I begged my dad to let me buy this very car in 1963. No, I never got that wish, but that DeSoto still stirs my heart. Over 60 years later, it still is a classic beauty.
As a little boy I noticed that '57 DeSotos & Chryslers had "happy face" front styling. Both brands seem to be smiling! Kids today will never experience traveling on highways filled with handsome, friendly-looking big cars like the '57 DeSoto Adventurer.
Even if there were cars like this on the road today, today's kids would have their heads buried in their hand held electronic pacifiers. That's their whole world now. The adults aren't much better though.
oddly enough and I am sure the people who own them dont notice it or know where the design comes from but many of the new cars seem to copy the eyebrow look of the headlights with their LED light display trim, especially cross;over models.
Kids today don’t care.... and will be happy when the Baby Boomer generation finally dies off so we can stop being bored with 1950s cars and wingadingadinga music and finally catch up on the high paying jobs you won’t retire from. Looking at an electronic device? What are you doing right now, ya hypocrite?
That '57 Desoto was EASILY the BEST styled vehicle in the Chrysler Corp. line-up! Thanks for uploading this video about an "under appreciated" American car!
Awesome car! BTW the stabilizing effect of tail fins was real - Exner was the first designer to use wind tunnels in the design process and Cal Tech proved the fins really did reduce need for steering correction (at high speeds) by up to 15%. They also proved fins moved the center of pressure backwards to the rear wheels, improving safety. Thanks for posting!
Our family doctor drove one of these. In those days md's still made house calls and my seven year old self couldn't stop looking at this car whenever he visited. I loved it then and love it now. Thanks for the great video!
itsmegp46 + that's for sure! Perfect design, junkyard within 5 years! I had family that bought a couple of these new and they didn't get 3 good years out of them. Boy they still look great in pictures though.
Nice video. I've always been a fan of Exner's very personal styling sense. Though, just to note, Exner didn't retire, but was effectively fired after the disaster that was the 1962 model year - and which cars Exner himself was already open about not liking. He remained as a "consultant" for his replacement Elwood Engel for 1963, but was gone after that year. But he never stopped designing, going into doing boats in the late '60s and exploring his passion for implementing past design cues with a modern touch for cars that largely never went beyond a prototype. The most famous and only production car that resulted from these was the Stutz Blackhawk, which became a darling for celebrities like Elvis. So he certainly remained active even after Chrysler, even if a lot of that work remains less well known.
Excellent presentation! Yes, this car could be considered the most beautiful of the 1957 Chrysler "forward look" Exner creations, and one of the best in the 1950s!
Professionally produced. well-written video and you couldn't have picked a more beautiful car to feature. I just discovered this channel, and I love it!
I always liked that body style, along with the Chrysler 300. I have a 57 Dodge D-100 that is far from original. At times I regret all the modifications we did to the truck in the early 80's.
Seeing this '57 DeSoto brought back memories of the first car I drove, my parents '57 Chrysler New Yorker with a 392. It drove like a dream but not a car for a teen.
Proud owner of a '58 Plymouth, Exner put a true dream on wheels, the whole lineup of his Chrysler Corp. cars during the complete Forward Look period are pieces of art, jet-age style at its top.
Sub count should be in the millions with the quality of this content. No...everyone is too busy watching rehashed late night television skits on trending. 🤦♂️
Love these Forwardlook cars! That was a very nice and thorough presentation of what I consider the greatest period of Chrysler history! Well Done! -Chris
Thank you for such high quality video content. I don’t know much about the vehicles that you cover, (being from England) but I really enjoy discovering them through your videos. For informed and entertaining retro car reviews I think here and Jay Lenos Garage are the best places I have found. Thanks again.
The '57 lineup is really the '60 lineup. In the Spring of 1954, Exner rolled out his designs for the 1960 lineup. Board members and dealers got so excited they demanded the cars be moved up to 1957 - a monumental task. The tagline, "suddenly it's 1960" was true; you really were getting the cars 3 years early. Body engineers, angry that for the first time they had been excluded from the design process, sabotaged the build process, hoping the flaws would reflect badly on Exner and his team. This and the rush - combined with booming sales they could barely keep up with - fomented the quality control issues. By 1958 the word was out that MoPars were "built like crap." That and the recession tanked sales and unlike GM & Ford, sales stayed low in '59 despite a recovery in the economy. GM's 1959 lineup, inspired by Exner's '57 cars, were so exaggerated (particularly Cadillac & Chevy), the public rejected tailfins unilaterally and designers scrambled to remove them from future cars. In May of '59 Exner rolled out his designs for '62. Dealers were horrified by what they considered un-sellable ugly cars. In the fall of '61, the '62 lineup debuted and sales bottomed out. The '62 lineup was all undersized, thanks to a ChryCo exec who overheard a fake conversation GM staged, in which a GM exec claimed all their '62 cars would be compacts. ChryCo fell for it and had no full-size cars for that year, until thanks to dealer demand, they re-tooled the '61 Chrysler and called it a '62. But the damage was done and Exner was fired. Later, ChryCo reconsidered and made him an honorary board member with zero control over production. Ford's Elwood Engel was brought in to salvage the '64 lineup and get ChryCo back into mainstream territory.
Back in 1990 I had the pleasure of driving my friends 57 Adventurer. We went out on a long flat highway. As I remember it wasn't a wheel breaker on take off, but I took her up to 100 mph and my friend said to "punch it". I was astounded! It almost threw us into the back seat! It went up to 130 in about 3 seconds. I never knew a car could have that much top end power. 😊
My grandparents loaned us their DeSoto in 1963 to take up to Clear Lake CA. That push button transmission, the AC in Dash (not under the dash AC), seat belts, the car never even swayed on curves; all 3 of us boys, ages 8, 7 & 5 could lie down side by side in the back seat. Like my Mom & her Brother did in their Nash in the Forties. What as Killer553 says here-"Dreams on Wheels."
