Lola Moonflower: Desoto 1956, Heart of Gold

Heart of Gold

With a 320hp Hemi tucked under its hood, the glitzy 1956 De Soto Adventurer loomed loarge in the Chrysler 300's mirror

Feature Article from Hemmings Classic Car

February, 2006 - David LaChance and Jeff Koch

In February 1956, the Chrysler Corporation pulled back the curtain on a flamboyant, luxurious hardtop coupe with a sizzling Hemi engine that came a hair's breadth from the magic goal of one horsepower per cubic inch. It was an audacious debut, but what was even more surprising was the name spelled out in chrome block letters across its nose: De Soto. The Adventurer was the kind of rabbit that parent company Chrysler would pull out of its hat, and in fact had, in 1955, with the introduction of the C-300, the first of the storied "letter cars." But for stolid De Soto, the company known for its conservative sedans, to grab the spotlight with a gold-embellished, 320hp coupe equipped with a raft of luxury appointments was a surprising sleight-of-hand indeed. Overnight, De Soto had leapt to the front of the high-performance pack, challenging even the mighty C-300 with a slightly better power-to-weight ratio, at a cost of hundreds of dollars less. The horsepower race that erupted in the late 1940s saw Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Chrysler develop powerful high-compression, overhead-valve V-8s, modern engines fit to power American cars along the prosperous nation's growing Interstate network. De Soto's entry in 1952 was the Firedome, a V-8 engine with hemispherical combustion chambers that made 160hp from 276 cubic inches. Mid-1950s De Soto advertising chose not to play up the power numbers, though, focusing instead on the quality of craftsmanship and the comfort of the ride; sales were underwhelming. It was up to Chrysler to put the Hemi engine in a starring role with its C-300, introduced in 1955. The success of the muscular 300 led each of Chrysler's brands to clamor for a little 300 to call its own. "We had quite a bit of rivalry going between De Soto and Chrysler divisions at the time," A.E. "Kim" Kimberly, De Soto's chief engineer from 1952 through 1960, told Special Interest Autos magazine in 1974. "Chrysler's 300 was a very good seller and, of course, the 300 identification was continued long after the specialty car concept ended. We at De Soto felt we needed something similar." For Plymouth, there was the Fury; for Dodge, the D-500; and for De Soto, the Adventurer. The new model was not hard for De Soto to develop, because the various components were already in place. Virgil Exner's spectacular, finned "Forward Look" bodies had arrived that year, and the Hemi had been beating beneath the hoods of De Sotos since the Firedome's birth in 1952. Even the name itself was off the shelf, having been first used on Exner's Adventurer I and II concept cars shown in 1954. The Adventurer was based on the flagship Fireflite hardtop coupe, which boasted a 255hp Hemi V-8 that was already more powerful than most in its price class-good, but not quite good enough for its new role. De Soto engineers bored the engine out slightly, raising displacement from 330 cubic inches to 341; they also raised the compression ratio from 8.5:1 to 9.25:1, and improved the engine's breathing with larger valves and a pair of two four-barrel Carter carburetors. Horsepower jumped from 230 to 320-hot stuff indeed, especially by 1956 standards-and gave the Adventurer a power-to-weight ratio of 12.09 pounds per horsepower, better than the 300's figure of 12.19. It was enough muscle to push the big hardtop to 144 mph on the banked oval of Chrysler's testing grounds. To complete the package, stiffer springs and shock absorbers were fitted and power brakes were made standard. Exner's team wanted to make certain that other drivers could identify what had just whooshed past them, so Adventurers were distinguished with special color schemes-white and gold, black and gold, or black and white-with anodized gold radiator grilles, rear quarter-panel emblems and turbine-style wheel covers. All that flash led some to refer to the car as the Golden Adventurer, and if the idea of gold and adventure and conquistadors led some to think of the mythical golden city of El Dorado and its ultra-desirable Cadillac namesake, well, that certainly couldn't have hurt the De Soto's image, could it? No harm either in the January 11 unveiling of a specially prepared gold and white Fireflite "Pacesetter" convertible, wearing the Adventurer's trim and-more than likely-powered by its 320hp engine, to pace the 1956 Indianapolis 500. Piloted by company president L. Irving Woolson, the hot De Soto shattered all previous pace car lap speed records-and reportedly terrified the pit crew when it exited the track at better than 100mph. "Never has any automobile boasted such startling 'get-up-and-go,'" bragged De Soto in its unusually extroverted brochure for the 1956 models. "De Soto's thundering V-8 power combined with the new, improved PowerFlite Transmission (standard on Fireflite models) gives you flashing performance at any speed. Torrid 'High Torque Take-Offs' at the touch of the accelerator...split-second emergency pick-up for quicker and safer passing. The new 1956 De Soto delivers lightning-like response to your every driving command; for city traffic maneuvering, or modern high speed cruising." De Soto was finally on the performance bandwagon. The car was a hit. Just 996 Adventurers were built in a special two-week run, and all were snapped up within six weeks of the February 18 introduction, at $3,728 a copy. (This was when a Chrysler 300B stickered at $4,419, a Studebaker Golden Hawk at $3,061, and a plain-Jane Ford Mainline Six at $1,895.) Although production didn't reach four figures, it's probable that the Adventurer created a buzz that helped De Soto avoid the big downturn that affected the rest of the automotive industry in 1956. De Soto sold 110,418 cars that year, a decrease of just 4,347 cars from the previous year. Not bad, when you consider that sales were off by more than 100,000 at Buick, nearly 150,000 at Pontiac, and 36,000 next door at Dodge. Our Adventurer Gold and Jet Black driveReport car had been stored outdoors for some three decades when Henry Hopkins and Richard Palmer of Richmond, California, purchased it and had it restored by the seller. Three thousand hours of wrenching, grinding, sanding and painting later, they took possession of their good-as-new Adventurer in July 2004. So, let's find out about all that "thundering V-8 power." We were surprised at the ingress/egress, considering how large a car this is-the floor was high, and the roof curved around low, so it was a bit of a squeeze to clamber in. Once inside, room is as plentiful as in any other car of the era, and the fabrics and trim are truly fabulous. Look out the panoramic windshield and the hood sculpting would imply a far smaller car out there-it's only when you take stock of the interior that you realize how wide it is. At the same time, you don't feel like you lose the corners; you're not in any imminent danger of smacking anything. Twist the key and the Hemi churns to life instantly. It doesn't sound fierce at idle-the hiss is almost more electrical than mechanical-but we were keen to try a De Soto Hemi and put it through its paces. Alas, we did not. The truth of the matter is, we cannot give a fair and accurate report of the acceleration, ride and cornering on this particular De Soto. Though it idled fine, even the gentlest tip into the secondaries sent it stumbling, gasping and, in half a dozen occasions with us behind the wheel, killed it dead altogether while rolling, nearly stranding us at our photo location. We took it about five miles before we handed it back over to the owners to nurse home-we didn't want to be responsible for anything unfortunate happening while it was in our hands. This is also why there are no action photographs of the car, as is the Hemmings Classic Car tradition. A few brief impressions emerge. The power steering, wheel spokes pointed at 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock to go straight ahead, allow about 20 degrees of play before any actual directional change takes place. You won't feel the actual engagement-yes, Chrysler's traditional feel-free power steering went back clear into the 1950s-but once in a bend, we don't recall the dramatic body lean seemingly part and parcel of the '50s car cornering experience. The brakes require a firm foot, but are progressive, not grabby like so many drum-brakes cars we've piloted. Still, even at low speeds around town, some fade is evident. We talked to Henry months after our visit, to inquire after a diagnosis, and it seems that one crucial element in the restoration had been left untended to. "It had a dirty gas tank. After the photos were taken we pulled it, drained it, cleaned it, sealed it, and re-installed it, and the car just purred and ran beautifully and powerfully. Now we know that gas tank service is, like brakes, heading the list of 'to-do' items for a restoration. We used the trusty Eastwood kit for gas tank cleaning and coating. It's time consuming (you have to allow lots of drying time between applications) but it works well." It's no secret that De Soto's good times didn't last: 1956 was a successful year, but it was a transition year too, and if life came with a soundtrack, there would have been ominous chords in the background. Increasingly viewed as an unwelcome competitor to its own siblings, particularly the expanding Chrysler lineup, De Soto slowly began to be drained of its identity and independence. A new line, the Firesweep, was introduced for 1957, but it was, in reality, a thinly disguised Dodge Royal, built at the Dodge plant. Still, the new Adventurer, now equipped with torsion-bar front suspension, continued to be popular, with sales of 1,950, and convertibles were now in the mix. In 1958, the Hemi was gone, replaced with an engine with wedge-shaped combustion chambers that was less expensive to build, and revised suspension settings that traded handling for a more comfortable ride. An experiment in 1958 with the ill-fated Bendix fuel injection on a handful of cars (see HCC #1) gave Chrysler a black eye, an unwelcome development in any year, let alone a recession year that saw all automakers struggling to tread water. The 300 "Letter Cars" are still celebrated today, and their very name is a touchstone that DaimlerChrysler returns to again and again. It's a shame that its alter ego, the car that enabled enthusiasts to use the words "De Soto" and "performance" in the same sentence without smirking, hasn't joined the 300 up on that pedestal.

