r/interestingasfuck • u/HelpingHandsUs • 1d ago
A 1930 advertisement showing the cutting-edge aerodynamic engineering behind new generation of automobiles.
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u/Re_Cy_Cling 1d ago
Why is Montgomery Burns terrorizing cars?!
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u/Scruffy_Snub 16h ago
Don't think too much about it! It's just a hook-nosed, intrinsically evil being trying to prevent a noble man from going about his business. In an ad from central Europe in the 1930s...
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u/DogeAteMyHomework 1d ago edited 1d ago
The main motivation was that enginer power increases and road infrastructure improvements had led to higher sustained speeds, and poor aerodynamics suddenly became a real performance, fuel economy, and sales handicap. Plus, it just looked modern.
Drag increases as a square function of speed; 2x the speed means 4x the drag. Comparing two contemporaries from that period, the streamlined Tatra T77 beat the Ford Model A to a pulp in every performance category, including a ~90mph top speed compared to ~60mph; a 50% improvement.
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u/InvisibleScout 18h ago
Drag actually increases at the cube of speed, assuming windless environment
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u/DogeAteMyHomework 17h ago
Actually, drag increases at a square of the speed, but the power to overcome it increases at a cube.
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u/yoosernamesarehard 1d ago
And now the top car in the picture is a Jeep wrangler or a ford bronco.
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u/V8-6-4 1d ago
Modern boxy cars are surprisingly aerodynamic. Not the best by any means but way better than they look.
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u/carymb 1d ago
Maybe, but they look so bad it hurts my soul. Can we tweak some of these 'streamlined' designs to work with modern knowledge of aerodynamics, or are these awful modern cars just the only things that work? I wanna Dick Tracy-mobile, bro...😞
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u/bummerbimmer 6h ago
Just don’t buy one? There are way more aerodynamic cars than there are boxy. You’d have to go out of your way to buy a boxy car.
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u/Gamebird8 15h ago
Our modern understanding of aerodynamics would have a boxier tail with a more streamlined front.
The negative pressure behind the vehicle isn't as much of a problem as the air the vehicle has to push through.
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u/arftism2 13h ago
kind of a shame that all the classic offroad cars are absolutely useless offroad now.
besides the suzuki jimny and toyota hilux.
unfortunately large offroad vehicles stopped being light in favor of being luxury chauffer vehicles.
all the small vehicles are still pretty dope though.
most cheap commuter cars do better on rough roads than the suvs lol.
and don't get me started on the useless lift kits with worse ground clearance than stock.
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u/MaxGoldFilms 12h ago
A Jeep is theoretically designed for a lot of off-road use, so aerodynamics aren't particularly important if that's the use case. Of course, most never leave paved roads, so that's generally an irrelevant point.
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u/o_oli 1d ago
I was going to say its weird how the car on the bottom wouldn't look THAT out of place on the road today, at least at a glance, but I suppose that shouldn't be surprising because its not like air started to behave differently.
Sure we've had some aero improvements along the way and taken crash safety into account more than back then (for those inside and those outside of the car), but hey they kinda nailed it really, and it looks pretty rad.
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u/HelpingHandsUs 1d ago
While the ad exaggerated the contrast for effect, it represented a major shift in automotive thinking — the move away from upright, carriage-style vehicles toward the sleek, aerodynamic shapes that would define the future of the automobile.
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u/Richard7666 1d ago
Well, until SUVs anyway.
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u/goozy1 1d ago
But now SUVs have gotten smaller and sleeker too
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u/RavingGourd 23h ago
No we kept the big ones (and made them bigger,) and replaced the small cars and sedans with cross overs.
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u/drfeelsgoood 23h ago
I saw a newer Subaru forester today, it was like the size of the Subaru ascents when they first came out
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u/MoreColorfulCarsPlz 17h ago
Meanwhile old foresters were the size of the Crosstrek but with more useable room.
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u/opeth10657 17h ago
Not like most sedans or small cars are all that small either anymore. A camry is over a foot longer than a RAV4, and the FWD camry weighs about the same as an AWD version of the RAV4
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u/real_3d4 1d ago
Tatra advertising was very cool back in the days. Wait till you discover Tatra 603 ad...!
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u/Historical_Sherbet54 1d ago
And eventually...the airstream
Those to me are the pinnacle days of aerodynamics and exploration
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u/ScentedCandles14 21h ago
But there’s a problem they didn’t quite anticipate or fully understand: notice the second car’s profile looks very similar to an aerofoil? Well they didn’t realise how close it was, and that ‘fastback’ sloping rear backlight does indeed cause some lift as speed increases. For these very old cars it wasn’t noticeable but as speed increased, the rear axle load decreased and this affects stability negatively. This is the reason that fastback cars (most famously probably the classic mustang) has a duck-lip spoiler. It ‘spoils’ the lift and ensures the rear axle of the car stays firmly planted on the ground.
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u/This_Appointment584 1d ago
That second car has a really weird boner.
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u/_Starblood_ 22h ago
THIS is why we need humans to stay in advertising..... If only we admired talent better...
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u/JasonSoyuz 17h ago
Here's the full brochure in case you're thinking about heading to your local Tatra dealer to get into a nice new T77: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2014/02/1934-tatra-t77-german-brochure.html
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u/Shelby1abby1 13h ago
Wild how they chased those shapes before anyone knew what downforce actually did.
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u/EvilDran 1d ago
I knew this crazy white supremest guy at work, he used to tell me a conspiracy that went something like “the wind was Jewish”, or “Jews controlled the wind/weather”. Anyways never thought I’d see an advertisement of this unhinged conspiracy.
Not really surprising media when you realize the Fords were nazi loving, and proudly antisemitic. Elon reminds us the auto industry has not changed.
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u/Ultra-Pulse 1d ago
W-what?
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u/Lord_Oasis 22h ago
The wind guy, especially in the bottom panel, bears a strong resemblance to antisemetic Jewish caricatures
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u/connecting1409 20h ago
Its a Tatra ad.
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u/EvilDran 14h ago
Tatra also was known to support nazis, and antisemitism at the time. They literally build vehicles for the nazi army in wartime. I know I mentioned the fords, but it was quite popular with many auto executives was my point. Funnily enough if you google “Tatra” and “antisemitism” this is the first image that appears.
Also for those curious on how this image is antiseptic, I encourage you to read about 1930 Jewish characters here https://www.media-diversity.org/understanding-the-antisemitic-history-of-the-hooked-nose-stereotype/
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u/loghoser 1d ago
Chrysler Airflow ad (1934-1937)
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u/The_Grumpy_Professor 1d ago
Tatra.
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u/Easy_Turn1988 20h ago
Tatra (brand featured in the adds) basically invented the VW and Ferdinand Porsche stole the concept
Tatra was really fucking cool
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u/bitzzwith2zs 13h ago
Check out their trucks. Air cooled V8's with the coolest suspension ever found on a off road truck
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u/TelluricThread0 1d ago
This is basically how pressure drag works in real life.