The 2-4bbl had progressive linkage. The engine ran on the front of the rear carb and as you pushed the pedal down it added the front of the front carb then the rear all mechanicaly , then the secondaries of the rear carb were operated by vaccuum when the engine needed it.
My father had a Desoto in 1963. It may have been a 1957. I remember it being a very large, good looking car. We lived in the rurals, that had rocks, instead of paved roads, so Daddy never drove very fast. He was very proud of that car. Momma could not drive. Daddy parked it at the train station Sunday night to go to work on ICRR. (He caught the train from Southern Illinois to close to Chicago where he worked). He got home Friday, night. The Desoto had low mileage,since it was parked for 5 days at a time.
This put such a lump in my throat. I grew up with one of these. I was a kid in the 60's when my dad drove a 58 DeSoto Firesweep in baby blue and white. I've never seen another one in South Africa. We had (still have) a love affair with mountain passes and what you said about the rumble of that V8 - I can still hear it bouncing off the walls of mountain passes. I had a few vehicles in my day, but NOTHING since has ever come close to that sound. My favourite dream is that one day someone will offer me any car in the world. And I won't hesitate one second: 1958 DeSoto Firesweep, four door. Ahhh, if only...
Joe, I have to say. This is your absolute best video ever! The absolute best. So well research so accurate so correct. My first car in 1977 was a 1958 Chrysler New Yorker two door hardtop with the 392 Hemi. It had so much style and was just simply awesome! My New Yorker is still on the road today fully restored in all it's glory and traveling the roads of Sweden. I never should have sold it.....But, I did buy a 1958 DeSoto Fireflight last year and is not in prep for restoration. You really out did yourself on this video, everything. the filming, the historical data everything is absolutely fantastic.....and I agree, I'd own this over the Chevy any day of the week! Thanks for this upload, it's simply great!!!
Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed the video and you're absolutely right--a lot of work went into this production. This was a fantastic car. Hopefully the next video will be just as good!
Listen folks... for Osborn Tramain to say this? For all those who DON'T know who Osborn Tramain is, he is the king of the car videos! so, it is truly one HELL of a great video, I agree with Osborn completely!!
Surprisingly, I am from Uruguay. My dad had a 1958 yellow/white DeSoto when I was about five. I remember the “torsion bar” breaking appart in a country road 😉😉😉 Gorgeous car. Everyone’s eye on it.
Another great video from AutoMoments! Love the Forward Look-era cars. Exner was quite the stylist. Great to see and hear from Mr. Vince Geraci - a man that was right in the thick of such amazing and unduplicated automotive design. Great job Joe!
Thank you for sharing. In 1957 I was a grammar school student in a small town in northwestern New Jersey near where New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania come together. That year, our teacher, Mrs. Doe (not her real name) bought a new 1957 De Soto. She would joke that when she parked the car at night, the front bumper was in New Jersey and the tail fins were in Pennsylvania!
I'm not a fan of GM but my fave '57 car is the Olds hardtop. Big, slick and smooth. For a Mopar, the Desoto and Chrysler 300 rock. For Ford, the Fairlane retractable hardtop
I'd love to have a 57 Olds J2 or either a 57 Bonneville or Tri Power Pontiac Chieftain. 57 Chevy's are a dime a dozen and the J2 Olds and Tri Power Pontiacs were faster.
Thank you for this video! My father currently has a '57 DeSoto Fireflite 4-door that was his grandmother's car. It was a real treat to show him this video. He adores his Fireflite.
'57 was the apogee of styling for the decade, and in my opinion the DeSoto was the best of the best. I'm digging the bi-level front grille-bumper treatment with the free-standing headlights and the way the line of the rear bumper curves into the tail fins and is bisected by the flat oval exhaust tips. And, of course, the profile.
The DeSoto and Chrysler had identical rear sheet metal, but notice that on the DeSoto the blade-like bumper curves up at each end and appears to continue up the fin, sliced by the exhaust openings and then punctuated with the three tail lights.
My dad bought a '57 De Soto and it ran great. We took it from N. Cal to Texas and it was like floating on a cloud. He'd floor it to about 80 and you would never feel unsafe. Damn, that car was nice. It was the Fireflight model. Another family in our town had a black De Soto convertible with red interior. Now that car was a stand out! God, it was beautiful!!! Great days in the '50's!
Fantastic video! I've always preferred the 57-58 Mopars (especially the DeSotos) over GM & Ford for their engineering & style. Put ANY Mopar against a comparable GM or Ford model and that "Forward Look" clearly stands out as superior. My ex used to have a 57 Plymouth, and while we kept it as stock looking as possible, I found that a good set of radial tires and slightly stiffer shocks improved the handling with only a slight loss of (soft) ride comfort.....and wow, did it attract attention! I miss it (but not her!).
I am a GM man: But those forward look cars could make me change my mind. When I think of this De Soto, the 57 Fury, the Chrysler 300 models of 58 and 59, the Dodge modles of 59 or the 59 Imperial. They ar BEAUTIFUL cars.
Loving your videos man. Father in law has a couple of these Desotos. I usually drive one of them to car shows around here when he wants to bring more than one. At 77 years old, he and his wife drove their 58 Desoto all the way to San Diego a couple years ago from here in upstate South Carolina. Along the way the met up and joined other Desoto owners. His never skipped a beat, but he stopped to help the others when theirs had a problem.
My dad had one of these. I was just a little kid but from the day he drove it off the showroom floor I knew it was something special by the people gushed over it. He drove it for two or three years and gave it to my uncle, moms brother, and he got an Imperial.
My father owned a '57 DeSoto 2 door hardtop with a hemi. It was green and white. I can remember the car very well. We used to take it to Atlantic City from Pittsburgh on vacations and I would stand rather then sit right behind my dad while he was driving. I would look over his shoulder and it almost seemed like I was driving even though I was only a little boy. Those were the days!
