The Maddest Chrysler Concept Ever Had A Straight-Eight Engine

• Chrysler

Concept cars exist in a segment of their own in the automotive world, simultaneously connected and yet separate from the ordinary production cars we see in our dealerships and on our roads. They are a way for automakers to showcase technological advances, push the limits of design, get creative with unusual aesthetic principles, and let designers’ imagination fly. While most concept cars are primarily oriented towards the future, some also take inspiration from the past. One such car is a 1995 Chrysler concept called the Atlantic, which takes elements from classic Bugattis and reimagines them in a retro-futuristic fashion.

244-1.png

Chrysler

Chrysler is the American subsidiary of the global automotive company Stellantis. Historically, Chrysler has been one of the 'Big Three' American automakers. It was founded in 1925 by Walter Chrysler and merged with Daimler-Benz in 1998; the company was called DaimlerChrysler until its Chrysler stake was sold off less than a decade later. Chrysler operated on its own until Fiat S.p.A acquired it in 2014. When Stellantis was formed in 2021 after the merger of FCA and PSA, Chrysler became a subsidiary. With only a few models on sale in the US at present, Chrysler is one of the handful of automakers still producing minivans, with its Pacifica lineup.

Founded  1925

Founder  Walter Chrysler

Headquarters  Michigan, United States

Owned By  Stellantis

For all its unusual aesthetic qualities, one of the Atlantic’s most surprising features is actually under the hood: the car is powered by an inline-eight engine, a configuration that had died out in the mid-1950s. Let’s explore the history that brought us this one-of-a-kind concept, its characteristics, and its design.

This Is The Chrysler Atlantic

Chrysler Atlantic zombieite WC

The Chrysler Atlantic was first introduced to the world at the 1995 Detroit Auto Show. While concept cars are often intended to be precursors to production cars, showcasing technology that will later find its way into production models, the Atlantic was simply a one-off automotive work of art, created to pay tribute to the great automakers of the 1930s, reimagining their work on a modern vehicle.

Unlike most concept cars, which get showcased a handful of times at best before being consigned to the company archives, the Atlantic has enjoyed a long time in the spotlight. Its unusual look made it popular with the public, and it has made several public appearances since its initial introduction. Its image has also been used for advertising purposes, such as on labels for car care products and accessories.

A Sketch On A Napkin: The Atlantic's Design

Chrysler Atlantic 1

The Atlantic started its life in 1993 as a sketch on a napkin: the author was Chrysler’s then-president, Bob Lutz. Shortly afterwards, then-chief designer Tom Gale got involved in the project, and less than two years later a fully operational concept car had been designed and assembled.

The Chrysler Atlantic has a unique style that immediately stands out from the crowd. Its exaggerated curves are a call back to the pre-war period, where automakers were beginning to discover and implement the principles of aerodynamics. The Chrysler incorporates a series of design elements that heavily borrow, if not outright replicate, features from prominent cars of the era.

Double Neon: The Atlantic's Powertrain

Chrysler Atlantic 2

The Atlantic has a fascinating visual design and aesthetic inspiration, but one of the things that makes it stand out among other concept cars of the late 20th century is its engine. That is because it uses an engine layout that had, at that point, been considered obsolete for over forty years: the inline-eight, commonly referred to as “straight-eight”. The Atlantic’s choice of engine is a nod to some of the classic cars that inspired it. The straight-eight was popular from the 1920s to the 40s, in Bugatti’s pre-war heyday. The Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic, which provided inspiration (as well as a name) to the Chrysler concept, was itself powered by a 3.2-liter straight-eight.

That is, however, not the only fascinating fact about the engine found under the Atlantic’s hood. Instead of building a straight-eight engine from scratch, Chrysler decided to graft together two 4-cylinder engines borrowed from the Chrysler Neon (also known as the Dodge Neon and Plymouth Neon).

