Chrome, Sweet Chrome: The 1958 Classic That Won Her Heart

Christina Park, 24, a genetic counselling assistant at a children’s hospital who lives in Columbus, Ohio, on her 1958 DeSoto Firesweep Sportsman, as told to A.J. Baime.

My father started his company dealing in classic car parts when he was about 15, so since I was born, I have been around it. He was always rotating cars, new ones coming all the time. When I was 11 or 12, a DeSoto showed up on a trailer. I was just getting to the age where I was noticing cars, and what I liked and didn’t like. I liked fins, chrome and pretty colours. This DeSoto was all of that. I fell in love with it instantly, and, ever since, DeSotos have been close to my heart.

Most people, even up to my parents’ age, don’t know what DeSoto is, since DeSoto ended production in model year 1961. DeSoto was its own make of cars under the Chrysler umbrella, just like Dodge and Plymouth.

One weekend in 2016, my dad asked me if I wanted to go to an estate sale, which was a pretty common thing. When we got there, we found this DeSoto Firesweep Sportsman in the back of a garage, and it was for sale. Not too many people were there, and it was clear that no one had tried to start this car in many years. The colours were beautiful, and the car was similar to the DeSoto I had fallen in love with years earlier.

The Firesweep ended up coming home with us. I was 16, and, from the start, my dad said he would teach me what I needed to know to get it running and take care of it myself. But also, that it would be my car to do with what I wanted. When we started working on it, we were not sure how it was going to go. It needed a lot of TLC. We went through the usual mechanics. When we took off all the original belts and hoses, they cracked in our hands like pretzels. We put new tires on and polished the chrome. A year after we brought it home, it started right up.

It wasn’t my daily driver, but I started driving the DeSoto and, occasionally, taking it to school. Even people who were not car fans thought it was cool because of the paint and the chrome, and how different the styling was from anything you saw at the time. People were a little astonished by it.

Now, I have three DeSotos, but two of them are project cars that are not roadworthy. The Firesweep Sportsman gets stored through the Midwestern winters. But this time of year, I begin getting it ready for summer. I drive it to car shows and anywhere I can. Last summer, I put 1,600 miles on it. It is almost always the only DeSoto at a car show, so getting to show it off and talk about the brand is very rewarding.

I joined the National DeSoto Club even before I owned a DeSoto, and for the past two years, I have taken my car to the national conventions. It is a great community. A lot of the members are older, but there are younger people, and it’s so great to hang out with people who share this passion. The community is also very helpful if you have to find a rare part or need help doing something mechanically.

At the first national convention I went to, in 2022, I met the club’s magazine editor, David Frank. We started meeting up at other car events, and now we are two years into our relationship. He has a 1959 DeSoto Fireflite and, while he lives in Wisconsin and I live in Ohio, twice we have had our cars together. I guess I have gotten more than I ever could have expected out of my love for DeSoto.

There are Corvette fans for whom the base US$68,300 car is plenty powerful enough. After all, it produces 495 horsepower and can reach 60 miles per hour in 2.9 seconds. But hold on, there’s also the approximately US$115,000 Z06—with 670 horsepower and able to reach 60 in 2.6 seconds. These split seconds are important for busy people—and for marketing claims. And if that’s not enough go power, there’s the even more formidable 900-horsepower ZR1 version of the Corvette, starting around US$150,000. The hybrid E-Ray, at US$104,900, is pretty potent, too.

But if they’re still too slow, fans of American-engineered muscle can consider the exclusive Texas-built Hennessey Venom F5, a limited-edition carbon-fibre hypercar. Ten years ago, the Hennessey became the world’s fastest production car, defeating the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, with a top speed of 270.49 miles per hour.

That world title is much sought after, and is currently held by the Sweden-built 1,600-horsepower Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut, with a two-way average top speed of 277.8 mph. But Hennessey is still very much a contender. The company is hoping the 1,817-horsepower F5 (with 1,192 pound-feet of torque) can exceed 300 mph on the track this year.

The Hennessey Venom F5 coupe is sold out, despite a more than $2 million price tag.
Hennessey photo

Hennessey’s previous Venom GT model (introduced in 2010) was based on the Lotus Exige, with a GM LS-based engine, and was built by partner Delta Motorsport. Spokesman Jon Visscher tells Penta , “The new Venom F5, revealed in 2020, is a 100%bespoke creation—unique to Hennessey and featuring a Hennessey-designed 6.6-litre twin-turbo V8 engine boasting 1,817 horsepower, making it the world’s most powerful combustion-engine production car.” Leaps in performance like this tend to be pricey.

This is a very exclusive automobile, priced around US$2.5 million for the coupe, and US$3 million for the F5 Roadster announced in 2023. Only 30 Roadsters will be built, with a removable carbon-fiber roof. The 24 F5 coupes were spoken for in 2021, but if you really want one you could find a used example—or go topless. In a statement to Penta , company founder and CEO John Hennessey said that while the coupe “is now sold out, a handful of build slots remain for our Roadster and [track-focused] Revolution models.”

Only 24 Revolutions will be built in coupe form, priced at US$2.7 million. There’s also a rarefied roadster version of the Revolution, with just 12 to be built.

The Venom F5 Roadster has a removable carbon-fibre roof.
Hennessey photo

The Venom F5 coupe weighs only 3,000 pounds, and it’s not surprising that insane speeds are possible when combined with a hand-built motor (nicknamed “Fury”) created with power uppermost. The V8 in the F5, installed in a rear mid-engine configuration, has a custom engine block and lightweight forged aluminium pistons, billet-steel crankshaft, and forged-steel connecting rods. Twin turbochargers are featured. The F5 can reach 62 mph in less than three seconds, but top speed seems to be its claim to fame.

The driver shifts the rear-wheel-drive car via a seven-speed, single-clutch transmission with paddle shifters. The interior is not as spartan or as tight as in many other supercars, and is able to handle very tall people. The butterfly doors lift up for access.

“With 22 customer Venom F5 hypercars already delivered to customers around the world, and a newly expanded engineering team, we’re focusing the Venom F5 on delivering on its potential,” Hennessey says. “Breaking 300 mph in two directions is the goal we aim to achieve toward the end of this year to claim the ‘world’s fastest production car’ title.”

Hennessey says the car and team are ready. “Now the search is on for a runway or public road with a sufficiently long straight to allow our 1,817-horsepower, twin-turbo V8 monster to accelerate beyond 300 mph and return to zero safely.” The very competitive Hennessey said the track-focused Revolution version of the F5 set a fastest production car lap around Texas’ 3.41-mile Circuit of the Americas track in March, going almost seven seconds faster than a McLaren P1.

The Revolution features a roof-mounted central air scoop (to deliver cool air to the engine bay), a full-width rear carbon wing, larger front splitter and rear diffuser, tweaked suspension, and engine cooling. It’s got the same powertrain as the standard cars, but is enhanced to stay planted at otherworldly speeds.

Chrome, Sweet Chrome: The 1958 Classic That Won Her Heart

Christina Park fixed up her DeSoto Firesweep Sportsman after finding it at an estate sale