(first posted 6/25/2012) Bryce posted these shots of a 1971 Valiant Charger Hemi Six-Pack, and I don’t really have the time to do an in-depth write-up on these fascinating machines. But I just can’t resist either; so it’s going to be quick, like the Charger. This Charger, the third different global Chrysler product to wear the name (US original; Brazilian Dart-based, and this Australian version) has a cast-iron pushrod ohv 265 inch six cylinder engine, but could rip the run from zero to sixty in 6.1 seconds, and to 100 in 14.1 seconds. Quickest six on the planet at the time? The secret? Well, it wasn’t the hemi head, because there really wasn’t one. Chrysler fibbing with its “hemi” name on its current V8 has a long history, all the way back to this one.
At first glance, it’s all too obvious this is no genuine hemi. With intakes and exhausts lined up on one side, and the plugs on the other, it’s not even a cross-flow head, . Originally designed in Highland Park to replace the slant six, especially in trucks, genuine (read: expensive to build) hemi heads had long been banished to the limited-production 426 V8.
Here’s a look at its combustion chamber. Well, there was some basis to the claim: the chamber does somewhat resemble the top portion of a hemisphere, but the valves are only slightly inclined. But no matter: the Aussies took it over, and breathed some serious life into it. It is an excellent head, for what it is.
There were 215, 245, and 265 inch versions, and output ranged from 140 (gross) for a one-barrel 215, to 302 (gross) horsepower for the legendary E49 six-pack 265, which had a trio of side-draft Webers as in the photo above. It is by far the most powerful of the classic ohv inline sixes, and think how much fun this would have been to have in a (US) Valiant or such.
The new VH Series Valiant arrived in 1971, and was mostly an Australian-developed car, although benefiting from the mothership’s technology, as well as V8 engines, including the 318 and 340. But even the 340 Charger couldn’t top the 265 E49 in acceleration. Take that!
A formidable car, and a real charger, even if it didn’t have a real hemi. No wonder Ford scrambled to develop their FEMI.
Paul, excuse the ignorance of a poor Englishman from a sheltered upbringing, but I can’t believe what I’ve just read. Are you saying that the current Chrysler “hemi” engine isn’t a hemi engine ? At a time when most Toyotas, Mazdas, Fords, Nissans etc are hemis ? Are you kidding me ???
we’re a nation of liars. from the wiki gods:
“The current-production “Hemi” V8, with its pinched chamber, does not have true hemispherical combustion chambers despite the name; rather, it bears a closer resemblance to the mid-1950s polyspherical chamber, which Chrysler engineers developed as a lower-cost alternative head for their V8 engines. The polyspherical head needed less metal and was narrower due to using only one rocker shaft. This saved costs in material, space, and warranty claims and allowed it to be used in smaller vehicles. Chrysler’s Australian-market Hemi-6 of 1970-80 had partial-spherical hemi chambers, though they were only 35% of a sphere.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemi#Chrysler
For what it’s worth, true hemispherical combustion chambers have been abandoned pretty commonly because of their “dirty” emissions. What the current Chrysler “hemi” has, and what many modern engines have, is a “pent-roof” combustion chamber, or some variation on it. It’s similar to a true hemi, but just not so rounded; almost like two wedges facing each other.
The point is, these pent-roof heads still have all the benefits of a hemi: the additional space for large valves, and the cross-flow arrangement. They’re not in any way inferior to a true hemi, it’s just not what they are.
But the Australian “hemi” six is not like that; it’s mostly a typical wedge head, but with a re-countoured combustion chamber. It doesn’t conform at all to the typical hemi-pentroof layout, with valves canted away from each other to maximize room for them and their ports. The picture below is the current 5.7 L “hemi” head; close, but not quite.
The Chrysler D engine is a reverse-flow (non-crossflow) OHV with the valves canted or inclined away from each other in the longitudinal direction with an included angle of 8.5 degrees. The valves lie in the same longitudinal plane that is tilted towards the port side at 7 degrees (I have personally measured these angles, they may not be to specifications but can be considered approximate). I think the best description of the head design is a reverse-flow canted valve.
The third generation Hemi V8 has squish zones to increase turbulence similar to the Ford Boss 429 engine (often called a semi-hemi). Some racers of hemi singles such as Manx Nortons are modifying their heads in this way.
