Chrysler Valiant: Australia’s third big local car

The Chrysler Valiant was a full-size car sold by Chrysler Australia from 1962 to 1981. It began as a locally assembled Plymouth Valiant, became fully Australian from the AP5 of 1963 and grew into the third of Australia’s “Big 3” local cars behind the Holden Kingswood and Ford Falcon, ending with the CM series and Mitsubishi’s takeover.

Chrysler Valiant at a glance

History of the Chrysler Valiant

The first Australian Valiants

After the Plymouth Valiant succeeded in the United States from 1959, Chrysler released Australia’s first locally assembled Valiant, the RV1, officially unveiled by South Australia’s premier Sir Thomas Playford in January 1962 and assembled at Chrysler’s Mile End facility. It was an immediate success: not everyone liked the styling, but most agreed it looked modern in a space-age way, and its 225 Slant-6 engine produced 145 bhp against 75 bhp and 90 bhp from the competing Holdens and Fords. The RV1 had a floor-shifted three-speed manual with a non-synchro first gear and an optional push-button TorqueFlite automatic, and it was the first Australian car with an alternator instead of a generator and with torsion-bar suspension instead of coil springs, on hydraulic 9-inch drum brakes. It cost £1,299. In March 1962 the SV1 replaced it with cosmetic changes, a column shifter and a new starter motor; 10,009 SV1s were sold, 5,496 of them automatics.

Fully Australian

On 30 May 1963 Chrysler Australia produced the first fully Australian-manufactured Valiant, the AP5, as work began on the $36 million Tonsley Park plant that would lift annual capacity to 50,000 cars. The AP5 was an entirely new design sharing only the doors, windscreen and front guards with its American counterpart, with high local content and specifications suited to Australian conditions, plus a new upmarket Regal version; an AP5 Safari wagon followed in November 1963. Total AP5 production was 49,440. The AP6 of March 1965 kept the shell but brought a new grille on the theme of the 1964 Plymouth Barracuda, conventional transmission control and the Valiant Wayfarer, the first Valiant-based coupé utility, and in August 1965 it became the first Australian-built Valiant offered with a V8, the 273 cu in LA unit. Greater differentiation came with the VE series, which won the 1967 Wheels Car of the Year award, then the VF of 1969 and the VG of 1970, which introduced the Hemi-6 engine in place of the Slant-6. Australia kept building the Safari wagon even after the body style was dropped in North America.

Local design and the end

From 1971 the VH series saw Chrysler Australia develop the entire range locally, including the Charger, and local design and production continued until the CM series of 1979, which ended Australian production in 1981 after Mitsubishi Motors Australia took over the operations. Parent company Chrysler had invested heavily in Australia, with the Tonsley Park assembly plant from 1964 and an engine foundry at Lonsdale from 1968, and the Valiant was also sold in New Zealand and South Africa, with smaller numbers exported to South-East Asia and the United Kingdom.

Design and features

• Slant-6 power: 145 bhp from the 225 engine against 75 and 90 bhp from its local rivals.
• Australian firsts: the first Australian car with an alternator and with torsion-bar suspension.
• Local design: from the VE onwards the Valiant diverged steadily from its American donor.
• Hemi-6 engine: introduced in the VG of 1970 in place of the Slant-6.
• Body range: sedan, Safari wagon and the Wayfarer utility.

Chrysler Valiant versions

• RV1 and SV1 (1962): locally assembled versions of the American Valiant.
• AP5 (1963): the first fully Australian Valiant, with the Regal trim and Safari wagon.
• AP6 (1965): new grille, a Wayfarer utility and the first optional V8.
• VE, VF and VG: the increasingly Australian series, the VG bringing the Hemi-6.
• VH (1971): the first range designed entirely in Australia, including the Charger.
• CM (1979–1981): the final series before Mitsubishi took over.

The Valiant’s Hemi-6 engines also powered the Chrysler Centura, and its two-door derivative is covered by the Valiant Charger. More cars are in the Chrysler collection.

Video: Chrysler VH Valiant Regal station wagon start up

Video by Peter Ennis on YouTube.

Sources

• Chrysler Valiant, English Wikipedia: series, engines, plants, awards
• Chrysler Valiant, Wikimedia Commons: photographs