The Birth of Chrysler Corporation and Its Engineering Legacy

The Aesthetics of Low Drag Vehicles

“…Breer believed this was the primary cause of the poor sales rather than the new styling. It appears from [16] that given the early wind tunnel results, the body design of the car might have been even more radical as the engineering team favoured a tapered rear end to further reduce the drag which resulted in an unconventional seating arrangement of accommodating three people in the front and two in the rear. However, this feature was compromised by the insistence by the sales team that a car without a threepassenger seat in the rear would be a competitive disadvantage.…”

“…The Chrysler Airflow is frequently quoted as an example of the hesitance in public acceptance of aerodynamic forms for automobiles, although this is disputed by Carl Breer. Breer [16] recounted that early wind tunnel tests began at Chrysler began in the late 1920s.…”

“…However, it becomes clear on reading period literature [including 2,3,14,16,18,20] that many of these designs were the result of experimental research by engineers. Models and full-size vehicles were tested in wind tunnels and road tests were conducted to examine flow regimes (including tufts fixed to vehicles and dust tests) and to evaluate maximum speed and fuel consumption performance.…”