Valiant 1968

[Bartie Spalitto]

ThePlymouth Valiant (first appearing in 1959 as simply the Valiant) is an automobile which was marketed by the Plymouth division of the Chrysler Corporation in the United States from the model years of 1960 through 1976. It was created to give the company an entry in the compact car market emerging in the late 1950s. The Valiant was also built and marketed, without the Plymouth brand, worldwide in countries including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as other countries in South America and Western Europe. It became well known for its excellent durability and reliability, and was one of Chrysler's best-selling automobiles during the 1960s and 1970s, helping to keep the company solvent during an economic downturn.

The Valiant was less radical in configuration than General Motors' compact Chevrolet Corvair, which had an air-cooled rear-mounted engine, but was considered more aesthetically daring than the also-new Falcon and Studebaker Lark compacts, which had more conventional looks; the Valiant boasted a radical design that continued Exner's "Forward Look" styling with "sleek, crisp lines which flow forward in a dart or wedge shape".[7] The flush-sided appearance was a carried-over feature from Chrysler's Ghia-built D'Elegance and Adventure concept cars which also gave the Valiant additional inches of interior room.[7] The Valiant's styling was new, yet with specific design elements that tied it to other contemporary Chrysler products, such as the canted tailfins tipped with cat's-eye shaped tail lamps and the simulated Continental spare tire pressed into the trunk lid that were thematically similar to those on the Imperial and the 300F. According to Exner, the stamped wheel design was used not only to establish identity with other Chryslers, but to "dress up the rear deck area without detracting from the look of directed forward motion".[7]

The Valiant debuted an all-new six-cylinder overhead-valve engine, the famous slant-six. Its inline cylinders were uniquely canted 30 to the right (passenger side), permitting a lower hoodline. The water pump was shifted from front to alongside, shortening engine length. And an efficient long-branch individual-runner intake manifold was fitted, an advance that benefited from Chrysler's pioneering work in tuned intakes. The slant-six produced both more power and better economy than similar American made economy straight sixes, and it soon gained a reputation for dependability. Project engineer Willem Weertman and his team had designed a simple yet robust workhorse, from its four-main forged crankshaft to a simplified "mechanical" valve train. Block and head castings were unusually thick because both were intended to be cast in either iron or aluminum with the same tooling. Although volume casting techniques of the era could not yet reliably produce complex head castings in aluminum, over 50,000 die-cast aluminum-block versions of the 225 cu in (3.7 L) engine were produced between late 1961 and early 1963 and sold as extra-cost options.

The Valiant A-body platform used "unit-body" or "unibody" construction (not used by the Chrysler Corporation since the Airflow models of the 1930s) rather than "body-on-frame" construction. Instead of a bolted-in forestructure used in other unibody designs, the Valiant incorporated a welded-in front understructure and stressed front sheet metal. The fenders, quarter panels, floor and roof contributed to the stiffness of the body shell. A unit wheelbase comparison showed the Valiant to be 95% stiffer in torsion and 50% stiffer in beam than a 1959 Plymouth with separate body-on-frame construction. Dynamic testing showed that high structural resonant frequencies were attained, indicating greater damping and reduced body shake.[7]

The front suspension consisted of unequal length control arms with torsion bars, while the rear suspension used a live axle supported by asymmetric leaf springs. Chrysler used this design through the entire production of the Valiant and other A-body models, with revisions to the suspension components themselves for the 1962, 1967, 1968, and 1973 models.

NASCAR's new compact car category debuted at the Daytona International Speedway on January 31, 1960. The first of two races was a road course, which used a 1.5 mi (2.4 km) portion of the high-banked tri-oval together with a twisting infield road for a lap distance of 3.81 mi (6.13 km). The race length was 10 laps, 38.1 mi (61.3 km). Averaging a speed of 88.134 mph (141.838 km/h),[11] Marvin Panch drove his Hyper-Pak into first place; all the Hyper-Paks swept the field taking the first seven places. The second race of the day used only the tri-oval track, 20 laps on its full 2.5 mi (4.0 km) length totaling 50 mi (80 km). A multi-car accident on the fourth lap took out the four Valiant leaders including one driven by Richard Petty. Panch was not among them because car trouble delayed his start and he was busy passing slower cars from the rear of the field when the leaders crashed. After a restart, Panch worked to first place and stayed there, averaging a speed of 122.282 mph (196.794 km/h).[11] The remaining Valiants placed 1-2-3 and Panch again went into the winner's circle. Maxwell again recalls that "It was a Plymouth runway. We finished first through seventh. Our cars were so fast, NASCAR never did that race again."[12]

