1957 DeSoto Adventurer

The 1955 Chrysler Corporation vehicles were the recipients of 'The Million Dollar Look' from designer Virgil Exner and were a total departure from their 1954 conservative predecessor. The long and low stance was complimented by jet-inspired styling with floating parking lamps, a wraparound windshield, and exotic tail fins. Along with styling, Chrysler made headlines by introducing its new 331.1 cubic-inch Hemispherical engine with twin carburetors that offered 300 horsepower. Chrysler's pinnacle model, offering both style and performance, was the new 300 Series (C-300) offered solely as a hardtop coupe in 1956 and 1957. A convertible joined the lineup in 1957.

Chevrolet had its Corvette sports car, Ford had its personal luxury car - the Thunderbird - and the Chrysler Corporation had the high-performance and well-equipped 300 (Letter) Series and DeSoto Adventurer.

In a similar vein, DeSoto's high-performance, exclusive, and stylish Paragon was called the Adventurer, introduced in 1956 and produced through 1960, a year before DeSoto went out of business (due, in part, to the economic recession (a.k.a. the Eisenhower Recession) of the late-1950s.)

The Adventurer was the most expensive vehicle in DeSoto's lineup, priced at $3,780 in 1956, increasing to $4,000 a year later. The two-door hardtop coupe had seating for six and came standard with power brakes, a power front seat, heavy-duty suspension, an electric clock, dual outside rearview mirrors, a padded instrument panel, rear-mounted manual radio antennas, dual tailpipe extensions, and whitewall tires. Under the hood was a 341.4 cubic-inch, overhead-valve V8 with enlarged valve ports, high-lift camshaft, stiffer valve springs, large-diameter valves, and hydraulic valve lifters. It had five main bearings, a cast-iron block with modified slipper pistons, heavy-duty connecting rods, and a shot-peened crankshaft. With assistance from Carter's dual four-barrel carburetors, the engine delivered 320 horsepower at 5,200 RPM.

In comparison, the 1956 Chrysler 300B was $565 more expensive, had 106 more sales, and produced 20 more horsepower than the Adventurer. The Chrysler 300B was essentially a subseries of the New Yorker, and the Adventurer was basically a subseries of the Fireflite.

In 1957, both the 300C and the Adventurer gained a convertible. The Adventurer had special gold-colored trim accents, a TorqueFlite automatic transmission, power brakes, dual exhaust, and special paint and trim (either white with gold accents or black with gold accents). The 'Adventurer' nameplates were placed on the rear fender and bright metal strips were located on the rear deck lid. In the front were prominent dual headlamps over a tame, conservative grille (compared to the large front grille and tail fins of the Chrysler 300C.)

The 345 cubic-inch OHV V8 produced 345 horsepower, providing one horsepower per cubic inch of displacement. In comparison, the 1957 Chrysler 300C was powered by a 392 cubic-inch FirePower Hemi V8 with 375 horsepower. The Chrysler 300C hardtop costs $4,930, and the convertible at $5,360. The Adventurer was approximately $1,000 less expensive for each body style, with the hardtop listed at $4,000 and the convertible at $4,270. Chrysler sold 1,918 of its coupes and 484 of its convertibles compared to 1,650 of the Adventurer coupe and 300 of the convertible.

by Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2020