posted by John Cockerell
We’ve been sorely neglecting our Australian friends. But we’ve built up a superb archive of Australian cars, so maybe the enthusiasm to write up more has been satiated to some extent. But who can resist another look at Chrysler’s ’70s Valiants, the ultimate expression of what started out so different in 1960.
This is a CM Chrysler Regal, the final series, built between late 1978 and 1981, although the last year or so was technically built by Mitsubishi, who had purchased Chrysler’s Australian operations in 1980. And obviously, it reminds one of certain US market Chryslers.
This series of Valiants started in 1971, when they needed something bigger with which to compete with against Holden and Ford. So the 111″ wheelbase as used by US Darts was used, and the body was widened a fair bit to give it that fuselage look then in vogue with Chrysler. A Dodge Coronet, shrunk a wee bit.
John Cockerell stated in the caption that it has the 4.3 L six. That would be the Chrysler 265 CID “hemi” six. The 318 V8 was also available. Three and four speed manuals were on tap, as well as the Torqueflite Borg-Warner automatic. Given that this is the top-trim Regal, it most likely has the automatic.
From this angle it really evokes the US B-Body sedans of this vintage, except for the rear end styling.
We have a superb two-part series of the history of the Valiant in Australia by JohnH875:
Great article, although this was the first thing I thought of when I saw this vehicle.
Very neat — I love reading about these large Australian sedans. In looking at the styling, to me there’s a good bit of Ford influence, and in fact I can see Ford having designed a car like this as a successor to the Torino (I see Torino-like styling cues both in the front and rear). Regardless, this is a great find.
The taillights resemble those of a Ford Granada to me.
The doorhandles very closely resemble those on the ’80-’89 Lincoln Town Car.
To me it looks from the back like a A M C Hornet with Amber turn light’s
Not the best angle
Really liked It! At a first glance I mistaken it with the AMC Concord. Here in Argentine and in South America in general we never seen this Australian nice design, so get many congrats for the interesting sight you shown for the abroad’s Curbsidereaders!
Good call Eric, I do see a shocking amount of 74-76 Torino in the design, not only in the front and rear ends but the body styling itself, given their chronological origins it’s parallel thinking but the coke bottle styling, thick C pillar and even the sweep along the top of the quarters and rear doors. Not to mention the slot wheels with their starsky and hutch vibes.
I really like it, US A bodies were stuck in 1967 through the 70s, eschewing the coke bottle fuselage designs that the B C and E bodies used(ok, partially excluding the Duster), so these Australian A bodies are truly a peer into an alternate universe of what could have been.
For Americans who like old cars like this, Australian (and Brazilian, etc) cars of the ’70s are like finding rare, unreleased tracks by your favorite bands..
The rear end reminds me of a ’70 thru ’75 AMC Hornet.
Australian cars from US companies always look to me like the cars in Grand Theft Auto. Familiar, but just off enough where you can’t place them.
The plates are about four years old, so this is someone’s recent project car and structurally and mechanically sound, though from the rear fender obviously still a work in progress. The slot mags look like racing Charger leftovers and maybe not quite the thing for a prestige sedan.But it’s on the road! Next question: what state of tune is that 265 in? 🙂
It’s a good question on the state of tune Peter.
As this 265 started it’s life with Electronic Lean Burn, would love to know if it’s still functional .
Unlikely, given the reputation of that system in the US,. Not sure how they performed out here,
I had a few Vals but never had one with ELB.
It’s easy to see this as the next size up from the Chrysler 180/2 litre/Centura.
You can certainly see the same style of front clip as the Centura
They were bloody good cars always well reguarded in New Zealand, it came as a surprise they werent as popular in OZ though that kept prices down which suited emigrating Kiwis just fine, the 265 was a torquey engine great for towing and not all that bad on fuel I used to get 15mpg towing a 15foot viscount or 25mpg not towing thats imperial though real gallons 4.5 litre,that was in a Regal but a VJ older than the posted car similar colours though, they are a lot bigger than Centuras wider longer heavier and roomier inside but the same engines though no 265s in Centuras the bodyshell isnt strong enough according to Chrysler they never built any for sale just a prototype or two that didnt survive testing.
Thanks for featuring my pics Paul.
Regarding the auto transmissions, with the introduction of the “Hemi” engines and to increase local content, Chrysler phased out the Torqueflite in favour of a locally built Borg Warner unit.
V8s and police package 6s continued to use a proper Torqueflite however, and I think if a buyer really wanted , a Torqueflite would have been available as part of a heavy duty package.
