To conceive, design, style and manufacture a car takes a lot of time and effort today, and did so also in the 1930s. To proceed from idea via drawings and scale models to a real car with all that is needed in terms of tools, components and production development, is a process that takes several years.
Ivan Örnberg moved back to Sweden in 1931. At that time neither Hupmobile - where he worked as an engineer - nor Chrysler had come very far with their streamline plans. Hupmobile not at all in fact, because they only got started in 1932 when Raymond Loewy** - maybe the most famous of all industrial designers and automobile stylists in automotive history - was hired by the company in order to boost sales of the slow-selling cars.
At the same time Chrysler's streamline man Carl Breer was still occupied with different scale models in the wind tunnel and Örnberg had already been working a year for Volvo. It is therefore not only difficult but merely impossible, to image a contact, let alone conversations, across the Atlantic between Breer, Loewy and Örnberg on the subject of streamline cars. And pictures could not be transferred quicker than by mail or personal messenger.
The first streamliners
At the beginning of 1934, the Hupmobile Aerodynamic was presented. From the windscreen and forward it had a certain plough like streamline shape, but the rest of it was rather conventional. It was good-looking though without any particular individuality. It had a fully-pressed steel body, including the entire roof, fitted to a separate frame and was from a technical standpoint not in any way extreme.
Extreme, however, describes the definitely more daringly styled Chrysler Airflow - and its cheaper sister car De Soto Airflow - that arrived during the spring of 1934. They had a one-piece rounded front or face, a grille that looked like a waterfall and low-positioned faired-in headlamps.
The body was streamlined with rear-wheel covers and a rear end matching the front end. As opposed to the Hupmobile, and later the Volvo, the Airflow was of unitary design with a very sturdy welded body construction that did not need for a separate frame. But those who did the Chrysler body pressings, however, were not yet capable of such a large pressing as the roof, which meant that this had to be filled up in the usual way with wooden rafters, chicken net and wadding, covered with fabric***.
This was also how the PV36 was going to look a year later. Even the Olofström press plant was not capable of such a large one-piece pressing as the entire roof. Still, the PV36 was Volvo's first car with a pressed-steel body. It rested on a separate frame with substantial cross-bracings but with a relatively short wheelbase. Both Hupmobile and Chrysler had long wheelbases, over three metres, which gave them a much slender look well in harmony with the styling. The PV36 had a 290 cm wheelbase which gave the body a round and chubby look that couldn't really transmit the feeling of flowing speed that the styling was supposed to do. It is interesting to toy with the idea of what the car would have looked like if Örnberg had used the 310 or 325 cm wheelbase instead, both of which were standard at Volvo at the time and used for other models.The artist who did the drawings for the sales brochures and other promotional material did his best to stretch out the car in order to improve its looks but the reality was still there.
But, the Volvo PV36 had a technical upper hand over both the Hupp and the Chrysler, unfortunately not to be seen from the outside but felt when driving: it used an independent front suspension - with the front wheels moving independently of each other during vertical movements - which greatly improved handling and ride as opposed to a beam axle.
photo:Volvo Group
Ivan Örnberg moved back to Sweden in 1931. At that time neither Hupmobile - where he worked as an engineer - nor Chrysler had come very far with their streamline plans. Hupmobile not at all in fact, because they only got started in 1932 when Raymond Loewy** - maybe the most famous of all industrial designers and automobile stylists in automotive history - was hired by the company in order to boost sales of the slow-selling cars.
At the same time Chrysler's streamline man Carl Breer was still occupied with different scale models in the wind tunnel and Örnberg had already been working a year for Volvo. It is therefore not only difficult but merely impossible, to image a contact, let alone conversations, across the Atlantic between Breer, Loewy and Örnberg on the subject of streamline cars. And pictures could not be transferred quicker than by mail or personal messenger.
The first streamliners
At the beginning of 1934, the Hupmobile Aerodynamic was presented. From the windscreen and forward it had a certain plough like streamline shape, but the rest of it was rather conventional. It was good-looking though without any particular individuality. It had a fully-pressed steel body, including the entire roof, fitted to a separate frame and was from a technical standpoint not in any way extreme.
Extreme, however, describes the definitely more daringly styled Chrysler Airflow - and its cheaper sister car De Soto Airflow - that arrived during the spring of 1934. They had a one-piece rounded front or face, a grille that looked like a waterfall and low-positioned faired-in headlamps.
The body was streamlined with rear-wheel covers and a rear end matching the front end. As opposed to the Hupmobile, and later the Volvo, the Airflow was of unitary design with a very sturdy welded body construction that did not need for a separate frame. But those who did the Chrysler body pressings, however, were not yet capable of such a large pressing as the roof, which meant that this had to be filled up in the usual way with wooden rafters, chicken net and wadding, covered with fabric***.
This was also how the PV36 was going to look a year later. Even the Olofström press plant was not capable of such a large one-piece pressing as the entire roof. Still, the PV36 was Volvo's first car with a pressed-steel body. It rested on a separate frame with substantial cross-bracings but with a relatively short wheelbase. Both Hupmobile and Chrysler had long wheelbases, over three metres, which gave them a much slender look well in harmony with the styling. The PV36 had a 290 cm wheelbase which gave the body a round and chubby look that couldn't really transmit the feeling of flowing speed that the styling was supposed to do. It is interesting to toy with the idea of what the car would have looked like if Örnberg had used the 310 or 325 cm wheelbase instead, both of which were standard at Volvo at the time and used for other models.The artist who did the drawings for the sales brochures and other promotional material did his best to stretch out the car in order to improve its looks but the reality was still there.
But, the Volvo PV36 had a technical upper hand over both the Hupp and the Chrysler, unfortunately not to be seen from the outside but felt when driving: it used an independent front suspension - with the front wheels moving independently of each other during vertical movements - which greatly improved handling and ride as opposed to a beam axle.
photo:Volvo Group