In this 1934 Chrysler PR reel, famed Indy car driver Harry Haartz pilots a new Imperial Airflow coupe to a slew of speed and distance records at Bonneville. 

Introduced at the New York Auto Show in January of 1934, the Chrysler Airflow was not simply unorthodox in appearance. It was revolutionary in nearly every way, from its cab-forward packaging to its unitized body/chassis construction. (You can learn more about the Airflow’s ground-breaking design and engineering in this video.) To demonstrate the new model’s capabilities to a suspicious public, Chrysler arranged a whole series of performance stunts, including the trip to the Bonneville Salt Flats documented here. At that time, the prehistoric dry lake bed in Utah was just coming into popular use by the motorsports crowd.

For the Bonneville speed runs, Chrysler retained the services of race driver Harry Haartz, a sharp money racer from California who started in six Indianapolis 500s,  finishing second three times. In August 1934 on the salt, Haartz drove a showroom stock Imperial Airflow coupe (Chrysler said it was stock, anyway) to 72 speed and distance records, including a flying mile at 95.7 mph and 2,000 miles at an average of 74.7 mph.

In this very same production Imperial coupe, Chrysler reported, Haartz then drove from New York to Los Angeles to demonstrate the Airflow’s durability and economy, averaging 18.1 miles per gallon. And as this promotional clip demonstrates, Haartz was also fluent in 1930s-style screwball banter, apparently. Watch for the peppy exchange between Harry and the announcer starting at the 2:30 mark. Video follows.