This beautiful 1957 DeSoto Adventurer Convertible has all the modern styling details seen in most late 1950’s automobiles. In addition to flamboyant styling this car had plenty of power with an engine rated at 345 HP. In fact, the DeSoto Adventurer was the first American car to offer one horsepower per cubic inch as standard equipment. In the boom years of the late 1950s, the Adventurer was DeSoto’s top-of-the-line performance car.
DeSoto Automobiles
DeSoto took on the name of the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto. The line was formerly a division of the Chrysler Corporation and was a mid size model positioned above Plymouth and below Dodge. DeSotos promoted the saying.. “a lot of car for the money”.
Many car brands with storied histories did not survive through to the modern day. Declining sales resulted in the brand being retired after 33 years in operation. As recently as 1957, DeSoto had a great year, with over 117,000 Forward Look models produced. Things came to stop however in 1958. This had everything to do with the 1958 recession where alilsales from all automakers decreased. But DeSoto still fared worse than most others with sales dipping down to under 50,000 vehicles.
Wagons were gone. Convertibles were gone. And the special high-performance Adventurer was gone as well. An Adventurer did return, but it more or less took the place of the ’59 Fireflite, as the top-trim model but was not the sporty muscle car –much like Chevrolet did with the Impala in 1959. It was no longer the sporty muscle DeSoto, as it had been in 1957.
The 1957 DeSoto Adventurer Convertible Styling
Style and performance were the primary characteristics of DeSoto’s new Adventurer model for the 1956 model year. The 1957 model had larger tail fins and the addition of a two door convertible to the Adventurer line. The Adventurer was offered in just two exclusive colors these being white with gold accents or black with gold accents. The Adventurer had plenty of chrome and the 1957 model was six inches lower than the 56 model. Mechanix Illustrated editor Tom McCahill declared the DeSoto Adventurer the best styled of all the Chrysler cars of 1957.