C-10 managed 4,500 sales in ’36, but the C-11 fell to 75 examples, while the CW sold only 11. From its debut year, base pricing dropped about 20 percent on the C-10 and 5 percent on the C-11.
Chrysler took a risk with its third edition Imperial, and by and large, the public responded with “Or not.” The following year, Chrysler retorted with a fourth Imperial that returned to form and was bound to bring its traditional customer base back into the fold. Until next time.
[Images: Chrysler]
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Sensational looking car.
Really, I find them quite homely like the bathtub Packards.
:-(
Packard? In 1949, Batman drives Mercury Convertible – look it up.
(Bring five or six cars; we might wreck some due to poor cornering characteristics. Discuss it with Hank the Deuce if you like, but don’t try to buy Ford stock in 1949.)
The Airflow was quite advanced for it’s day, but like you say the radical styling was too much too fast for wide acceptance. There was even a higher trim Imperial that had more Art Deco trim pieces applied everywhere that gave it quite a look
For just a half-million you too can own one of these rare Imperials
https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/chrysler/airflow/2469140.html
There’s an interesting story that goes along with that ad
Wow.
All that Art Deco is wild, huh? $25K new in 1937
I don’t know. It seems more art moderne than art deco.
Yeah, awesome find – worth every penny. I can’t believe how clean that is.
It’s truly a museum piece which is a shame because I would want to ride around in it and sip 100 year old anything out of those cups
The airflow chassis was good enough for Cecil Turtle in Tortoise Wins by a Hare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQKOdfcarbs (at 2:43).
That’s clever and funny.
:-)
(Alec Baldwin at the end is a nice touch.)
The whole point of analog controls is lost when you have eight identical black knobs in three vertical stacks, labeled in small black letters on what I am sure is an unlit panel. Almost as bad as a Tesla!
These were chauffeur driven, nobody cared what he could see or not
What a beautiful car. And thank you for describing all the improvements, including the unibody and the weight distribution changes.
I’m enjoying learning about this as I go along. Didn’t plan for the Airflow to be its own segment but there was much to cover.
I’d buy the car listed over on Hemmings just to lounge in it for a few hours each day. In my tophat, of course.
Nice interior room which is sorely lacking in today’s cars. Beautiful cars and really the height of luxury for their time.
I could stare all day at the marketing brochure. Compare to today’s adverts. Such optimism, class, elegance and promotion of beauty and art. I don’t understand the gravitation of every aspirational vehicle today with plastic body kits, Blacked-Out, Zombie Killing End Of Times bug out vehicle.
From this to the K-Car derivative with an ultradrive transaxle. Barf!
Do they even make brochures anymore?
Well done, Corey! Keeps me coming back to TTAC.
Thank you!
Agree CaddyDaddy such optimism, class, elegance and promotion of beauty and art. We have become less of these things and more crass as a society. Sure we have all the techno wizardry but we have lost our civility. Many don’t have the ability to carry on a civil conversation. Corporations today would never advertise in a way that emulates class, elegance, and beauty.
It is not that we lost civility. The problem is that spoiled children who become young adults now dominate the conversations and we adults easily succumb or get cancelled.
True there are spoiled children who have become adults but there are more than 1 generation of them.
It all started with Dr. Spock in 1950s and went increasingly crazier ever since. And add here European neo-Marxists who immigrated here from Germany and took over American education system. Boomers were the first generation which was a product of this new everything goes philosophy.
I doubt the schools could teach civility and manners it is assumed that should be taught by the parents but the problem is when the parents don’t know how to act then how are they going to teach their children. It use to be that the schools and church would be institutions that would assist in teaching children civility. Today schools would likely be banned from that and churches and other religious institutions are less important for most. Respect for you elders and putting others first are something that was taught in previous generations. When growing up many of us ate at the same table for our meals, dressed up on Sundays and attended religious services together and had Sunday suppers dressed up expected to be on our best behavior with our best manners. Thank You, Yes Sir and Yes Mam along with opening doors for ladies and our elders. Many have lost their civility.
I can envision smoking cigarettes and telling dirty jokes with Mae West in the back of this thing.
A really innovative car for its time. Very good article. Thanks Corey for another interesting well written story.
I’ve just recently watched Sunset Boulevard and wonder if an article about the Isotta Frischini would fit in a similar article group.
Don’t think I’d heard of that, but I’ll see about coming up with something.