“Out of sight except at night.” That was a slogan for the 1942 DeSoto and its Airfoil Lights. I believe this year/make was only the second car ever offered with hidden headlights with the 1936-37 Cord 810/812 being the first. Buying one of these would cost a lot less than buying a real Cord.
Fluid Drive was a semi-automatic transmission in which the clutch was used from a stop to engage the car into gear and then, once the clutch was released, the transmission would shift around through the gears as needed and as directed by accelerator position, speed, etc. Of course, General Motors had already introduced a fully automatic transmission by this time, the Hydra-Matic.
I just love the face of this car. The hidden headlights were only used for 1942 model year cars, a year in which production ended early because of the US entry into World War II. DeSoto built 24,771 automobiles in model year 1942. After the war, the hidden headlights were no longer used on DeSoto cars, or anyone else’s for that matter.
A really big lottery win would probably mean I would buy one of these and have it resto-modded. One of the great things about living here is that there are a lot of shops that could do the work.
Have a great weekend…
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It certainly presents a very sleek, clean look. It interesting to me how on the one hand Chrysler Corp seemed to have many advanced styling ideas, yet also had such a reputation for being stodgy and old fashioned in styling.
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Thanks, Mark. Many things are not black and white, but shadow and shade. If Chrysler had put the DeSoto Adventurer I into production, and it came very close to doing so, it would have blasted its reputation for stodginess into oblivion.
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I will see your DeSoto and raise you a DeSoto ambulance if I could post a picture. Check your email.
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Thanks, Philip. I like the photo.
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