Our 59 Desoto station wagon had a second ceiling mounted air conditioner. The dog loved it and do did we. It was the only car of that era I remember people complaining about being too cold in in the steamy South I grew up in!
I love the exhaust coming through the rear bumper, that's cool. This video made me think of myself 50 years from now. We take cars for granted, the Firebirds and Eclipses I'm used to seeing will eventually be unicorns like this one.
It's hard to predict what will become collectable in the future. So many people drive their cars into the ground today that it'll be hard to find clean examples of "everyday" cars from the 80s and 90s.
AutoMoments Well end up with a lot of Japanese variants I believe. There's folks out there with low mileage Acuras and Honda's because they're convinced they'll be collectible one day. Now I see they may be correct in preserving them.
The last two sentences are gems. "You don't have to explore new worlds to find gold. All you need is a Forward Look." Thank you for being almost reverential about a truly great car.
Thank you for watching! We're so glad you enjoyed it! It took a long time to come up with those last two sentences. There was a lot of writing and re-writing...
Man that is a beautifully restored and VERY RARE car right there. Gotta give the salute to whoever restored this beast and the current care-taker, as its much harder to restore/care for a car like this with very limited parts availability. Any damn part you ever wanted for a 1957 Chevrolet is in a catalog or on the internet, finding parts for 1957 Chrysler vehicles has to be A LOT harder. Also the DeSoto light up hood ornament on earlier 1950's models is pretty damn cool.
Virgil Exner was a genius. Always loved his designs. The 57 and 58 Chrysler products were the absolute best looking cars of the 50's. The three things that made Chrysler cars such good performers were the Hemi V8, Torsion bar suspension and that Torque Flite transmission. Chrysler did have issues with quality, though. If someone were to ask me which car from the 50's I would want the most, it would be a toss up between the 1958 Plymouth Fury and the '57 Chrysler 300. The 57 and 58 Chrysler products were far better looking cars then the iconic 57 Chevy.
I always thought that Desoto with the tall fin and six taillights was AWESOME! With a Hemi engine it was truly a muscle car long before any one coined that term.
Great video! It's very refreshing to see someone talk about a DeSoto without spewing a bunch of false information. P.S. Not only was it a 1 h.p. / 1 c.i. engine, it was the first U.S. production car to have a standard 1 h.p. / 1 c.i.
Thanks for watching! We try really hard to get our facts straight in our videos (although nobody is perfect.) Please share this video with your friends!
I have taken 2 1956 Chrysler's apart to make 1. I am amazed at the designing of these automobiles and all the very small parts that had to be produced and work together, with the technology at that time.
My first car was a '59 Desoto!! I called it my Batmobile! Talk about POWER!! I could do infinite donuts with that thing! I won races with GTOs, Plymouth hemis, Corvettes - nobody could believe it! And talk about a big back seat!! Good for dates!
My Dad had a 58 four door hard top I remember the windows wouldnt work most of the time, big old boat it was light blue over dark blue.Dad drove that car way up north in Canada on our summer vacations!
My family had a 51, a 55 w/291 cid Hemi, and a 58 Desoto w/ 361cid Firedome (295hp). In late 1964 I bought a 1957 Desoto Adventurer convertable for $ 200.! The standard displacement for the 57 was 341cid but Chrysler wanted 345 hp and they bored the engine 0.0157 in over to get 345 cid to get 345hp with 2-4 bbl carbs.
Why do you think they call the '55-'56'-'57's the Tri 5's? All the same "tubby" GM bodies and chassis with cheap front and back detail swaps- Exner said "enough".
Chrysler never changes. Space age design, medieval engineering. And it can never pick a happy medium between over the top Hot Wheels designs like the Hellcat, Prowler, Viper, etc and the boring refrigerator boxes it makes after cashing in the corporate welfare checks like the Dart (any generation), K car, Caravan, etc etc.
More tempting '57 DeSoto Adventurer for me! Higher level, more power, more luxury. My quota for Christine became full a long time ago when I heard it everywhere where are the fins.
Nah. For me it would be either a Studebaker Golden Hawk or a Packard Clipper 4 door sedan with all the finery included. I get sick of people blurting out "Christine" at any time someone mentions the Forward Look. It's like all the achievements of the entire movement has been hijacked by that blasted film.
I like the 1959 DeSoto Fireflite 4 door hardtop with dual rear antennas, two tone paint, V-8 engine, and whitewall tires. DeSoto with rumble seat between 1928 and 1938 in convertible or roadster form look great at the drive in movie.
Extremely well done as always! Have been tired of the whole Tri-Five Chevy cult for decades now. I've been wanting the poor orphaned '60 DeSoto for decades as well!
My Dad Had a 1958 Desoto Fireflight 2 Door Hardtop it was Green and White and I remember him getting a Ticket in it once for doing 100 Miles and hour. That car rode so Smooth you just couldn't believe you were going 100 MPH.
There was not a 45 rpm record player available until 1960. The Highway Hi Fi, released in Chrysler products in 1956, was a unique 16 2/3 rpm player and though it was listed in the initial advertisements for 1957, was actually not offered as a factory option by the time the Adventurers were released in January. A buyer likely could still order one through the parts department and have it installed at the dealer, just not at the factory.
It was a record *player*, not a changer. You had to change the records yourself. They didn't sell well in part for that reason. It was easier just to listen to the radio. Plus, people were skeptical that they wouldn't skip at every bump. Seen as just a "because we can" gimmick.
As a very little kid, not even knowing the names of the different makes, I was attracted to late '50s DeSotos with three taillights per large, tilted fin. I remember asking my parents why we couldn't get a car like that. A few years later we did get a new 1960 Plymouth which my mother hated, and which we only kept for one year. She disliked how she would catch a glimpse of the fins in her peripheral vision and think they were another car that was too close to us.
