John Bingham, 53 of Leawood, is intrigued by his 1935 C1 Chrysler Airflow because it was such a seminal automobile in the way it pioneered aerodynamic streamlining.
According to the Airflow Club of America website, the first Airflow prototype was completed in 1932 but the idea for it dates to 1927 when Carl Breer, executive engineer and director of research for Chrysler, saw what he thought was a flock of geese. The geese turned out to be squadron of aircraft, but it caused Breer to think about using aerodynamics in automotive design.
Breer began to study shapes in a small wind tunnel, the first to be used by an automobile company. He concluded that the optimum vehicle shape was like that of a teardrop: wide and round in front, tapered toward the back. Most cars of the time were designed to be just the opposite: narrow in front and wider in back.
To achieve a teardrop shape, engineers had to place the engine over the front axle and move the passenger compartment forward 20 inches. The front seat was wider than the back and the roof sloped downward. The hood, grille and fenders were short and round. The body contained a truss-like internal support structure. The transmission was equipped with overdrive and freewheeling while the brakes were hydraulic.
The first production Airflow was built in 1934, the last in 1937. After 1934, the grille was given a more conventional style.
Bingham’s car underwent a frame-on restoration in the early 1990s by Harold C. “Kit” Carson and his son, Jon, who owns Fenders and Fins Auto Restoration and Painting in Woodinville, Wash.. They painted the car in Carson’s barn, one piece at a time.
“As the paint was stripped we found some curious history under each succeeding layer,” Jon wrote in a letter to Bingham. “On the driver’s door we found the words ROAD HOG and the number 96 on the passenger door. If the old girl could talk, imagine the stories she could tell.”
Carson unveiled the completed restoration at an Airflow national meet in Seattle in 1990 and it took home the first of many trophies. He is 89 today and drives his restored 1954 Plymouth Valiant Signet convertible to car shows near his home on Whidbey Island north of Seattle.
In 2004, when Carson decided he was no longer able to care for the Airflow adequately, he sold it to Bingham, also an aircraft enthusiast. Bingham said he chose the car “because of it’s advanced aerodynamic background and excellent comfort and driveability on today’s roads.”
