With electric vehicles becoming ever more prevalent and automakers looking to eke out as much range as possible, car manufacturers are increasingly looking to make their cars as aerodynamically efficient as possible. However, modern EVs are far from the first vehicles designed with aerodynamics at the forefront.

As Jay Leno discusses in his most recent YouTube video, Chrysler was experimenting with the most streamlined shape for a car back in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It ultimately launched the Chrysler Airflow in 1934 offering it through 1937, and while it didn’t sell all that well, it did bring about a dramatic change in the design of automobiles back in the day.

In determining the ideal shape for a car, Chrysler engineers conducted wind tunnel tests with the help of Orville Wright, one of the famous Wright brothers credited with inventing, building, and flying the first motor-operated airplane. The engineers ultimately discovered that the common two-box automobile design of vehicles at the time was aerodynamically inefficient and that most vehicles would actually be more efficient if they were driven backwards.

They then came up with the Chrysler Airflow, a vehicle that had a radically different design and a unibody construction. As Leno notes in this video, the vehicle’s engine was pushed well forward to maximize legroom. The car also has a truly gargantuan chrome grille, one that dwarfs even the largest grilles found on some modern cars.

We highly recommend watching the whole video, especially if you’re a fan of classics and want to see some very cool features of the Airflow, including its innovative side windows.