My dad had one of these when he was young. Drove it for a couple of years, bought a Chrysler and gave the like new Desoto to my moms brother who was an electrician and used it to haul tools, materials, etc. Go figure. Beautiful automobiles...even today.
Great design ! One of my preferate at Desoto's for thois modelyear ! It wasn't yet excessive as it used to become in the later years with V. Exner . The front design is just gorgeous and elegant with its simple shape.
Actually '58 was the first year for 50 state legal quad headlamps, but that's quibbling.... This car is absolutely stunning and thanks for your great videos.
In the late 80's, I worked for the dealership shown at 8:30. They originally sold Packard, then DeSoto, then Plymouth as well as were a Bricklin dealer. All the wrong brands. Now they sell NewHolland and Kioti tractors. Wonder if those will last!?
My first car was a 57 DeSoto with the 341 2 barrel carb and standard torqueflite trans. It was fairly fast, looked great, and was a blast to drive. It was a great road car. I once drove from Santa Ana Cali to Everett Washington in 19 hours 45 minutes. Not bad you say? Well, that was before most of Interstate 5 was finished! Yeah, handling wasn't it's strong suit but who wanted to road race in 1966? Street drag racing was all the rage back then, and if you didn't have big iron, well, park it and watch the big block cars for your entertainment. There were faster cars than my DeSoto, but the 57 Chevy wasn't one of them.
My Uncle had a 57 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer in two-tone green. I thought it was the best-looking car I ever, until he bought a 64 Dodge Polara 500 in black with red interior. Now I think they are the two best looking cars ever.
I begged my dad to let me buy this very car in 1963. No, I never got that wish, but that DeSoto still stirs my heart. Over 60 years later, it still is a classic beauty.
Classic, indeed. Thanks for watching!
In 1972 when I was in high school, I got my grandfathers 57 DeSoto Fireflite. Man what a cool car it was.
As a little boy I noticed that '57 DeSotos & Chryslers had "happy face" front styling. Both brands seem to be smiling! Kids today will never experience traveling on highways filled with handsome, friendly-looking big cars like the '57 DeSoto Adventurer.
Even if there were cars like this on the road today, today's kids would have their heads buried in their hand held electronic pacifiers. That's their whole world now. The adults aren't much better though.
Thanks for watching! Please share this video with your friends!
That's probably why I loved cars from that era when I was little. The cars looked like cartoon characters.
oddly enough and I am sure the people who own them dont notice it or know where the design comes from but many of the new cars seem to copy the eyebrow look of the headlights with their LED light display trim, especially cross;over models.
Kids today don’t care.... and will be happy when the Baby Boomer generation finally dies off so we can stop being bored with 1950s cars and wingadingadinga music and finally catch up on the high paying jobs you won’t retire from. Looking at an electronic device? What are you doing right now, ya hypocrite?
That '57 Desoto was EASILY the BEST styled vehicle in the Chrysler Corp. line-up! Thanks for uploading this video about an "under appreciated" American car!
Awesome car! BTW the stabilizing effect of tail fins was real - Exner was the first designer to use wind tunnels in the design process and Cal Tech proved the fins really did reduce need for steering correction (at high speeds) by up to 15%. They also proved fins moved the center of pressure backwards to the rear wheels, improving safety. Thanks for posting!
chrysler airflow?
Would love to read the Cal Tech research…will one find it at a beach in Arizona?
Our family doctor drove one of these. In those days md's still made house calls and my seven year old self couldn't stop looking at this car whenever he visited. I loved it then and love it now. Thanks for the great video!
What a great story! Love hearing old car memories like this. Thanks for watching!
Damn these things are tagged wrongly.
They arent cars.They are dreams on wheels.
Very true. Thanks for watching!
ha ha. This is true. I like to think of these cars, not so much as cars, but as drivable sculptures.
Agreed
Killer553 I agree too nice.
they are by todays ideals, ART
All `57 models from the Chrysler Corporation are the pure beauty and iconic legends.
Everything Exner did was pure perfection.
Truly iconic designs. Thanks for watching!
Not in my opinion. The 1961 Plymouth line and first generation Dart stand out as pugs in regard to style.
I believe we are all put on this planet for a reason. This was Exners.
Brad Conklin Except for quality control.
itsmegp46 + that's for sure! Perfect design, junkyard within 5 years! I had family that bought a couple of these new and they didn't get 3 good years out of them. Boy they still look great in pictures though.
Nice video. I've always been a fan of Exner's very personal styling sense. Though, just to note, Exner didn't retire, but was effectively fired after the disaster that was the 1962 model year - and which cars Exner himself was already open about not liking. He remained as a "consultant" for his replacement Elwood Engel for 1963, but was gone after that year.
But he never stopped designing, going into doing boats in the late '60s and exploring his passion for implementing past design cues with a modern touch for cars that largely never went beyond a prototype. The most famous and only production car that resulted from these was the Stutz Blackhawk, which became a darling for celebrities like Elvis. So he certainly remained active even after Chrysler, even if a lot of that work remains less well known.
Excellent presentation! Yes, this car could be considered the most beautiful of the 1957 Chrysler "forward look" Exner creations, and one of the best in the 1950s!
As a Mopar fan, especially Exner era cars, I'm so glad this video came out. Once again, congratulations on your awesob job!
Thanks for watching! Please share this video with your friends!
Professionally produced. well-written video and you couldn't have picked a more beautiful car to feature. I just discovered this channel, and I love it!
Thank you so much for the kind words! We're glad you discovered us. Be sure to share our videos with your car-loving friends!
I always liked that body style, along with the Chrysler 300. I have a 57 Dodge D-100 that is far from original. At times I regret all the modifications we did to the truck in the early 80's.
