Unique Cars

VALIANT E55 CHARGER

For something that effectivel­y began as a skunkworks project done on the f ly, the Charger scored incredible success and retains phenomenal cultural traction among petrolhead­s. Chrysler Australia Managing Director David Brown is credited with the birth of the Charger line, rightly anticipati­ng the likelihood that the upcoming VH series of land yachts had little youth appeal.

Some $2 million of a $22 million develop budget was skimmed off for the project, a pittance in car developmen­t terms. It was done in great secrecy, at least at first, with even Chrysler USA being kept in the dark until the Charger was down the developmen­t trail. To save costs, the new model shared front panels with the VH series sedan and doors were donated by the Chrysler by Chrysler Hardtop. Wheelbase was down from 111 inches (2819mm) to 105 (2667).

The idea of a short wheelbase coupe was first mooted in November 1969 and full-size clay model was completed by February 1970. Initial mechanical and chassis testing was done using a couple of speciallyb­uilt utilities (a VF and a VG), both of which are said to survive today. What would they be worth now? Move on to August and a hand-built prototype is being tested.

By 1971, the end result had scored Wheels Car of the Year, only the second such award for Chrysler Australia. It was a runaway sales success – unlike the VH sedans and wagons – and was soon proving an inline-six powered car could give the more fancied V8s a big scare on the racetrack.

Inevitably Chrysler looked for ways to broaden the Charger ‘palette’, and one was to introduce a GT-style variant with a V8 in the snout.

By then we had already seen the 318 V8 in front of a 770 Charger, but this was a step up again. In October 1972 Chrysler quietly announced the E55, featuring a 340 small block in the nose matched to an A727 Torqueflit­e auto. While this engine had a race heritage in the USA, here it fed through a single four-barrell carburetto­r and claimed an understate­d 275hp.

The production version was really intended as rapid and comfortabl­e transport, rather than a race car, though things could have turned out ver y differentl­y. Chrysler did in fact run it against an E49 at Mallala and discovered it was a few seconds a lap down on the six. However there was talk of hotting up the 340 and developing it with a four-speed manual transmissi­on for Bathurst – where the E49 struggled against the Holden and Ford V8s – but that program was cancelled with the supercar scare of the same year. This is as close as you’ll get to the would-be competitor to the Ford Falcon GT-HO Phase IV.

Stuart Morgan and brother Sean collect Chryslers (among others) with their father Gordon. “My father always had new Chryslers – it’s what you grow up with and then you get to a stage of life where you can revisit your childhood, a nostalgia trip.

“I like the Charger, just the look of it, so unusual, like nothing else at the time in two-door cars. It was a true two-door sports car for the time with that Chrysler American V8. The colour combinatio­n stands out now. For me there’s a visual appeal you don’t see now. It screams seventies!”

What’s it like to drive? “It was a simpler time and the cars were simpler, but it has a lot of the functional­ity of a modern car. It has air conditioni­ng, it’s an automatic, you could drive it every day if you wanted to but it’s still got the st yling.

“It’s a ver y individual car, nothing else looks like it, and I think we’ve lost a lot of that in our modern cars.”