In partnership with Ghia of Italy, Chrysler design chief Virgil Exner created a number of stunning dream cars, but his favorite was the 1954 DeSoto Adventurer I.

Virgil Exner and the DeSoto Explorer I in front of his home 

As head of Chrysler styling from 1953 through 1961, Virgil Exner is best remembered today for two remarkable achievements: First, his dramatic Forward Look styling theme, which transformed the Chrysler Corporation from styling dud to styling leader. Next, there were the two dozen or so stunning cars he created in partnership with Ghia of Turin. While most of these European GT-flavored experimentals were badged as Chryslers, his favorite—according to his son Virgil Exner Jr., a noted designer in his own right—was a DeSoto: the 1954 Adventurer I.

The Adventurer (not yet the Adventurer I, as an Adventurer II had not appeared yet) made its official debut on November 12, 1953 at a national press showing of the production 1954 DeSotos in Detroit. While the exterior design was by Exner, the bodywork was hand-formed in steel by the craftsmen at Ghia over a 1953 DeSoto chassis with its wheelbase shortened from 125.5 to 111 inches. The drivetrain was DeSoto as well, with a 276.1 CID Firedome hemi V8 coupled to a Fluid-Torque automatic transmission.

One might never know it from the Italian GT proportions and lack of any rear quarter windows, but the Adventurer was a real four-seater with room for two more adults in the back. And though it stood only 53 inches tall, a substantial front bumper and grille gave the DeSoto special an American presence, while the wire wheels and wide whitewalls (a favorite Exner touch) created a light-on-its-feet stance. In his 1959 book, Sports Cars of the Future, which included the Exner-Ghia specials, Strother MacMinn wrote that the Adventurer I “was certainly one of the handsomest cars in the group.”

After its tour on the 1954 auto show circuit, Exner added the car to his personal transportation fleet and drove it regularly for several years. He lobbied for a production version, and with the Corvette and Thunderbird arriving on the scene there was a business case to be made. But funding at Chrysler was tight—the corporation had borrowed  $200 million from the Prudential Insurance Company to finance the Forward Look makeover. Meanwhile, it was said, DeSoto management was still gun-shy from the Airflow sales disaster 20 years earliier. A low-volume sports car was not in the cards.

Exner returned the Adventurer I to Chrysler Engineering in 1956, and after that the trail goes dark. Reportedly, the car was sold to an enthusiast in South America and evidently, it hasn’t surfaced since. Some months after the original Adventurer made its debut the Adventurer II appeared, but it was based on Giovanni Savonuzz’s Supersonic styling theme with some Exner input, and it was regarded as more of a Ghia than a Chrysler project. The Adventurer II still exists. Chrysler did get plenty of mileage from the Adventurer name as a production model in the DeSoto lineup from 1956 through 1960.