TorqueFlite three-speed automatic transmission controlled by Chrysler's famous push buttons. Optional quad-headlights were among the industry's first.

This high-spec model caught the eye of legendary automotive scribe Tom McCahill, who, in the pages of Mechanix Illustrated, earmarked the De Soto models as the best looking of all '57 Chrysler products. Topping a pile of accolades, McCahill's adoration helped boost the brand's sales. The Adventurer became the holy grail of De Soto models and remained almost as rare, with only 1,950 sold that year.

At the very top of Chrysler's offerings was the Imperial. Like the De Soto, Exner's pen marks are all over the 1957 Imperial. From the hooded headlights (available, as on the De Soto, with two or four lights) through the "double wrap around" windshield to the peaks of its dramatic tailfins, the Imperial showcased a homogenous and industry-changing style--called "Flight-Sweep" in advertising --like no other car of its era.

Period literature, rarely a place for hyperbole, claimed the styling was "of brilliant originality" and "actually merits the use of the much over-used superlative 'incomparable.'"

Sharing the new TorqueFlite transmission with the De Soto, the Imperial one-upped the lesser brand with its own engine. Imperials in 1957 shook the earth with a four-barrel 392cid V8 ripping up the pavement with 325 horses. Shook the earth, maybe--but it was still taxed with motivating a 224-inch-long, 81-inch-wide luxury car.

Chrysler's Torsion-Aire suspension

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