Love that styling, so distinctive with those soaring fins and other touches. Shame it gets overlooked. Thanks for another superb video!
We totally agree. Thanks for watching! Please share our videos with your friends!
Seeing this '57 DeSoto brought back memories of the first car I drove, my parents '57 Chrysler New Yorker with a 392. It drove like a dream but not a car for a teen.
I agree @9:49 being that the Bel-Aire was really an updated '55 design, whereas the '57 Mopar's were All New body styles
My neighbors had this automobile! I remember it well! WOW! I LOVED that big fin era!!
Proud owner of a '58 Plymouth, Exner put a true dream on wheels, the whole lineup of his Chrysler Corp. cars during the complete Forward Look period are pieces of art, jet-age style at its top.
Thanks for watching!
Damn, these were just great cars! Big and fast and built to last.
Sub count should be in the millions with the quality of this content. No...everyone is too busy watching rehashed late night television skits on trending. 🤦♂️
Hahaha. It's sad but true. You can help us, though. Please share this video with your friends!
Agreed great video hopefully mine will eventually turn out like yours
Well, late night shows are pretty funny after all
Love these Forwardlook cars! That was a very nice and thorough presentation of what I consider the greatest period of Chrysler history! Well Done! -Chris
OMG such a great video and channel you my friend are very good at what you do!
Well thanks for watching and being a part of our channel! Please share this video with your friends!
Thank you for such high quality video content. I don’t know much about the vehicles that you cover, (being from England) but I really enjoy discovering them through your videos. For informed and entertaining retro car reviews I think here and Jay Lenos Garage are the best places I have found. Thanks again.
Thanks for watching! We're glad you enjoy our videos, and we're glad you're discovering new cars. Be sure to share this video with your friends!
The '57 lineup is really the '60 lineup. In the Spring of 1954, Exner rolled out his designs for the 1960 lineup. Board members and dealers got so excited they demanded the cars be moved up to 1957 - a monumental task. The tagline, "suddenly it's 1960" was true; you really were getting the cars 3 years early. Body engineers, angry that for the first time they had been excluded from the design process, sabotaged the build process, hoping the flaws would reflect badly on Exner and his team. This and the rush - combined with booming sales they could barely keep up with - fomented the quality control issues. By 1958 the word was out that MoPars were "built like crap." That and the recession tanked sales and unlike GM & Ford, sales stayed low in '59 despite a recovery in the economy. GM's 1959 lineup, inspired by Exner's '57 cars, were so exaggerated (particularly Cadillac & Chevy), the public rejected tailfins unilaterally and designers scrambled to remove them from future cars. In May of '59 Exner rolled out his designs for '62. Dealers were horrified by what they considered un-sellable ugly cars. In the fall of '61, the '62 lineup debuted and sales bottomed out. The '62 lineup was all undersized, thanks to a ChryCo exec who overheard a fake conversation GM staged, in which a GM exec claimed all their '62 cars would be compacts. ChryCo fell for it and had no full-size cars for that year, until thanks to dealer demand, they re-tooled the '61 Chrysler and called it a '62. But the damage was done and Exner was fired. Later, ChryCo reconsidered and made him an honorary board member with zero control over production. Ford's Elwood Engel was brought in to salvage the '64 lineup and get ChryCo back into mainstream territory.
Back in 1990 I had the pleasure of driving my friends 57 Adventurer. We went out on a long flat highway. As I remember it wasn't a wheel breaker on take off, but I took her up to 100 mph and my friend said to "punch it". I was astounded! It almost threw us into the back seat! It went up to 130 in about 3 seconds. I never knew a car could have that much top end power. 😊
That hemi is quite the engine. I was impressed!
My grandparents loaned us their DeSoto in 1963 to take up to Clear Lake CA. That push button transmission, the AC in Dash (not under the dash AC), seat belts, the car never even swayed on curves; all 3 of us boys, ages 8, 7 & 5 could lie down side by side in the back seat. Like my Mom & her Brother did in their Nash in the Forties.
What as Killer553 says here-"Dreams on Wheels."
The 2-4bbl had progressive linkage. The engine ran on the front of the rear carb and as you pushed the pedal down it added the front of the front carb then the rear all mechanicaly , then the secondaries of the rear carb were operated by vaccuum when the engine needed it.
Very cool! Fascinating stuff long before engineers could just program a computer to do it. Haha. Thanks for watching!
A buddy had a 57 Desoto back in the early 60's. Even with a single 4 bbl, it really would run.
My father had a Desoto in 1963. It may have been a 1957. I remember it being a very large, good looking car. We lived in the rurals, that had rocks, instead of paved roads, so Daddy never drove very fast. He was very proud of that car. Momma could not drive. Daddy parked it at the train station Sunday night to go to work on ICRR. (He caught the train from Southern Illinois to close to Chicago where he worked).
He got home Friday, night. The Desoto had low mileage,since it was parked for 5 days at a time.
This put such a lump in my throat. I grew up with one of these. I was a kid in the 60's when my dad drove a 58 DeSoto Firesweep in baby blue and white. I've never seen another one in South Africa. We had (still have) a love affair with mountain passes and what you said about the rumble of that V8 - I can still hear it bouncing off the walls of mountain passes. I had a few vehicles in my day, but NOTHING since has ever come close to that sound. My favourite dream is that one day someone will offer me any car in the world. And I won't hesitate one second: 1958 DeSoto Firesweep, four door. Ahhh, if only...
Oh wow, thanks for sharing your DeSoto memories!
Can't tell most of them apart anymore. Used to have unique style you could instantly recognize.
