1957 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer D-500 Convertible
The fin treatments on 1957 Dodge models were among the most audacious expressions of Chrysler’s Forward Look program, and the Custom Royal Lancer Convertible wore them in full.
Virgil Exner’s design paired large, triangular Flightsweep fins with twin-jet taillamps, a gull-wing horizontal grille bar, and a body that sat just 56.8 inches tall across a 212.2-inch length. Inside, the Scope Sight horizontal ribbon speedometer and pushbutton TorqueFlite controls dominated a chrome-laden instrument panel.
New for 1957 across the entire Chrysler Corporation lineup, the Torsion-Aire independent torsion-bar front suspension incorporated anti-dive geometry with upper and lower control arms, shock absorbers, and an anti-roll bar. The standard Custom Royal engine was a 325 CI polyspherical V-8 rated at 260 horsepower.
The D-500 option (listed at $72 on the factory order sheet) substituted Dodge’s hemispherical-head 325 CI in its place, producing 285 horsepower through a single Carter four-barrel carburetor, dual exhaust, and hydraulic valve lifters. Exner’s Forward Look design earned the Industrial Designers Institute Gold Medal in 1957.
Just 2,456 Custom Royal Lancer Convertibles left the factory for the model year, priced from $3,422. Mopar historians estimate that fewer than 125 of those were built with the D-500 specification.
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