What was accepted as stylish and the "last word" in automobile performance in 1900 looks quaint and inadequate in 1957; just as today's vastly improved motor cars will be old-fashioned in the year 2000.

Virgil Exner, Chrysler's head of design, wrote these words in a 1956 SAE paper titled "Styling and Aerodynamics." He knew the importance of styling but also understood it was a transient sign of the times. What was radical at the start of the century was antiquated five decades later. Yet Exner himself had a way of creating designs that reflected the time period of the car--without looking ancient even half a century afterwards.

Decades before Chrysler introduced the "Cab Forward" design, the automaker brought out the "Forward Look." The year was 1957, and the design philosophy was Exner's. It was such a dramatic move at the time that Chrysler's Plymouth brand advertised that it was the styling model the industry would follow in three years.

It was two other brands from Chrysler that left the biggest legacy with Exner's Forward Look, however. Sadly, that year may have marked the high-water point for both brands. One ceased production five years later, and the other slid into oblivion by the mid-1970s. In 1957, though, both brands were going strong.

In its second model year, the Adventurer led the De Soto lineup. Basically a Fireflite with gold paint and a bigger engine, the coupe introduced in 1956 was complemented with a convertible model in 1957.

Also making its debut that year was the 345cid V8, fueled by two four-barrel carburetors pumping out 345 horsepower and coupled to the new