A low-cost Firesweep sequence based on the 122-inch Dodge platform joined the line in an effort to increase DeSoto’s market territory. Much bolder, totally up-to-date new Exner styling and extra-powerful engines stood to turn issues around for 1955. Firedome (the “d” no longer capitalized) now performed “second banana” to a new uplevel Fireflite line. Indeed, for all this pleasure, DeSoto was now threatened once more, solely this time by an upwardly cell Dodge and a downward enlargement of the Chrysler line. Carrying a brand new 341-cid, 320-horsepower Hemi, it was part of that year’s expanded Highland Park efficiency squadron together with the Chrysler 300B, Plymouth Fury, and Dodge D-500. Additionally controlled by Highland Park’s pushbuttons, it was an ideal transmission that will means outlive DeSoto. At $4369, the ‘fifty eight Adventurer ragtop was the most-expensive DeSoto ever, though Chrysler’s convertible 300D price nearly $1300 extra. Riding a shortened 111-inch wheelbase, Adventurer I was an off-white, shut-coupled coupe sporting exterior exhausts, wire wheels, and full instrumentation. A Seville hardtop coupe changed the earlier Firedome Particular.

Following GM’s lead in ’55, DeSoto launched three four-door hardtops for ’56: a Sportsman in each series and a low-priced Firedome Seville. No wonder. The ’57s weren’t solely all-new for the second time in three years, but superbly engineered and strikingly styled. Predictably, the ‘fifty eight DeSotos had been much just like the ’57s save busier grilles and trim, and standard quad headlights. Other models carried an enormous-bore 361 with 295 bhp in standard Firedome tune, 305 with twin 4-barrels in Fireflites (optionally available on Firedomes), 345 in excessive-compression Adventurer guise, and a smashing 355 for Adventurers with non-obligatory Bendix gasoline injection. Painted deep red and missing bumpers, it was very sleek however not fairly as integrated as Adventurer I, and wasn’t critically thought of for production. Do not race to that crimson light after which peel out when it turns inexperienced — fast braking and accelerating wastes fuel. Some firms watch oil and fuel prices as an indicator of a great economy, while different companies may determine whether to hire primarily based on their own performance as determined by shopper spending. Pouring diesel gasoline into an unleaded gasoline tank can be a big inconvenience, nevertheless it would not destroy your car.

Manufacturers have long put in tires that may improve gas efficiency scores on new automobiles, but automobile homeowners looking for those self same gasoline-saving tires when it got here time to replace the originals were out of luck. Both shared a 126-inch wheelbase with that year’s Chryslers, and carried a Hemi bored out to 291 cid. They packed 345 bhp from a modestly bored 345 Hemi. Engines and power scores swelled, but the advanced Hemi was ever pricey to construct, so Chrysler began switching to cheaper wedgehead V-8s for ’58. Amongst them were two new “Turboflash” DeSoto engines. The two upper series used the 341 V-8 from the ’56 Adventurer with 270 and 295 horsepower, respectively. Some states hadn’t accepted “quadrilights” for ’57, so DeSoto entrance fenders have been designed to accept one or two lamps every, the latter the place regulation permitted. Convertibles were obtainable in both ‘fifty five DeSoto collection but saw minuscule sales: just 625 Firedomes and 775 Fireflites. The FireDome powered a brand new like-named high-of-the-line 1952 series that duplicated Custom offerings save the Suburban. For 1953, remaining Custom/DeLuxe models were combined into a new Powermaster Six collection that still lagged behind FireDome in gross sales, this time by a margin of 2-1. Both traces included Sportsman hardtops.

The plush Coronado sedan, a mid-1954 addition to the Firedome line, returned as a 1955 “spring particular” Fireflite at $one hundred above the $2800 common sedan. Firedome supplied DeSoto’s solely ‘fifty five wagon, together with a detrimmed Special hardtop priced some $a hundred and ten beneath its Sportsman counterpart. A midseason highlight was the restricted-edition Adventurer hardtop coupe, a supercar awash in gold-anodized aluminum trim. Adventurer II adopted in ’55, a normal-chassis 4-seat fastback formed more by Ghia than Exner. Most had been constructed by Ghia in Italy. Although it immediately garnered almost 50,000 sales, DeSoto as a complete might do no better than 88,000 for the model yr. Because hybrids are so efficient to start with, they’re still a greater inexperienced driving possibility — even when it’s cold out. During the interval of sturdy economy, companies and other merchandise are in great demand. Virgil Exner’s dramatic new styling made finned fantasies of all ’57 Chrysler products. The rising affect of newly recruited styling chief Virgil Exner was evident in an replace of DeSoto’s extra-large ‘fifty two look, with new one-piece windshields and extra-liberal chrome accents.