For 1957, Dodge brought a new term to the automotive vocabulary: autodynamics. Let’s check out the cars and see what that was all about.

While they all shared the same general Forward Look design for 1957, each of the five Chrysler Corporation brands had its own take on the theme. At Dodge, the styling was branded as “Swept Wing ’57,” which, according to the ad writers, was guided by a new principle called “autodynamics.” Automobile + aerodynamics, we suppose they were thinking, though the term has a different meaning in physics. There, it represents a now-rejected theory that Einstein was wrong.

“Step into the wonderful world of autodynamics,” the ad men declared, where “everything is new from road to roof to achieve absolute mastery of motion.” We don’t know about any of that, but we can say the ’57 Dodge was, along with the rest of the Chrysler offerings, among the Motor City’s styling sensations of the year.

Despite its sleek overall height of just 56 inches, Dodge continued to use a traditional ladder frame in ’57. In the pursuit of lowness, General Motors was then adopting the X-frame chassis while Ford developed the semi-perimeter cow belly frame, but Chrysler stayed with the tried and true until 1960 when Unibody was introduced. The innovation at Chrysler for ’57 was Torsion-Aire front suspension. Its longitudinal torsion bars provided a shorter stack height than coil springs, among other benefits.

For horsepower enthusiasts, Dodge had plenty to offer in ’57. While the base engine in the Coronet was the good old 230 CID L-head six, V8s were standard in the mid-range Royal and top-of-the-line Custom Royal. Two poly-head 325 cubic-inch V8s were rated at 245 and 260 hp, and for those who desired even more, there was a 325 CID Hemi  V8. In D-500 or D-500-1 tune with twin four-barrel carburetors, the Dodge Hemi offered up to 340 hp. There was even a 354 CID Chrysler-sourced hemi V8 for NASCAR homologation purposes, the D-501, but only 56 cars were built, reportedly. This would be the Hemi’s final year at Dodge for a while, as only poly and wedge-head V8s were offered in ’58.

Without a doubt, the ’57 Chrysler products, Dodge included, were style leaders of the Motor City. The forward-looking front end designs were protected for quad headlamps, though they wouldn’t be adopted by Dodge until the following year. But beauty, as they say, is often only skin deep. When Briggs Manufacturing retired from the auto industry, Chrysler was forced to buy the business and learn body engineering and production overnight. Chrysler’s ’57 bodies suffered for it, with poor build quality and a remarkable susceptibility to rust. Evidently, the science of autodynamics did not cover corrosion resistance. Even so, it was a solid year for Dodge as sales increased to nearly 288,000 cars—an improvement of 20 percent over the year before.