Early hemi designs typically had their valves inclined at angles of around 90 degrees. These designs required heavy domed pistons to allow respectable compression ratios and suffered long flame travel paths and loss of fuel/air out the exhaust.
Each successive generation of Chrysler hemi has decreased the included angle due to design constraints (2nd gen.) or to improve efficiency (current gen.)
I think describing the current generation as a pent roof is really muddying the waters. Most 4 valve heads are pent roof with each pair of valves in the same plane and parallel to each other (the alternative being radial 4 valve such as Excelsior , Honda RFVC and MV Agusta). Pent describes a chamber withe 2 major flat planes like a tent whereas there is no room for (or need for) flat surfaces with a 2 valve opposed valve design. The positioning of the valves and spark plugs of the current hemi is unlike a wedge or canted valve engine but almost identical to hemi designs of the past and therefore I conclude that Hemi is an acceptable description of the modern incarnation.
Many of the opinions that appear on the web (and are then endlessly repeated) are ill informed, poorly argued and are often based on personal bias. I hope my comments may inform and encourage debate. For those who are interested in engine design and evolution I recommend Classic Motorcycle Engines by Kevin Cameron. Although its subject is motorcycle engines it include a chapter on Cosworth’s influential designs and much of the material discussed can be applied to the automotive world more generally.
Thank you for the clarifications. It becomes a semantic issue at times, trying to define just what is and isn’t a “hemi”.
Both of my RWD Corollas are Hemis.
My 1981 has the 3TC 1.8 Hemi engine, while my 1983, which originally came with the ohc 4AC, now has the 2TC 1.6 Hemi from a 1979 Corolla SR5.
I also love how Toyota even advertised the Hemi engines in their ads, in the 1970’s. 🙂
Excellent info.
One of the engineers responsible for the the gen 2 hemi said they went with the same valve angles as the gen 1 hemi since they lacked development time for optimization of the angles. He also stated that it “seemed to work OK.” This info is from Allpar.
Alfa Romeo made a beautiful little hemi.
I’m happy to see an image of the Aussie Six head. Given the head was not crossflow, I kind of guessed the head was somewhat spherical shaped.
John, the Hemi 6 is a bit more sophisticated than most US six cylinder
engines of the era, having individual ports for each valve, and no two
exhaust valve/ports directly adjacent to another, not being cross-flow
does not matter in this instance, with excellent flows achievable.
The valve set-up is quite like the Ford Cleveland, (fit the same roller-rockers), so the valves are larger than a basic wedge, and angled to enable gas flow away from the cylinder walls (as per hemi design benefits) with the compact combustion chamber needed – for better efficiency on modern fuel octane ratings.
A notable selling point for the Australian Hemi 6 was its ability to match
smaller V8s for power, with the capability of giving better fuel economy.
In fact, a comparison with Chrysler’s own 225 Slant 6, showed their
Hemi 6 was much more powerful, and markedly better on fuel use, too.
The original 245 Hemi 6 was over-bored to use the 318 V8’s pistons,
and developed into the 265 as seen in the Charger, which when both
engines were fitted with a basic cheapo 2-barrel Carter carb, gave
similar performance on the road, except for fuel consumption and
range per tank, of course.
Ah, no Paul, the Hemi six is not a ‘wedge’ – it is a shallow hemi, it has large
( as you say ‘modern’ ) 18 degree included angle valves, and aimed fairly unmasked – at the centre of the cylinder, with a properly sized individual
port for each valve, actually more like the ‘new’ Hemi, than the original V8s.
A current historic touring car racer, Cameron Tilley, gets ~500 hp @ 8,000 rpm
from his Hemi 265, it gives his A-body Valiant Pacer a real howling sound…
500HP is amazing from the 265 especially considering Highland Park recommended against building the 265 as the required bore and stroke were too much for its structure.
Chrysler also owns the “hemi” trademark, so they use it rather liberally these days.
Pretty cheeky since they didnt originate the hemi engine.
Exactly, Bryce…
That’s like Poland Spring or Evian, trying to trademark water.
Your comparison is invalid. Poland Spring and Evian can claim trademark on their names, because words can be trademarked, which is what Chrysler is doing by trademarking the word “Hemi”. Nobody else can use the word “Hemi” to identify their engines just like nobody else can use the words “Poland Spring” or “Evian” to identify their bottled water.
