1951 DeSoto Sportsman Hardtop

A popular body style in America from the late 1940s through the 1970s was the "hardtop convertible" -- at first a coupé without a B-pillar.  That is, no pillar was visible when the side windows were rolled down.  The result was a sporty-looking car without most of the advantages and defects of a true convertible.

I wrote about General Motors' pathbreaking hardtops here, and hardtops from competing manufacturers here.  Read those posts for some background information if you aren't familiar with that body type which was phased out for reasons of rollover protection.

This post deals with a Chrysler Corporation hardtop, the 1951 DeSoto Sportsman.

Chrysler was a successful firm from the mid-1920s until the very early 1950s when it began to falter. In my opinion that decline was due to a mistaken styling theme for its first post- World War 2 redesign, its 1949 models.  The entire line from Plymouth to Chrysler Imperial was rather tall, stubby, and boxy compared to competing brands, especially those of style leader General Motors.  Chrysler's 1953 redesigns did not go far enough to correct the problem and the company never really recovered even though it had occasional periods of strong sales success.

Chrysler Corporation's first mass-produced hardtops appeared for the 1950 model year.   I wrote about the DeSoto hardtop here.  The following model year saw the corporation's cars get modest facelifts, the most visible detail being rounded-down noses in place of ship prow hood lines that had contributed to the boxy appearance.

The '51 DeSoto Sportsman is shown here because I found images of a beautifully restored example (click on them to enlarge somewhat).  Unless otherwise noted, images are of cars advertised for sale.

Gallery

A 1951 DeSoto sedan showing the facelifted front and the boxy remainder of the body.

And here is that restored DeSoto.  From today's SUV-influenced perspective, the styling seems reasonably presentable.  But in its day, it seemed dowdy to many potential buyers.  One factor that kept Chrysler Corporation sales from collapsing back then was the company's strong reputation for good engineering.  I suspect that most actual buyers ignored the styling and bought Chrysler products either for the engineering or due to habit.  By the way, that 1951 Washington license plate's letter B represents Pierce County (Tacoma), the state's second most populous county -- King County (Seattle) got A and Spokane County cars had C in those days.

Rear quarter view.  The general appearance of the top, including the C-pillar and back window, is direct borrowing from GM's first-generation hardtops (see the first link above).  Unfortunately, the shape is not nearly as lithe as what Harley Earl's crew was able to produce.

Side view.  The car is refreshingly chrome-free seen from this perspective.  In part that might have been because of material shortages due to the 1950-53 Korean War.

DeSoto sales where never strong because the brand was squeezed between Dodge and Chrysler.  Fewer than 9,000 Sportsmen were sold over the 1951-52 model years.  Above is a competing hardtop, the Hudson Hollywood whose annual sales were similar.

Bracketing the Sportsman's price point in 1951 were Oldsmobile's Ninety-Eight Holiday (above) and Super 88 Holiday (below, Mecum Auctions photo).  Granted that Olds sales in general were higher than DeSoto's, but these more stylish hardtops together outsold Sportsmen by a factor of about seven.

Buick Super and Roadmaster Riviera hardtops shared bodies with the Olds' and also price-bracketed the DeSoto.  Shown here is a Super Riviera.  They outsold Sportsmen by a factor of about 16.