After the marketing success of the 1955 Chrysler C-300, other Chrysler Corporation brands got in on the auction with their packaged performance cars. DeSoto, sitting in a rung one step below Chrysler, took a 1956 Fireflite Sportsman, dressed it up in gold, injected a bit of horsepower, and called it the Adventurer. One of these rare Mopars is our Pick of the Day. It’s listed for sale on ClassicCars.com by a dealer in Conroe, Texas. (Click on this link to view the listing)
Chrysler’s 1955 C-300 was an earth-shattering combination of solid good looks and horsepower. Three hundred horses was big news in 1955, giving the big Mopar speed in ways few had experienced at the time. While other cars may have had decent horsepower, they involved optional engines in any available model. What Chrysler did with the C-300 was create a special model wrapped around a performance package. That formula (most famously it was used by Pontiac when the GTO was created in 1964) was applied to several other Mopar brands for 1956.
Plymouth introduced the Fury, a white and gold two-door hardtop with a hot 240-horsepower 303 V8 with polyspherical combustion chambers. Over at DeSoto, the Hemi was the name of the game, with a 341ci V8 offering 320 horsepower from 9.25:1 compression thanks to a pair of four-barrel carburetors. This special mode was often referred to as the “Golden Adventurer” since the car was initially offered in “Adventurer Gold” with black or white trim, but many cars were built in black or white with gold trim. Also gold was the aluminum anodized grille, wheel covers, seat and back bolsters, interior trim panels, instrument panel insert, and highlights on the white steering wheel.
Standard equipment for the Adventurer coupe included PowerFlite automatic transmission (reportedly, TorqueFlite made available later in the year), power brakes, 3.54 rear gears, dual exhaust and extensions, dual rear antenna, and dual outside mirrors. Wheelbase was 126 inches, with the total length being 220.9 inches. Costing $3,728, the Adventurer was a substantial car with few equals, perhaps only surpassed by its big brother, now called the 300-B and featured 340 horsepower from its 354 Hemi V8, with 355 being optional.
This restored 1956 DeSoto Adventurer is painted White with an Adventurer Gold top and spear. The seller claims it has been driven little since completion in 2014, happily residing indoors under cover. Features on this one include electric dashboard clock, AM radio, Highway Hi-Fi phonograph, power seat, and Vogue whitewalls.
Few cars married design, style, and performance as well as DeSoto did with the Adventurer. With only 996 built, this mid-1950s banker’s hot rod requires $69,900 from your bank account.
Click here for this ClassicCars.com Pick of the Day.
Source: www.classiccars.com