Joe, it’s going to be okay, it’s only a metaphor.
Thanks, for the lecture, though.
You obviously understand nothing about trademark law. Words can be trademarked, which is why nobody else can make an iPhone besides Apple. Whoever originated the term is irrelevant, all that matters is who registered the trademark. They aren’t claiming patent on the design, which would be a different thing entirely. If they tried to claim a patent on hemispherical combustion chambers, it wouldn’t be hard for a competitor to cite what’s known as ‘prior art’ to get the courts to reject the patent since they had been used before in earlier engines. They can claim patent on anything they invented that improves on the prior designs, but not the basic elements found in the prior designs themselves.
That Chrysler would emphasize something as arcane as combustion-chamber shape (fueling debates among pedantic gearheads here) shows how ludicrous marketing can get, or else how low their opinion of customers is: Toss buzzwords like this around, & the yahoos will eat from your hand.
When I shopped & test-drove new cars, the last thing on my mind was what the combustion-chamber looked like. I just wanted it to go well when I mashed the throttle.
Buzzwords like…oh, I don’t know…Autopilot; Full Self Driving, that kind of thing.
All I want to know is Will an Aussie 265 Hemi bolt into my 64 Dart A-833 four speed. Replacing my Slant 6?
Cause I want one!.
Common enough swap in Aussie Valiants which are the same in early versions as your car.
THIS should have been the 1970 Barracuda! What a great car. It’s orange, so it simply has to be a hemi.
The Australian developed cars are such a fascinating parallel universe. It is so interesting that for such a relatively small market, there were (and continue to be) so many unique cars designed, built and sold there. This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder if Alan Mulally’s “One Ford” plan for worldwide distibution of the same vehicles will really work, or whether it will result in a bunch of cars that don’t really satisfy any market very well.
agreed. it also makes me wonder why it’s so hard for independents to survive here. if the aussies developed their cars to be easily converted to left hand drive and meet u.s. safety standards, wouldn’t their be a profitable niche for their muscle cars? i don’t understand why gm has failed so miserably at this when they tried it at pontiac. ever since mad max, we’ve been drooling over the cars you guys have down under.
Holdens have been built as LHD since the fifties, I’m not actually sure when they stopped that back in the day – no later than the late 70’s. In more modern times they have done LHD exports since roughly 1998, to the middle east plus a few other markets.
Ford exports to RHD markets and the current car is package-protected for LHD but since they have not been allowed access to any LHD markets the cost to engineer LHD components has not been spent. The Falcon achieved better crash test scores than Commodore so it should not be a problem to meet US standards.
Because the difference between the number of people who just stroke it to Aussie cars and the number of people who pony up and put their money where their mouth is and buy one is vasty different.
The 04-06 GTO is a great example, a car worthy of wearing the name if there ever was one, and what did consumers do when it got here, nothing but critique left and right.
I can imagine that the GTO would have been a different story if it hadn’t been styled like an updated Geo Storm. The older I get, the more convinced I am that if it looks right, it sells, no matter what it is.
It does not look like a Geo Storm.
An exaggeration, perhaps. I did, however, say an UPDATED Storm. 🙂 Anyhow, you must admit that the GTO was quite vanilla, sort of like a generic sporty coupe that could have easily had a V6 and a 4 speed auto under the hood like most everything else GM sold then. Maybe more like a Saturn than a GEO. I don’t mean to be too down on the car, as it is one of the few recent GM cars that I think I would like quite a lot. The G8 GT is another. I guess my point is that I don’t think Aussie cars got a really fair shake from GM – the GTO didn’t look like the great car it was, and the G8 came out just as the company was going into meltdown.
But they look the same in Australia? All Pontiac did was add a Pontiac grille to the Monaro and some hood scoops, they tried to spice it up, its not like the cars was some sort of styling masterpiece in Australia and then they made it bland to sell it in the US.
I dont understand what you want though, you complain that Australian cars dont get a fair shake, the car (the GTO)was good enough that it should have sold no matter what it looked like, it was a RWD 6 speed cut rate M3 at $33K, modern Aussie cars are not really that exciting too look at.
Who cares if it was a good performer, which it was… The 2004-06 GTO, had blistering performance. My buddy had a red 2004, nice car…
…but it was NOT made in America, was not developed by US engineers, and didn’t have an updated 400v8(at least bore it out to 400cid). Sorry, it had no formula for being a REAL Pontiac GTO.