What to Pay
1957 De Soto Adventurer Low Average High
$8,000 $16,000 $24,000

PROS:
Far less clichéd than a Letter Car
Hemi equals stable resale value
Gold trim worthy of a conquistador CONS:
Parts are as elusive as a lost city of gold
Lacks Letter Car's stunning resale performance
1950s-sedan road manners

Owner's View There are lots of reasons to hanker after a first-year Adventurer, and Richard Palmer and Henry Hopkins ticked off their list: the rarity, the early Hemi, and the performance history. They'd been looking for one when they were approached by a seller at the Kool April Nights show in Redding, California, nearly four years ago. "He rushed up to us with a flier and saying, 'Adventurer, I've got an Adventurer.' The rest is history," said Richard. The car had been sitting for 20 to 30 years and was missing a number of parts, including its engine, transmission, windshield and wheel covers. They located another engine from a parts car, but "the intake manifold is unique to the Adventurer-I made a few calls and very luckily found one before purchasing the car," Richard said. It was named Best in Class at the Classics by the Sea Concours in Half Moon Bay, California, in 2004, and won an Antique Automobile Club of America First Junior Award in the same year. If you aspire to Adventurer ownership, Henry and Richard have some advice for you: "Buy a restored car or forget it," Henry said. "I would not do it again-the cost was much too high."

Club Scene National De Soto Club
P.O. Box 1204
Tallevast, Florida 34270
Dues: $22/year; Membership: 1,600
www.DeSoto.org The De Soto Club of America
403 South Thornton Street
Richmond, Missouri 64085
816-470-3048
Dues: $15/year; Membership: 1,500
http://clubs.hemmings.com/DeSotomo Walter P. Chrysler Club
P.O. Box 3504
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49003-3504
269-375-5535
Dues: $28/year; Membership: 15,500
www.chryslerclub.org This article originally appeared in the February, 2006 issue of Hemmings Classic Car.

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