Found in survivor condition, just a rebuilt carb and minor mechanical work has this rare gem driving under its own power again.
A self-proclaimed "Fin Fanatic", Ryan Richards spends his days rescuing American cars from the 1950s. After he finds them, he fixes them back to running order and finds them new homes with people who will actually go out and enjoy these cars. Richards is a fan of most everything on four wheels, but he prefers cars built from 1954 through 1964.
Of course, Richards has stumbled across some incredibly rare finds, and of course,he keeps the rarest of treasures for himself. His most recent rare find would be this 1959 DeSoto Adventurer hardtop in survivor condition. This particular car is one of those epic barn finds as if searching for the long-lost treasure chest on a sunken pirate ship.
Advertised as a premium four-seater sports coupe, DeSoto released the Adventurer as a new for 1959 model. A Chrysler brand, the DeSoto Adventurer was considered fully loaded having most standard features offered on automaker's complete lineup. Well, everything except the optional record player offered by DeSoto.
Under the hood was a 383-cubic-inch Wedge-head V8 engine topped with dual four-barrel carburetors that generated a healthy 350-horsepower. Shifting power came from a push-button TorqueFlite automatic transmission. Inside the car was a new interior feature in the form of front seats that swiveled out, much like a desk chair. This was to make jumping in the car even easier than before. The car is rare considering only 687 DeSoto Adventurers were actually produced, with that broken down into 590 hardtops and 97 convertible models.
A doctor in North Dakota first owned this exact Adventurer. To bring time into perspective, this was during Lyndon B. Johnson's first presidential term. At one point, the doctor handed over the keys to his son who started drag racing the car in Montana. The engine was blown in 1965, so the son sold the car to the second owner for a mere $300.
The second owner fixed the 383cui V8 engine and used the car to serve daily driving duties. A sentimental car, the man met a girl, married his wife in the car, and was driving the car the day he received a draft letter sometime back in 1968. The man parked the DeSoto in a wooden shed before shipping off on his deployment. The car sat until he came back, but it wouldn't start upon his return. During this time, skyrocketing gas prices were in full swing, so he decided to leave it parked. As everyone knows, life tends to take over, and this one sat in the shed since 1968 until 2019 when Ryan finally discovered it in that wooden shed.
To rescue this particular car, Ryan made the 24-hour drive from Texas to Scobey, Montana. He purchased the Adventurer from that same second owner, and the only work that was needed was a carb rebuild along with some basic maintenance to get the car up and running. Also, the front bumper was replaced after a run-in with a fire hydrant at one point in the '60s, and he located one in Oklahoma.
Ryan has decided to keep this DeSoto Adventurer in amazing survivor condition, only because he knows he may never stumble across another one. Now, Ryan enjoys cruising around aimlessly in the car or simply running errands in it whenever he can.
Source: The Drive