I’d learned that about the TF, but forgot it again, obviously.
Oceania’s Vals of Vastness certainly had vroom, as the Hemi six was magnificent, and had Chryco kept it for its purpose, someone driving a small to medium US truck of theirs would’ve had the pleasure, not us.
But as for the not-considerable rest of the car, a US styling department that wouldn’t listen made a (considerably) lesser Coronet over local objections, and the result was a huge barge of a wedge with an incongruous saggy bum, all on the original Val chassis and a resultant track 2-odd inches less than the same-width Holden and Ford competition. Same wheelbase as them, but a bit pointless when overhang made it up to 7 inches longer, another corollary of which was an even higher ride height (for the avoidance of bum-rash) than the already fairly high-set locals. Still more, the engine sits to the right, from the days of LHD and slant six, and the lack of room meant Oz could never attach the steering box to the K-frame as the US did, with resultant Gap-Of-Eternity vague steering AND dangerous mounting cracks later on. (Underbonnet, these are very visibly just widened ’60-model Valiants in structure). Still more again, the car was overweight for the old chassis, which had noisy bump-thump from the torsion bars anyway for which the solution here was to soften the bars. The cumulative result was horrid vagueness, body roll, and bad handling all round. Worse, they suddenly oversteered too easily on bumps, I don’t know why. The (comfy) seats were mounted too low, the vison was as bad a new car is, and the tail simply could not be seen from the driver’s seat, so most were just parked in the vicinity of the spot, after which the owner walked. Oh, and they never did get flow-through ventilation from ’71 till the end in ’81. In Australia, years A/C BC, when as in A/C AD of now, it gets pretty hot hereabouts. Sometimes.
Ultimately, too big and just too sort-of clumsy, and beset by a gigantism of styling that many didn’t much care for, the big Oz Val that was to save Chrysler Oz sold nothing like it was meant to, and it didn’t save anything. It cost. That’s why this late CM looks as dated as it does for a late ’70’s car: it’s the best they could do whilst spending bugger-all on a dead-end product, that was by then vastly outsold by the locally-made Chrysler Sigma (Galant) from Mitsubishi.
A sad tale, as the CM’s had considerable suspension work done (within the limitations of the format) and reputedly drive a great deal nicer than the forebears, so you got a squashy-comfy US-style big car with decent economy – that engine still kept the big things more economical than the Holden engines even in the lightweight Commodore chassis, whilst out-performing them yet – and that handled quite well and could tow chunky trailers and boats. (Incidentally, note the straight-line rub-strip from front to back on the CM, which along with the quarter panels, was a perhaps in-vain attempt by Chrysler Aus to style the car as they had wanted it, without the huge and silly hips and a higher tail!)
The most remarkable thing for an aging me is the real embedding of all the Valiants into Oz culture, as the entire run was ’62 to ’81: that’s the same today as the end of some car released in only 2001, which was surely only about 15 minutes ago. The Val was not only part of the landscape – hell, even I drove one – it still seems to be, though I suspect that landscape is more in the unreliable nostalgia of my memory than any reality.
Well, until a random photo of someone’s daily driver appears here and it doesn’t seem fanciful at all.
You couldnt see the boot/trunk in any 70s Aussie car Justy I owned examples of all three the Holdens understeered worse unless you fitted radial tyres the Falcons wallowed and understeered the Valiants oif you wound the torsion bars down steered quite well but you needed to realign the steering
Towing well only for a while NSW changed their towing laws to 75% of GVM which put big cars out of heavy towing
duty thats where mine came from traded cheap because it legally couldnt tow a triple horse float, mine had the factory tow package which included a torqueflyte trans not the biodegradable BorgWarner.
Ha! I’ve driven all three, and you’re dead right, they all had no trunk visible (not that I can park anyway).
I have quite a prejudice against HQ Holdens for their gasping sixes, ridiculous understeer, body roll and horrible seats, but they did have ok steering. The Falcon had vaguer and heavier steering of many, many turns, but rather incredibly, I’d rate it best all-round handler at speed out of this rather poor collection.
In line with what you say, the hotter Chargers were said to handle very well and steer acceptably, so it’s clear the set-up can be made to work, but I’m afraid I’ve only ever driven what the vast majority did – the boggo meat and two veg ones. And boy, did they all need some gravy!
i replied, it got eaten up by the ghost of valiants past, could it be regot please.
The 4 speed manual with either of the engines would be interesting.
Floor shift I presume?
A smaller version of this.