The Inspiration Behind The Atlantic

The Chrysler Atlantic is an homage to great cars of the past, incorporating decades-old design elements while still being in touch with the modern age. Although there are a few distinct models whose influence can be recognized in the Atlantic, such as the Bugatti and Talbot-Lago we’re going to touch on in this section, there are countless more that have served as a visual inspiration - the sweeping, rounded lines of the Jaguar XK120 come to mind. Two of the cars that Chrysler designers borrowed from had a particularly significant influence: the Bugatti Type 57 and the Talbot-Lago T150 SS.

Bugatti Type 57S Atlantic

rothschild_1935_atlantic

One of the most important influences on the Chrysler Atlantic’s design is the Bugatti that also gives it its name, the Type 57 Atlantic. This car was a variant of the wider Type 57 model; only four examples were built in total. The Atlantic got its name after a friend of Jean Bugatti’s, pilot Jean Mermoz, one of the first people in history to fly across the South Atlantic.

The Type 57 didn’t just inspire the design of the Atlantic; it was also paid tribute to by two of Bugatti’s own models decades after its heyday. One was the EB112 in 1993, a bizarre Giorgetto Giugiaro design which got a mixed reception when released. The other is more recent: La Voiture Noire (French for “The Black Car”), a one-off creation unveiled in 2021. The car’s trim echoes the dorsal fin that characterized the Type 57.

Talbot-Lago T150 SS Coupe

Talbot-Lago T150 SS Coupe Richard Owen SupercarsNet

Another historical model that played a significant role in the Chrysler Atlantic’s design was the Talbot-Lago T150, a 1930s race car with a six-cylinder engine. The Teardrop, as it was also know, was built by small French manufacturer Talbot-Lago, owned by Italian engineer Antonio Lago who acquired the rights to the Talbot brand after the original Talbot company went bankrupt in 1936.

One of the Teardrop’s features that showed up most prominently in the Chrysler Atlantic was the unique egg-shaped side window, which was replicated almost like-for-like. Its sweeping curves and large, rounded wheel arches have been paid homage to in the Atlantic as well.

A Brief History Of Straight-Eight Engines

1928-1937 Duesenberg Model J Red Front Angle

Several decades before a straight-eight engine found its way into the Chrysler Atlantic, this layout enjoyed its peak of popularity in the inter-war period. Before World War II, straight-eight engines had mostly been used in the world of aviation; one example was Daimler’s D.IV engine, based on a six-cylinder unit and quickly replaced due to reliability issues. Automotive examples had, up until this point, been scarce; when the war ended, however, the car world began to make use of the straight-eight as well. In Italy, the Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8 was the first production car in the world to be powered by one.

Duesenberg Model J

Related

Why The Straight 8 Had To Be Executed In The 1950s

Once popular in both America and Europe, this engine has been all but forgotten. Here's its history and what brought about its demise.

The straight-eight became more and more commonplace throughout the following two decades. Bugatti was one of the European brands that had a strong association with it, with models such as the widely successful Type 35 race car being powered by one. Elsewhere in Europe, Daimler and Alfa Romeo both employed straight-eights in several of their cars. American brands also widely adopted the straight-eight, and were slower to let it go than their European counterparts. Duesenberg was the American automaker most closely associated with the straight-eight, as all of its production cars (the Model A, X, and J) were powered by one.

At the start of the 1950s, the straight-eight engine began to be phased out worldwide. It was bulky and heavy, which made it difficult to fit one in the smaller, more affordable vehicles of the post-war era. It also suffered from stability and vibration issues, due to the nature of its layout. New engine designs, such as the more compact and efficient V8, rapidly began to take over; by the end of the decade, the straight-eight had been phased out of production cars completely. The engineers at Chrysler, however, found a creative way to pay homage to this classic engine layout: just one of several things about the Atlantic concept that makes it such a fascinating creation.

Sources: Chrysler, Bugatti, The Gooding Company