Joe, I have to say. This is your absolute best video ever! The absolute best. So well research so accurate so correct. My first car in 1977 was a 1958 Chrysler New Yorker two door hardtop with the 392 Hemi. It had so much style and was just simply awesome! My New Yorker is still on the road today fully restored in all it's glory and traveling the roads of Sweden. I never should have sold it.....But, I did buy a 1958 DeSoto Fireflight last year and is not in prep for restoration. You really out did yourself on this video, everything. the filming, the historical data everything is absolutely fantastic.....and I agree, I'd own this over the Chevy any day of the week! Thanks for this upload, it's simply great!!!
Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed the video and you're absolutely right--a lot of work went into this production. This was a fantastic car. Hopefully the next video will be just as good!
Listen folks... for Osborn Tramain to say this? For all those who DON'T know who Osborn Tramain is, he is the king of the car videos! so, it is truly one HELL of a great video, I agree with Osborn completely!!
Surprisingly, I am from Uruguay. My dad had a 1958 yellow/white DeSoto when I was about five.
I remember the “torsion bar” breaking appart in a country road 😉😉😉
Gorgeous car. Everyone’s eye on it.
Thanks for sharing your DeSoto memories!
My dad had a 57 Desoto when I was 16 and this thing could really burn rubber! I loved that car!
Another great video from AutoMoments! Love the Forward Look-era cars. Exner was quite the stylist. Great to see and hear from Mr. Vince Geraci - a man that was right in the thick of such amazing and unduplicated automotive design. Great job Joe!
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it man!
Uyss
Always enjoy sharing! Those were the days! In the late 70s, I had an opportunity to buy a black 61 LeBaron but couldn't find the money.
Thank you for sharing. In 1957 I was a grammar school student in a small town in northwestern New Jersey near where New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania come together. That year, our teacher, Mrs. Doe (not her real name) bought a new 1957 De Soto. She would joke that when she parked the car at night, the front bumper was in New Jersey and the tail fins were in Pennsylvania!
I'm not a fan of GM but my fave '57 car is the Olds hardtop. Big, slick and smooth. For a Mopar, the Desoto and Chrysler 300 rock. For Ford, the Fairlane retractable hardtop
All beautiful cars for sure. Thanks for watching!
Yeah the 57 Olds & Cadillacs were hot
oldsmobile without doubt. 88s had better proportions than 98s
I'd love to have a 57 Olds J2 or either a 57 Bonneville or Tri Power Pontiac Chieftain. 57 Chevy's are a dime a dozen and the J2 Olds and Tri Power Pontiacs were faster.
I’ve owned almost all of the cars you’ve listed nothing like the 50s and 60s era of classics I just added a 56 Desoto to my collection
Thank you for this video! My father currently has a '57 DeSoto Fireflite 4-door that was his grandmother's car. It was a real treat to show him this video. He adores his Fireflite.
My first car was a 1957 DeSoto Fireflite 4-door. I paid $100 for it in 1964.
Drop Dead Gorgeous! Nothing can go up against this beauty regardless of the decade.
'57 was the apogee of styling for the decade, and in my opinion the DeSoto was the best of the best. I'm digging the bi-level front grille-bumper treatment with the free-standing headlights and the way the line of the rear bumper curves into the tail fins and is bisected by the flat oval exhaust tips. And, of course, the profile.
The DeSoto and Chrysler had identical rear sheet metal, but notice that on the DeSoto the blade-like bumper curves up at each end and appears to continue up the fin, sliced by the exhaust openings and then punctuated with the three tail lights.
My dad bought a '57 De Soto and it ran great. We took it from N. Cal to Texas and it was like floating on a cloud. He'd floor it to about 80 and you would never feel unsafe. Damn, that car was nice. It was the Fireflight model. Another family in our town had a black De Soto convertible with red interior. Now that car was a stand out! God, it was beautiful!!! Great days in the '50's!
We're glad this video could bring back some good memories for you!
Fantastic video! I've always preferred the 57-58 Mopars (especially the DeSotos) over GM & Ford for their engineering & style. Put ANY Mopar against a comparable GM or Ford model and that "Forward Look" clearly stands out as superior.
My ex used to have a 57 Plymouth, and while we kept it as stock looking as possible, I found that a good set of radial tires and slightly stiffer shocks improved the handling with only a slight loss of (soft) ride comfort.....and wow, did it attract attention! I miss it (but not her!).
Thanks for watching! We're glad you liked the video. As for radial tires, that would make a huge improvement for many old cars! Haha
I am a GM man: But those forward look cars could make me change my mind. When I think of this De Soto, the 57 Fury, the Chrysler 300 models of 58 and 59, the Dodge modles of 59 or the 59 Imperial. They ar BEAUTIFUL cars.
@Mark Prowatzke A friend owns a 59 Imperial. In Europe that is an extremely rare car.
Loving your videos man. Father in law has a couple of these Desotos. I usually drive one of them to car shows around here when he wants to bring more than one. At 77 years old, he and his wife drove their 58 Desoto all the way to San Diego a couple years ago from here in upstate South Carolina. Along the way the met up and joined other Desoto owners. His never skipped a beat, but he stopped to help the others when theirs had a problem.
Thanks for watching! Glad you like the videos!
My dad had one of these. I was just a little kid but from the day he drove it off the showroom floor I knew it was something special by the people gushed over it. He drove it for two or three years and gave it to my uncle, moms brother, and he got an Imperial.
Wow! What a great memory. I wonder where the car is now...
@@AutoMoments I don't know but I wish it was in my garage.
I saw Hernan De Soto go past in one of these the other day. He still had his armour on.
My dad had this exact same car! Gold and white paint and everything! Brought back memories.
What happened to it?
My father owned a '57 DeSoto 2 door hardtop with a hemi. It was green and white. I can remember the car very well. We used to take it to Atlantic City from Pittsburgh on vacations and I would stand rather then sit right behind my dad while he was driving. I would look over his shoulder and it almost seemed like I was driving even though I was only a little boy. Those were the days!
In addition to the beautiful car, this is a very intelligent and creative video.
