There is a picture of the RR quarter of a ’56 De Soto Adventurer on the cover of the July 2014 Hemmings Motor News. The rear quarter panels look very similar to those of ’56 Chryslers, including 300’s. The ends of the rear bumpers appear to come up a little further on the Chryslers so any interchange of taillights would probably have to be accompanied by a change in the rear bumpers also.
Much of the tin, glass, drivetrain and suspension of the ’55-’56 Chryslers and De Soto’s is interchangeable with some slight mods. The Adventurer even has the little oval tailpipe extensions.
I find it interesting that Chrysler Corp. changed the bore and stroke of the ’51-’55 Chrysler hemi’s that
produced 330.41 cubes to the ’56 DeSoto hemi that produced 331.06 cubes—a whopping 0.65 cubes reduction. I’m sure they had their reasons to go with a longer stroke and smaller bore—perhaps the blocks are that much different in length and prevented any more boring.
I’m sharing a table I built of the dimensions of the early hemi’s. Corrections welcomed. There are some slight discrepancies between advertised and calculated displacement. It looks like the 392 was actually a 393 and the 354 was a 353. Another interesting historical fact is that the bore and stroke of the ’51-‘55 Chrysler hemi were the exact same dimensions as those of the ’49-‘55 Cadillac OHV V-8. The hemi heads and solid lifters of the ’55 C-300 got the horsepower wars off to a fine start.
One can also note the progression of the first offering of the hemi engine—1951-Chrysler; 1952-De Soto and 1953-Dodge. Plymouth did not get a hemi until 1964—and produced a NASCAR winner with King Richard at the wheel.
Rich Barber
Brentwood, CA.
EARLY HEMI DISPLACEMENTS, BORES, STROKES |
| Year(s) | Car | Model | Adv. Disp. | Stroke | Bore | Disp-calc |
1 | '53-'54 | Dodge | Red Ram | 241 | 3.250 | 3.4375 | 241.30 |
2 | '55-'56 | Dodge | Truck (B&S est.) | 259 | 3.250 | 3.5625 | 259.16 |
3 | '55 | Dodge | Super Red Ram | 270 | 3.250 | 3.6250 | 268.34 |
4 | '52-'54 | DeSoto | Firedome | 276 | 3.340 | 3.6250 | 275.77 |
5 | '55 | DeSoto | Fireflite | 291 | 3.340 | 3.7200 | 290.41 |
6 | '56 | Dodge | D500 | 315 | 3.800 | 3.6250 | 313.75 |
7 | '57 | Dodge | D500 | 325 | 3.800 | 3.6875 | 324.66 |
8 | '56 | DeSoto | Firedome, Fireflite | 330 | 3.800 | 3.7200 | 330.41 |
9 | '51-'55 | Chrysler | Chry, 300, NY, Imp | 331 | 3.625 | 3.8125 | 331.06 |
10 | '56-'57 | DeSoto | Fdome, Fflite, Adv | 341 | 3.800 | 3.7812 | 341.37 |
11 | '57 | DeSoto | Adventurer | 345 | 3.800 | 3.8000 | 344.77 |
12 | '56 | Chrysler | NY, 300, Imp | 354 | 3.625 | 3.9375 | 353.13 |
13 | '57-'58 | Chrysler | NY, 300, Imp | 392 | 3.910 | 4.0000 | 393.08 |
From: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 'John Grady' jkg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [Chrysler300]
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2014 9:51 AM
To: 'Mark Souders'
Cc: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [Chrysler300] Unusual DeSoto?
57-58 he mentioned , bumper is part of taillight housing? Do not know about 56
Yes, I remember seeing that 56. It's there every year.
The short answer is, no, Desoto had three stacked lights, 56-59. Of course, it would be easy to swap out the regular taillights for a Chrysler taillight housing. At the Macungie show last year, there was a 56 Desoto with 56 Chrysler taillights.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2014 8:27 AM
Subject: [Chrysler300] Unusual DeSoto?
Last evening I was washing my 300H and my Challenger in the driveway and an unusual car went down the road. It was a very nice looking 1957 or 58 DeSoto, salmon and white in color, could have been a Firesweep or Sportsman 2 door hardtop. The unusual thing was, it had what appeared to be 58 Chrysler taillights. I thought Desotos had three stacked round lights, but this looked like the 58 Chrysler lights. Anyone know anything about this? I know a lot of DeSoto sheetmetal was shared, but did DeSoto use Chrysler lights in any of their models in 57 or 58? I have never seen this car in my neighborhood before, so naturally, I noticed.
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network
Archive Sitemap