It was a CHEAP typical GM way of using an already existing model… ie, the Holden Monaro produced in Australia, just throwing on a Pontiac badge, a front fascia, tacky hood scoops in 2005-06… And trying to cash in on an iconic American symbol of the Muscle Car heritage. So, you think true American Pontiac GTO fans have NO right to complain or have a few gripes with a foreign car, YEAH, I said it. Foreign.
So get off your high horse… I’d take engine out of that blandmobile and throw it in a 1964-72 Le Mans, THEN it would be closer to a true GTO, than some bland foreign RWD version of the Grand Am lookalike(and not the 1973-80 RWD Grand Am Le Mans, either).
You would have been a big fan of dress up packages and bright decals is my guess Sarcasmo, with no real knowledge of the cars you talk about.
That’s a bit harsh JP. The GTO was my ideal of what a grand sleeper should be. Apparently the trunk was a bit small due to fuel tank placement but it was a really good GT car. Alas just like the G8, American buyers didn’t pony up. A classic case of a few car nuts getting GM to bring in cars that would never make money. Still both very cool cars. I looked for a G8 used when I was car shopping a couple of years ago but couldn’t fine one. GM cars aren’t very thick on the roads in these parts.
Not to mention an abysmal, practically non-existent advertising effort by Pontiac. Quite different from the iconic ’60’s campaigns with tigers and guys in Goats cruising for drag races. God how I just lusted for one of these back in1968.
Seems like by the time it got here PontIac was on thin ice and just didn’t care anymore. Ditto with the G-8.
I’d say the last Goat looked more like a Cavalier with a thyroid problem.
Ditto.
It looks like a butch version of a Pontiac Sunfire. Lame.
In 1969, you could buy a car in the US that was actually rather close in appearance to the Aussie Valiant Charger – the Savage GT Barracuda. Although it didn’t have the flying buttress rear quarter treatment or tailights of the Aussie (just standard Barracuda fare), it did have a grille which looked very similiar.
With a total of only 13 ever build, they’re quite rare today. Of course, there wasn’t that much special about them when they were new, either, except for the modified grille.
As far as I can recall both the 70 Cuda and the Oz Charger are the work of the same American designer.
It was common for big three engineers, executives from Detroit to have working holidays in Australia.
Rarer for stylists/designers but in this era the locals were getting a lot of independence from Detroit especially Ford and Chrysler whose previous offerings were mild reworkings of American cars.
The most famous example was when Edsel Ford II was the boss of Ford Oz for a short time in the late 70’s and had to shift 400 Falcon coupe body shells otherwise destained to be crushed when the new euro look Falcon was about be released.
Edsel’s idea was to build Mustang II Cobra style 302c 2 barrel Falcon coupes for 1978, having a few homologated racing optioned 351c road cars and painting last seasons race cars the same also helped to create a sold out final edition of an iconic Australian car.
Which I think was first sketched up by an Englishman in 1968, Another one on a working holiday? It definitely looks more Mangusta than Mustang.
I would love that engine in a plain grandma looking US made and sold Valiant Brougham. Talk about a sleeper, you might even catch the little old lady from Pasadena by surprize.
Dan the engine bolts into older slant 6 vals easily it should fit any US model. Theres a mob in Melbourne that builds replica E49 engines stronger than original get them to mail you one.
You gotta understand Bryce, I’m still like a 13 year old boy day dreaming in study hall when it comes to the cars on Curbside Classic. BUT it is nice to know if I ever win the lotto the posbility is there. 😛
Arent we all I have my classic Minx which has been rebuilt with zero budget and the generosity of a friend with plenty of parts. It goes in for inspection on thursday hopefully it will then be a Curbside car and I can modify it for more performance as the parts present themselves
I want this car. I really, really want this car. I wish I had the cash necessary to have one of these imported to the USA. I’ve always been intrigued by hot-rodded inline sixes, and that is one pretty little car.
+1
The secret was having Sir Stirling Moss spruik the cars! Worth a good 2sec to 100mph!
Like I said Paul you are more than capable nice job on what for you is an unfamiliar car The pick of the engines from the 70s was the Hemi6 and on NZ tracks were unbeatable in standard production racing fully adjustable torsion bar front end with a bit of neg camber these thing could corner very well as well as do the straight line stuff. At the time of production the fastest 4 door on planet was the GTHO Falcon 351 but the E49 Val could out run it to 100mph. E49 was an option package rather than a model and could be ordered in any Valiant Chrysler admitt to making at least one ute so equipped.
