📍 ‘They battle the air.’
And a century before wind tunnels became corporate temples, a Romanian engineer built a teardrop car so slippery it still embarrasses plenty of today’s ‘aero’ SUVs.
Meet the Persu Streamliner
Proof that aerodynamics didn’t begin with carbon fibre and a marketing department.
❖ The full story
In 1922–23, Aurel Persu built an extraordinary streamliner in Berlin: a proper water-drop shape, with the wheels tucked inside the body to prevent air from tumbling around exposed arches.
The drag figure is claimed as low as Cd 0.22 — a number still considered excellent today. Persu even secured a German patent in 1924 for the concept.
◼︎ Fast-forward to modern road cars, and aerodynamics is no longer a curiosity — it’s a strategy.
Especially for EVs: Mercedes notes that cutting drag by 0.01 Cd can add roughly 2.5% to long-distance range.
That’s why cars like the Mercedes EQS chase shapes so smooth they look like they’ve been melted, with a Cd of 0.20.
◼︎ The difference? Persu was hunting efficiency through pure shape.
Modern cars must juggle efficiency, cooling, stability, noise, and increasingly, active aero that changes personality at speed.
Why it matters
Aerodynamics is the quiet force that decides range, refinement, and high-speed confidence.
📍 ‘Persu proved the principle early: make the air behave, and the whole car improves.’