Thanks for the enjoyment!
Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed it!
Our 59 Desoto station wagon had a second ceiling mounted air conditioner. The dog loved it and do did we. It was the only car of that era I remember people complaining about being too cold in in the steamy South I grew up in!
I love the exhaust coming through the rear bumper, that's cool. This video made me think of myself 50 years from now. We take cars for granted, the Firebirds and Eclipses I'm used to seeing will eventually be unicorns like this one.
It's hard to predict what will become collectable in the future. So many people drive their cars into the ground today that it'll be hard to find clean examples of "everyday" cars from the 80s and 90s.
AutoMoments Well end up with a lot of Japanese variants I believe. There's folks out there with low mileage Acuras and Honda's because they're convinced they'll be collectible one day. Now I see they may be correct in preserving them.
The 1957 Chrysler and DeSoto are good looking 50's cars.
My first memory of car love at four was the De Soto 🖤
The last two sentences are gems. "You don't have to explore new worlds to find gold. All you need is a Forward Look." Thank you for being almost reverential about a truly great car.
Thank you for watching! We're so glad you enjoyed it! It took a long time to come up with those last two sentences. There was a lot of writing and re-writing...
My dad had a 57 DeSoto 4 door. I thought that those triple stacked taillights were beautiful!! I would make sure they were always clean!
My dad's car. Kids always wanted to drag race at stop signs. Still can remember the hemi rumble.. Miss ya dad.
We're glad we could bring back some automotive memories for you. Thanks for watching!
Man that is a beautifully restored and VERY RARE car right there. Gotta give the salute to whoever restored this beast and the current care-taker, as its much harder to restore/care for a car like this with very limited parts availability. Any damn part you ever wanted for a 1957 Chevrolet is in a catalog or on the internet, finding parts for 1957 Chrysler vehicles has to be A LOT harder.
Also the DeSoto light up hood ornament on earlier 1950's models is pretty damn cool.
I don't think that I would have ever seen one of these had it not been for this video.
+1 subscription.
By the way, it's freaking beautiful.
Thanks for watching, and for subscribing! Be sure to check out our other videos!
Virgil Exner was a genius. Always loved his designs. The 57 and 58 Chrysler products
were the absolute best looking cars of the 50's.
The three things that made Chrysler cars such good performers were the Hemi V8, Torsion bar
suspension and that Torque Flite transmission. Chrysler did have issues with quality, though.
If someone were to ask me which car from the 50's I would want the most, it
would be a toss up between the 1958 Plymouth Fury and the '57 Chrysler 300.
The 57 and 58 Chrysler products were far better looking cars then
the iconic 57 Chevy.
Exactly
Excellent auto moments! Superb video of a nice rarity with Exner lines... Hernando De Soto lives! ♫
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Desoto lives, but Hernando doesn't. He's buried somewhere in the Mississippi River in Arkansas.
I always thought that Desoto with the tall fin and six taillights was AWESOME!
With a Hemi engine it was truly a muscle car long before any one coined that term.
Great video! It's very refreshing to see someone talk about a DeSoto without spewing a bunch of false information.
P.S. Not only was it a 1 h.p. / 1 c.i. engine, it was the first U.S. production car to have a standard 1 h.p. / 1 c.i.
Thanks for watching! We try really hard to get our facts straight in our videos (although nobody is perfect.) Please share this video with your friends!
I have taken 2 1956 Chrysler's apart to make 1. I am amazed at the designing of these automobiles and all the very small parts that had to be produced and work together, with the technology at that time.
Awesome video! I love the cars from the mid to late 50's. Big, bold, powerful, tail fins, colors. Take me back to Happy Days and American Grafitti!
Very cool! Thanks for watching!
My first car was a '59 Desoto!! I called it my Batmobile! Talk about POWER!! I could do infinite donuts with that thing! I won races with GTOs, Plymouth hemis, Corvettes - nobody could believe it! And talk about a big back seat!! Good for dates!
This was the first of your videos that I watched, and it is still my favorite. But I haven't seen a bad one yet.
My very first car was a 1948 DeSoto Delux convertible White with a black roof. Flat head six with the sludgepot transmission, loved that car!
Very cool! Thanks for watching!
Such a great video, thanks for that! The car also is one absolute glory... Keep it up!
Thanks for watching! Always good to see your name in the comments section!
A Beautiful Car! The 1956’s were so beautiful too! A friend had a ‘56.
My Dad had a 58 four door hard top I remember the windows wouldnt work most of the time, big old boat it was light blue over dark blue.Dad drove that car way up north in Canada on our summer vacations!
My family had a 51, a 55 w/291 cid Hemi, and a 58 Desoto w/ 361cid Firedome (295hp). In late 1964 I bought a 1957 Desoto Adventurer convertable for $ 200.! The standard displacement for the 57 was 341cid but Chrysler wanted 345 hp and they bored the engine 0.0157 in over to get 345 cid to get 345hp with 2-4 bbl carbs.
The '57 Chevy couldn't hold a candle to '57 Mopars. The '55 Chevy was the important one. The
57 was just the '55 with tail fins grafted on.
Why do you think they call the '55-'56'-'57's the Tri 5's? All the same "tubby" GM bodies and chassis with cheap front and back detail swaps- Exner said "enough".
Desoto's problem is everybody had a '57 Chevy... nobody had a '57 Desoto... buyers feared the breaking torsion bars... and other quality problems...
@@BuzzLOLOL , all true the almighty trade in value was really important.
Ford out sold the Chevy, too.
As he said, Chrysler had a quality build issue. The design and engineering were forward.
Chrysler never changes. Space age design, medieval engineering. And it can never pick a happy medium between over the top Hot Wheels designs like the Hellcat, Prowler, Viper, etc and the boring refrigerator boxes it makes after cashing in the corporate welfare checks like the Dart (any generation), K car, Caravan, etc etc.