One of my coworkers, who really knows about Oz cars, told me these things were FAST.
I’ve seen one in the street recently, in the condition Mr N likes them, and it was a beauty. Watching them racing in the historic races is FTW
Oh yes. Back when they were new a neighbour who worked for a car dealer brought one home. Proudly showed off the triple Webers that night. When he took off in the morning, I couldn’t believe how savagely that thing accelerated! And the sound!
the xy xy falcon gt’s were only souped up taxis. google bathurst races in australia and eat your heart out. ive been to nascar and bathurst and bathurst gives x199999 % better bang for ya buck. baldrick
Souped up taxis they may have been, but Ford did a thorough job. Holden never did race their four door taxis, only the smaller Toranas, and Chrysler stopped racing Valiant sedans once this Charger came along.
absolutely, I stand corrected. teach me to be a smartarse. cheers from ravensthorpe wa
So I’d guess these are worth a decent amount these days?
Well over $100k, they only built 150. Google found a very nice, maintained not restored one for $170k, restored car for $140k, and another for $80k. An E49 in rough condition will be unusual at this point, due to their value, one for sale at $65k. So approx 4 cars on the market currently – the real estate phrase “tightly held” is very much appropriate here.
The ones on trademe at the moment are NZ$15K-38K, but I’ve seen them for much, much more. They, the Falcon GT, and the performance Holden Torana/Monaro are part of a select group of Aussie performance icons that make decent investments.
still for sale. plenty around and monaro’s n gt’s. google or subscribe to JUST CARS or UNIQUE CARS. still plenty of gtho falcons in soyh africa. our major export. baldrick. (i have a cunning plan)
Fascinating cars the Australian Chargers – and good ones command serious money now here too. My Uncle bought one near-new back in the 70s, before my time but apparently a rocketship. Even my conservative Grandmother loved it – she was still mentioning what a “beautiful car it was” in the 90s and how sorry she was he traded it after only a year or two for an ’67 XR Fairmont V8 and cash. I do remember the Fairmont, which got traded in 1982 for our family heirloom XB Falcon GS V8 panelvan (which got destroyed by fire last month, a big loss). I still enjoy looking at the Chargers on Trademe though!
The unlucky sod who owns the featured car has 2 genuine R/T Chargers worth shit loads even ordinary Chargers are getting big bucks now The guy I bought my Minx from has 34 Valiants including several Chargers but no R/Ts even the slow LAV8s are worth bucks. I can remember buying Chargers with rust for $500 at dealers in Adelaide and they were glad to be rid of them how times change.
In my mythical 100-car garage, there will be one of these. But it will be a magenta one! Always wanted a Charger ever since someone I knew had one…even if he did cut the roof off it and make a fair-weather convertible. *shakes head*
These things are WAY cool. Wish that bodystyle AND the semi-hemi six wouldve been used here in the states. That was an awesome little motor that Ma Mopar shouldve never given up for adoption.
This is a freaking good looking Mopar. So Paul, you are saying the australians could buy a brand new “in line six”car with a trio of Webers? Out of show room? That’s just awesome !!! Here in Brazil we are familiar with the business of squeezing horses out of in lines six, but always from the Chevys 250. We never had a Mopar straight six around here…
Yes I am! With 302 hp, from the factory. And wickedly fast.
Whoa! I didn’t know this had 3 deuces from the factory…you just schooled me. 302 hp out of 6 cans was serious business back in those days. Its only in the past few years that we’re seeing normally aspirated V6 engines with modern tech in that range.
Don’t forget that was still gross HP, but the cars were still fast. With modern rubber (still in the original 14″ size) they run in the 13’s.
Rubens, some 20 years later BMW built a 6 cylinder car that was just as fast.
It’s a hemi Jim, but not as we know it.Count me as a fan,a few Aussie Chargers turn up at the Mopar Euronats in Britain but I’ve not seen an Aussie hemi Charger yet.
