on its Model A from 1921, followed by
Maxwell-Chalmers, at a time when Walter
Chrysler was running Maxwell. A full year
and a half before the Chrysler Corporation
was formed, Maxwell began making a car
called the Chrysler, powered by a six-cyl-
inder, high-compression engine, and using
a re-engineered version of the original
Lockheed hydraulic drum brakes.
Where Lockheed had used leather
seals, which were prone to leaking, the
redesigned Chrysler setup used rubber
seals and a different type of fluid. Chrysler
worked out a deal with Lockheed where
the latter charged no royalties for its patents
used by Chrysler, while the newly minted
automaker would allow Lockheed to use
the improved design. Even as other auto-
makers slowly began adopting hydraulic
brakes, it would be almost a decade and a
half before the Ford became the last Ameri-
can automaker to begin installing them on
all of its cars.
TORSION-BAR SUSPENSION
For most of the automobile industry, front-
end suspension pretty much followed the
course of hard axles with leaf springs mak-
ing way for independent setups with coil
springs. But not Chrysler. As always, Chrys-
ler followed its own path to an independent
front end when it adopted a torsion-bar
front end in 1957, using it across its entire
passenger car lineup, from compacts to the
biggest Imperials, for decades.
Again, not a Chrysler invention, and
coming on the heels of Packard’s own inno-
vative, but short-lived four-wheel torsion-
bar setup that ended with that storied
company, Chrysler’s Torsion-Aire suspension
used long, chrome-steel rods that were con-
nected at the lower control arm in front, ran
parallel to the subframe rails, and termi-
nated with a fixed connection at the frame.
As the control arms moved over bumps or
when cornering, the torsion bars resisted
the wheels movement and acted to keep the
tire’s contact patch on the pavement as well
as fighting body roll. There was no actual air
involved in the Torsion-Aire suspension at
all, but it made for great marketing.REPLACEABLE OIL FILTER
Ernest Sweetland and George Greenhalgh
are credited with inventing the first automo-
tive oil filtration system in 1923, and the
duo’s “Purolator” invention was later granted
a patent in 1929. In the meantime, Chrysler
adopteditonthefirstChryslerautomobile,which came from the Maxwell factory.
The replaceable filter is not the spin-on
type we think of today, integrated into the
full-pressure system, but rather an element
that was downstream of the pump, before
the pressurized fluid reached the bearings.
Despite not being as effective as later, more
modern filters, it was a far cry from simple
screens before the pumps that could only
be cleaned with major maintenance.AERODYNAMIC BODY
Before the Chrysler Airflow, automobile
designs were just that—designs; any
streamlining was purely a stylistic flourish
and not grounded in any aerodynamic
principles. With the Airflow, Chrysler bet
the farm on the advancements offered by
the car’s wind tunnel proving lines. To say
it was a groundbreaking change would be
anunderstatement.FCAspecialsection: chrysler classics 51