1957 DeSoto Adventurer Convertible
Offered exclusively in black or white with contrasting Adventurer Gold accents, the 1957 DeSoto Adventurer was one of the most visually arresting products of Chrysler’s Forward Look design program.
Gold-anodized aluminum trim and special gold-finished wheels reinforced the theme, and even the interior featured gold-toned accents. A convertible joined the hardtop coupe for 1957, with 300 ragtops produced.
Virgil Exner’s soaring tailfins terminated in triple-lens taillights, giving the Adventurer a presence few competitors could match. Chrysler’s torsion bar front suspension (marketed as Torsion-Aire) replaced conventional coil springs across the corporation’s lineup that year.
Beneath the hood, the 345 cubic inch Hemi V8 (bored slightly from the previous year’s 341) delivered 345 horsepower through dual four-barrel carburetors, achieving the coveted one-horsepower-per-cubic-inch benchmark as standard equipment.
The three-speed TorqueFlite automatic was standard. Introduced later than the rest of the 1957 DeSoto range, the Adventurer was promoted separately and did not initially appear in the full-line catalog.
Source