UK export Valiants all used the US sourced V8 powertrain for ease of parts availability the Hemi 6 was kept down under
A Feather Duster with this engine, 5 or 6 speed manual trans, wider steel wheels with poverty caps, 4 wheel disc brakes, rack and pinion steering, lowered a little with coil overs, 9 inch Ford posi, tubbed… Yeah, that would work for me.
That’s one way to get there. Me, Id take a 2 door Valiant (a 66 model will do nicely) and go with A-833. I like your suspension ideas, but gimme a set of slot mags like the subject car. A split header and straight pipes would make this thing howl like a demon.
I had the 66 Dart version. It came with the 273, I updated it with a 360, since the front frame was pretty rotted out and I had the time, I installed a tube front frame, McPherson struts, disc brakes, and rack and pinion steering. The front dropped a couple of inches. It had the A833 4 speed, 8 3/4 rear. It handled much better,and stopped much better even though the brakes were from a Mitsubishi Starion. Sometimes I miss that car, but then remember that when I sold it, it needed to get restored again for the 3rd time. It did have 498,000 miles on it when I sold it to a guy that wanted to Pro-street it.
I find the front of the car more attractive than the rear. I believe the stylists should’ve done a better job with the taillamps.
My 1970 Honda Trail 70 is a Hemi…yawn…
The U.S. seems to have had a dreadful habit of underrating sixes. BMW made its fame with them. Look at the Pontiac OHC Six in the 1960s. Over 200 horses then. Or the AMC Six that ran 40 years of production, ending as the 4.0 with about 200 horses and boatloads of torque. I understand Mopar has a crate engine of that six with horsepower in the mid to upper 200s. There are other examples, but foolish we, we had to have our V8s.
When I was in Sydney during my R&R from Vietnam in 1971 I did a double take the first time I saw the Hemi Badge—–having left my 69 Superbee in the care of my brother back in Minnesota—-no it did not have a Hemi but being in the jungle with the 1st Cav Div I did not see much of any cars let alone any Mopars since i left the states—–took a few years afterward to figure out what I saw—
here is a pict of my brother keeping the bee buzzing at Minnesota Dragways–
Back in 1973 walking along a city street in mid-town Auckland one sunny morning I recall looking in amazement at the line-up of bright alloy carburetion along the one side of the raised hood engine bay of one of these ! It was sitting ‘For Sale’ in the pride of place of Auckland Motors, the local Chrysler agent, in bright fire engine red . . brand spankers factory new 🙂
I always liked the looks of this model. I wish they had used the design for the Darts over here instead of the boxes we got.
As far as I can recall both the 70 Cuda and the Oz Charger are the work of the same American designer.
It was common for big three engineers, executives from Detroit to have working holidays in Australia.
Rarer for stylists/designers but in this era the locals were getting a lot of independence from Detroit especially Ford and Chrysler whose previous offerings were mild reworkings of American cars.
The most famous example was when Edsel Ford II was the boss of Ford Oz for a short time in the late 70’s and had to shift 400 Falcon coupe body shells otherwise destained to be crushed when the new euro look Falcon was about be released.
Edsel’s idea was to build Mustang II Cobra style 302c 2 barrel Falcon coupes for 1978, having a few homologated racing optioned 351c road cars and painting last seasons race cars the same also helped to create a sold out final edition of an iconic Australian car.
Which I think was first sketched up by an Englishman in 1968, Another one on a working holiday? It definitely looks more Mangusta than Mustang.
I’d also like to point out that Valiant Charger RT was about to ditch the hemi 6 for a heavily worked 340 V8 around 375hp to match the Ford Falcon GTHO.
These were build as homologated road cars for production racing.
If your race car had a 780 Holley double pumper, the road version you brought at your local dealer had to have the same carby.
Of course in race trim these cars weren’t putting out huge hp over the road version, the main focus was handling and braking, fixing fuel surge etc, these days It would be considered endurance racing.
The closest American equivalents to the Charger would be the Plymouth Cuda’ ARR and Dodge Challenger T/A.
No Shaun,
The Australian production R/T Charger wasn’t going
to get a 340 V8.. ..back-to-back testing had shown the
hot Hemi six was quicker around the race track,
& much easier on rubber & fuel over race distance..
The racing upgrade for the R/T was due to be
increased cam & carb venturi sizes – for the big six..
& if you check the period roadtest figures for the
US AAR ‘Cuda 340 road going production cars,
the Aussie E49 Hemi Charger six has got ’em beat..
