A low-cost Firesweep collection based mostly on the 122-inch Dodge platform joined the line in an effort to extend DeSoto’s market territory. A lot bolder, totally up-to-date new Exner styling and more-powerful engines stood to turn things around for 1955. Firedome (the “d” not capitalized) now performed “second banana” to a brand new uplevel Fireflite line. Indeed, for all this excitement, DeSoto was now threatened once more, only this time by an upwardly cellular Dodge and a downward expansion of the Chrysler line. Carrying a new 341-cid, 320-horsepower Hemi, it was part of that 12 months’s expanded Highland Park performance squadron together with the Chrysler 300B, Plymouth Fury, and Dodge D-500. Additionally controlled by Highland Park’s pushbuttons, it was an amazing transmission that will way outlive DeSoto. At $4369, the ‘fifty eight Adventurer ragtop was probably the most-costly DeSoto ever, though Chrysler’s convertible 300D value almost $1300 more. Riding a shortened 111-inch wheelbase, Adventurer I was an off-white, close-coupled coupe sporting exterior exhausts, wire wheels, and full instrumentation. A Seville hardtop coupe changed the earlier Firedome Special.

Following GM’s lead in ’55, DeSoto introduced three 4-door hardtops for ’56: a Sportsman in each sequence and a low-priced Firedome Seville. No surprise. The ’57s weren’t solely all-new for the second time in three years, however superbly engineered and strikingly styled. Predictably, the ’58 DeSotos had been much just like the ’57s save busier grilles and trim, and commonplace quad headlights. Different fashions carried a big-bore 361 with 295 bhp in standard Firedome tune, 305 with twin four-barrels in Fireflites (optional on Firedomes), 345 in high-compression Adventurer guise, and a smashing 355 for Adventurers with non-obligatory Bendix gas injection. Painted deep red and missing bumpers, it was very sleek but not fairly as integrated as Adventurer I, and wasn’t seriously considered for manufacturing. Don’t race to that crimson light and then peel out when it turns inexperienced — quick braking and accelerating wastes gas. Some corporations watch oil and gas costs as an indicator of a very good economy, while different firms could determine whether or not to hire based mostly on their own efficiency as decided by consumer spending. Pouring diesel gasoline into an unleaded fuel tank could be a big inconvenience, but it surely wouldn’t destroy your automotive.

Manufacturers have lengthy put in tires that would enhance gas effectivity rankings on new cars, however car house owners in search of those self same gas-saving tires when it got here time to change the originals had been out of luck. Each shared a 126-inch wheelbase with that 12 months’s Chryslers, and carried a Hemi bored out to 291 cid. They packed 345 bhp from a modestly bored 345 Hemi. Engines and energy ratings swelled, but the complex Hemi was ever costly to build, 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 ‘fifty six Adventurer with 270 and 295 horsepower, respectively. Some states hadn’t approved “quadrilights” for ’57, so DeSoto front fenders had been designed to simply accept one or two lamps every, the latter where law permitted. Convertibles had been available in each ’55 DeSoto collection but noticed minuscule gross sales: simply 625 Firedomes and 775 Fireflites. The FireDome powered a new like-named prime-of-the-line 1952 collection that duplicated Customized offerings save the Suburban. For 1953, remaining Custom/DeLuxe fashions were combined into a brand new Powermaster Six sequence that nonetheless lagged behind FireDome in sales, this time by a margin of 2-1. Each strains 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 offered DeSoto’s solely ‘fifty five wagon, together with a detrimmed Particular hardtop priced some $110 below its Sportsman counterpart. A midseason spotlight was the restricted-edition Adventurer hardtop coupe, a supercar awash in gold-anodized aluminum trim. Adventurer II followed in ’55, an ordinary-chassis four-seat fastback shaped extra by Ghia than Exner. Most have been constructed by Ghia in Italy. Although it instantly garnered nearly 50,000 sales, DeSoto as a complete may do no higher than 88,000 for the mannequin year. Because hybrids are so environment friendly to begin with, they’re still a better green driving option — even when it’s chilly out. In the course of the period of sturdy economy, companies and other merchandise are in nice demand. Virgil Exner’s dramatic new styling made finned fantasies of all ’57 Chrysler products. The rising influence of newly recruited styling chief Virgil Exner was evident in an replace of DeSoto’s more-large ‘fifty two look, with new one-piece windshields and extra-liberal chrome accents.