"bwp240" (bwp240)
03/03/2015 at 13:00 • Filed to: 2sday
1
5|
"bwp240" (bwp240)
03/03/2015 at 13:00 • Filed to: 2sday | 1
| 5 |
Welcome to another installation of 2sday where the Oppo community looks back at decades of automotive history. So far we have seen everything from the birth of the automobile to the beginning of hot rods. This week we step into 1942.
For this week I profile the 1942 DeSoto Sedan. What makes this car unique from its other prewar counterparts is the hidden headlamps (shades go up, shades go down). First pioneered by Cord in 1936, hidden headlamps are now illegal (thanks government).
The DeSoto sedan, built by Chrysler at their plants as De Soto was a division of Chrysler, came in 2 basic flavors, deluxe and a custom. The deluxe had a wheelbase of 121.5 inches and the custom was slightly larger at 139.5 inches. Of course these two models came in a variety of styles from 2 door coupes to 4 door convertibles. Of all the models, the rag tops are one the rarest models (outside of the business limousines) with only 79 units produced. There were ~25,000 cars produced before the plant they were being built at was re-purposed for the war effort.
Both cars came with a 115 hp 6 cylinder engine which may not be winning a lot of drag races, but is certainly enough for cruising down Route 66.
What interesting vehicles from 1942 can you find?
Nibby
> bwp240
03/03/2015 at 13:05 |
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Cherry_man1
> bwp240
03/03/2015 at 13:21 |
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Why are hide away's illegal again? I never heard of that.
ranwhenparked
> Cherry_man1
03/03/2015 at 14:17 |
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They aren't, at least not exactly. They're just difficult to engineer in a way that would comply with European pedestrian impact regulations, and it doesn't make sense to do such radically different versions of a car for different markets.
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Cherry_man1
> ranwhenparked
03/03/2015 at 14:19 |
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Stupid europe.
Rev Hang Slows My Roll
> bwp240
03/03/2015 at 14:25 |
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