US ‘Car Life’ mag tested the AAR 340 ‘Cuda 4sp
(& with the same 3.5 final drive as the E49 )
got a best 1/4 mile : 14.5 @ 99 mph , whereas
the E49 on test did a 0-100 mph time of 14.1 sec..
The ‘Cuda & Challenger were E-body Mopars though,
so the lighter US A-body Demon & Duster machines
were a better match for the Aussie Charger, even if
they were seldom equipped with 4 sp 340 V8s either..
You’ve obviously ignored the existence of the Charger 770 E55 option and the stillborn Holden GTR XU1 V8.
The E49 was only a stopgap car for 1972, I guessing Chrysler expected to launch the RT V8 as a 1973 model.
They’d already imported 336 340ci engines and a few mopar A833 4 speed transmissions before the program was cancelled.
The E49 should be celebrated as the only car of the forecasted 1972 models that made it into production, its rivals the Ford Falcon GTHO Phase 4 and the Holden XU1 V8 never progressed past prototype stage.
While the 6 cylinder cars were 2-3 seconds faster around most tracks both GMH and Chrysler came to the same conclusion, that a V8 was superior to a 6 at Bathurst, more torque to climb Mt Panorama and a higher top speed, important for conrod straight.
See Wikipedia search: supercar scare
Due to the controversy Chrysler quit motor racing, If you wanted a racing Falcon you made sure you ticked the right box in the options list when you brought an ordinary GT, RPO 83 package.
And Holden still released a V8 Torana to replace the GTR XU1 202ci 2 years later.
Called the SL/R 5000, GMH dropping the GTR XU1 name.
As for the US A body being a better match for the Charger, maybe on the drag strip, not on the track.
I myself are building a Pacer using a genuine engine with 90 falcon BW T5 manual, I would prefer a charger shell to built a RT but I’m lucky to find a half decent ranger shell as most decent solid local Valiants were murdered years ago by demolition derby competitors, especially VH or later.
No Shaun,
The E55 Charger, like the other V8 Chargers was a ‘luxury’ edition,
paired with an automatic – rather than being a sporty R/T type,
( & factory special order V8 manuals with twin exhausts are very rare).
According to Mike Stacy ( the Chrysler Australia engineer responsible,
so he should know ) the Hemi six still had performance development left
in it, for racing – both the extra cam ‘n’ carb I’ve previously noted,
& ( via Stacy), the potential to be:
“….expanded to 300 cubic inches…
That would’ve been our 1st choice, rather than the imported V8”
Note that a 6 cyl Torana XU1 won Bathurst in 1972, & if the Charger
racing effort had been run by Harry Firth, it most likely would won, too.
The Aussie Charger is a short-wheelbase A-body, the alternative ‘coupe’ was a long-wheelbase, but if you park them side-by-side, you can see
they shared the same doors..
..like-wise if you park an earlier generation A-body Barracuda next to a the Aussie Charger you can see the style included some aspects of a blend between the Barracuda fast-back & notch-back looks
( & with some US Charger, Ferrari/Aston-Martin cues, thrown in).
About the Aussie Falcon coupe, check out the 1970 US Ford Torino,
the XA Falcon is very similar, if scaled down somewhat, & the XB
has a very 1971 Mustang-like front clip..
FYI, on Mopar upgrades,
US A-body chassis performance parts such torsion bars, anti-roll bars,
shock mounts & control arms, bushings & what-not, do slot into the
Aussie cars fairly readily, & the late production CL/CM Valiant featured
a number of suspension upgrades that can be retro-fitted too.
I have some left-over, still new-in-the-box Hemi 6 performance items if
you are not going V8 Shaun, & I’d let you have them, for way under retail..
These cars were a sensation when released in 1971, I was 9 years old and after years of thinking Valiants were ugly square boxes on wheels (I love em now) these were a revolution in stylishness.
Suddenly Chrysler had a hit on their hands. It was styled by American, Bob Hubbach, but the idea of a smaller sportier car was all Australian.
Later facelifted versions lost the excitement of the original.
The featured car has incorrect wheels with black centers, here is a pic of the much more attractive ROH made in Adelaide wheels
Woops, here it is
Interior,
Had the same wheels on my Centura someone said they were an option from new
Yes, they were optional on any Valiant or Centura up to at least 1978.
a great way to make even the most basic car look a bit special.