In the late 1950s, manufacturers were going manic with new offerings. Fins and chrome abundant were the actual least of the offerings. Power windows, power seats, air conditioning systems that would freeze your nuts off, retractable folding roofs even made the cut when Ford debuted the Skyliner. Post-WWII optimism radiated, power flowed like tap water, gasoline was just about as cheap and the early inklings of a performance war were glowing like small embers underneath a pile of grass. Even with the specter of the 1955 LeMans disaster hovering at the forefront of everyone’s mind and the AMA ban on racing in full effect, the truth was no manufacturer really gave it any thought…anyone who claimed that they had done so was merely paying lip service.

Truth be told, 1957 was a showcase for what could happen. Chrysler’s new bodies floored the competition, but Chevrolet’s Rochester-injected 283 showed what they could move their cars with. Chrysler wanted a slice of the fuel injection action since it was so new and tapped Bendix for a form of electronic fuel injection. That system, the “Electrojector”, made it’s way onto a total of 35 cars spread across all four brands that were in production at the time. If you haven’t heard of this, there’s a reason: the system’s computer (often referred to as the “brain box”) was composed of wax-paper dipped transistors, which were susceptible to electro-magnetic interference and would cause the engine to choke out, stall, or run like crap anytime the transistors were overridden.

Currently there is only one known car to retain it’s Electrojector system, a 1958 DeSoto Adventurer convertible. All others were converted back to carburetion, stripped of their fuel injection badges, and became ordinary models. Want to know more? Let Uncle Tony explain more of the details!