If I bought a car from 1957 it would be a Plymouth Fury. CHRISTINE
Grim Reaper I would get a ‘57 Chevy
Not a bad choice, but the DeSoto is our favorite. Thanks for watching! Please share this video with your friends!
I hate to be this guy but Christine was a '58 good choice tho
More tempting '57 DeSoto Adventurer for me! Higher level, more power, more luxury. My quota for Christine became full a long time ago when I heard it everywhere where are the fins.
Nah. For me it would be either a Studebaker Golden Hawk or a Packard Clipper 4 door sedan with all the finery included. I get sick of people blurting out "Christine" at any time someone mentions the Forward Look. It's like all the achievements of the entire movement has been hijacked by that blasted film.
I like the 1959 DeSoto Fireflite 4 door hardtop with dual rear antennas, two tone paint, V-8 engine, and whitewall tires. DeSoto with rumble seat between 1928 and 1938 in convertible or roadster form look great at the drive in movie.
Extremely well done as always!
Have been tired of the whole Tri-Five Chevy cult for decades now.
I've been wanting the poor orphaned '60 DeSoto for decades as well!
Hopefully you can get that DeSoto someday! Thanks for watching!
Superb video, beautiful car. Can't go wrong.
My Dad Had a 1958 Desoto Fireflight 2 Door Hardtop it was Green and White and I remember him getting a Ticket in it once for doing 100 Miles and hour. That car rode so Smooth you just couldn't believe you were going 100 MPH.
"You'll understand the reason why the car you wanted is your best buy. It's delightful, it's de-lovely, it's Desoto".
Haha, true indeed! Thanks for watching!
Just watched this again, 1-5-2022. Just as thrilling.
Add the optional 45 rpm record changer and you were ready to FLY.
That would be even better! Haha. Thanks for watching! Please share this video with your friends!
There was not a 45 rpm record player available until 1960. The Highway Hi Fi, released in Chrysler products in 1956, was a unique 16 2/3 rpm player and though it was listed in the initial advertisements for 1957, was actually not offered as a factory option by the time the Adventurers were released in January. A buyer likely could still order one through the parts department and have it installed at the dealer, just not at the factory.
Later for the record player, get factory air conditioning instead.
It was a record *player*, not a changer. You had to change the records yourself. They didn't sell well in part for that reason. It was easier just to listen to the radio. Plus, people were skeptical that they wouldn't skip at every bump. Seen as just a "because we can" gimmick.
Hemi Engine and the indestructible Torqueflyte transmission, nothing like THAT today.
@Louis Edwards Pity that the Chrysler name today does not mean what it used to.
one of my best friends when I was growing up grand father , had a De Soto Fireflight .
Excellent work, as always. I completely agree and have from the beginning (I'm 74) that Chrysler owned 1957. Owned it.
Indeed! Thanks for watching!
your channel produces quality content. I enjoy the story approach and background info to your videos.
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As a very little kid, not even knowing the names of the different makes, I was attracted to late '50s DeSotos with three taillights per large, tilted fin. I remember asking my parents why we couldn't get a car like that. A few years later we did get a new 1960 Plymouth which my mother hated, and which we only kept for one year. She disliked how she would catch a glimpse of the fins in her peripheral vision and think they were another car that was too close to us.
My dad had one of these when he was young. Drove it for a couple of years, bought a Chrysler and gave the like new Desoto to my moms brother who was an electrician and used it to haul tools, materials, etc. Go figure. Beautiful automobiles...even today.
I always look forward to your videos! Fantastic and fascinating! Glad you got a chance to review a DeSoto!
This car was great. Thanks for watching, and please share this video with your friends! We've got more coming soon.
Great design ! One of my preferate at Desoto's for thois modelyear ! It wasn't yet excessive as it used to become in the later years with V. Exner . The front design is just gorgeous and elegant with its simple shape.
I never found the 57 Bel Air to be that good looking. There...I said it.
Actually '58 was the first year for 50 state legal quad headlamps, but that's quibbling.... This car is absolutely stunning and thanks for your great videos.
Thanks for watching! And you're right, '58 was the first year it quad headlights were legal in all states; '57 they were only legal in some.
These videos are fantastic. Keep plugging away, you will find a larger audience.
Thanks for watching! You can help by sharing our videos with your car-loving friends!
"Quad headlamps had just become 50 state legal." (3:35) In '57 there were only 48 states!
In the late 80's, I worked for the dealership shown at 8:30. They originally sold Packard, then DeSoto, then Plymouth as well as were a Bricklin dealer. All the wrong brands. Now they sell NewHolland and Kioti tractors. Wonder if those will last!?
Beautiful shots, Joe!!!
Thanks dude!
My first car was a 57 DeSoto with the 341 2 barrel carb and standard torqueflite trans. It was fairly fast, looked great, and was a blast to drive. It was a great road car. I once drove from Santa Ana Cali to Everett Washington in 19 hours 45 minutes. Not bad you say? Well, that was before most of Interstate 5 was finished!
Yeah, handling wasn't it's strong suit but who wanted to road race in 1966? Street drag racing was all the rage back then, and if you didn't have big iron, well, park it and watch the big block cars for your entertainment. There were faster cars than my DeSoto, but the 57 Chevy wasn't one of them.
Thanks for sharing some great DeSoto memories!
My Uncle had a 57 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer in two-tone green. I thought it was the best-looking car I ever, until he bought a 64 Dodge Polara 500 in black with red interior. Now I think they are the two best looking cars ever.
I’ve had a affection for DeSoto since I acquired a Dinky model of the Fireflight as a nipper in 1958.
Dude, what an amazing, high quality video! Watched a few of your other ones, and this is the best one yet. Also, happy birthday!!!
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Wow really stunning ! Does anyone know what paints they used on these cars? That shade of Gold is beautiful 👍