“He liked the cleanliness of the idea. He liked the aerodynamics of the idea, and in his mind they were genuinely aerodynamic. Later on, Chrysler proved that in wind tunnel tests. They ran cross-wind tests with cars with and without fins that proved that they were working, and that was the intention. He didn’t want to be dishonest. He didn’t use them for a styling gimmick, but he did use them for a design philosophy purpose as well as a true functional purpose.
That philosophy went something like this in his mind: cars in the ‘Forties and early ‘Fifties were getting to have a heavy appearance. He felt that cars should look light — even large cars should have a light appearance, a fleet appearance, a racy appearance. They should look like they’re moving, because they are, in effect, a moving sculpture. They do move. They should look like they move. Anything that he could do, sculpturally, within the body work to give this light appearance and to lift the rear end of the car to attract the eye to the rear end of the car [with] a lifted motion would help the dart-like appearance that he favored as opposed to what we called a drag-ass look, especially with the skirted rear fenders that some of the competitors exhibited at that time. Notably Ford and Mercury had a very heavy look to them, and he wanted to get away from [what] he called slab-sidedness.
He wanted a more genuine cross-sectional sculpture to the bodies, again, all for the purpose of making the car look, overall, lighter and faster and more dynamic. Thus, the natural thing to do was to go towards more of the wedge look, more of the dart look of the car, and, thus, he embraced the idea of the fin, completely.
Of course, other people [did], too, at that time. He tried to do his in a cleaner way, I believe, which was more of the way that the Cisitalia had been done — very simple and very clean. They became huge, of course, because the cars were huge at that time, especially Chryslers and DeSotos and, later on, the Imperial. But, nevertheless, that was the basic idea, and that was the general philosophy.
— Virgil Exner Jr., Automobile in American Life and Society (1989)
RE:SOURCES
- Crippen, David; 1986. “The Reminiscences of Virgil Max Exner, Jr.” Automotive Design Oral History Project of the Automobile in American Life and Society. Conducted Aug. 3.
Also see ‘1955-56 Chryslers: ‘Forward Look’ wasn’t as successful as sometimes assumed’
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