The Valiant station wagons had 72.3 cu ft (2.0 m3) of cargo space yet required two feet less parking space than a full-size Plymouth.[13] A locking luggage compartment on the two-seat models included the use of "Captive-Aire" (run-flat) tires. The compartment, located in the cargo deck, served as a spare tire storage space for models equipped with standard tires in which case the lock was optional. Captive-Aire tires, which did not require a spare, were standard equipment on the three-seat models. An aluminum tailgate window screen was available for the exclusion of insects when on vacation and camping trips.[13]

The four-door station wagon, assembled only at the Dodge main plant in Hamtramck,[13] was available in V100 and V200 trim in two- and three-seat configurations; the third seat faced the rear. Both models were the lowest priced four-door station wagons in America.[13] The two-seat model was $60 under both the four-door Lark and Rambler station wagons, and the three-seater was $186 below the Rambler four-door.[13]

During the 1960 model year, there were revisions to improve lubrication of the two rear connecting rods, voltage regulator function, cold starting and idling, acceleration, and to prevent breakage of the front and rear manifold mounting studs.[15]

For 1961, new two-door sedan and hardtop models were released, but no changes were made to the four-door sedan and wagon sheet metal. The interior and exterior trim were changed to provide model year differentiation, a mild form of planned obsolescence. The radiator grille stamping was the same as in 1960, but for 1961 it was painted with a pattern of black squares. The central grille ornament was still pulled from the bottom to release the hood, but it was now faced with an emblem having a white field with the blue-and-red stylized "V" logo, rather than 1960's red placard with a gold script reading "Valiant". The side trim was changed; a 10 in (25 cm) stainless spear was placed at the rear of each tailfin crease, a hockey stick-shaped trim was applied to the lower break line, and the front fender/door crease was capped with a long stainless spear. The tailfins were each topped with three transverse chrome strips, and a large horizontal emblem containing a round plastic "V200" callout was centered in the deck lid's spare-tire stamping. Matching round "V200" callouts were placed in round housings at the midpoint of the front fender spears. Inside the car, the instrument cluster was largely carried over, but 1960's black gauges with white callouts gave way to 1961's white gauges with black callouts. For the first time, Valiants wore "Plymouth" script just left of the right-side taillight.

Mechanical revisions for 1961 included new carburetors, the availability of positive crankcase ventilation (which was newly mandated on cars sold in California), the availability of dealer-installed air conditioning, the relocation of the alternator from the left to the right side of the engine, and extensive revisions throughout most of the Valiant's systems and components.[16] Late in the 1961 model year, the larger 225 cu in (3.7 L) slant-six engine became available in the Valiant, its use having been expanded earlier in the year from the larger Dodges and Plymouths to the Valiant-sized Dodge Lancer.

The 1962 model year saw an extensive facelift. The radiator grille was flattened and shortened. The hood release was moved to a knob at the top of the grille frame. The central grille emblem was deleted, except on the top-line Signet 200 two-door hardtop model, which received a black-painted grille with a round central emblem incorporating the red-and-blue stylized "V" Valiant emblem. The Signet 200 had pleated, leather-like bucket seats, custom tailored interior trim, deep-pile carpeting, special trunk lid emblem, different headlamp frames and special side moldings; it was America's lowest-priced hardtop with bucket seats.[citation needed]

Fender and hood stampings were similar to the 1960-61 items, but neither identical nor interchangeable. At the rear, the cat's-eye tail lamps were deleted. A wraparound stainless trim was applied to the tailfins, below which were placed round tail lamps set into stamped aluminum bezels. These occupied the space formerly available for optional backup lamps, which for 1962 flanked the license plate below the rear bumper. The spare-tire stamping was eliminated from the deck lid, which was now a smooth stamping with a small central ridge at its trailing edge. On V200 deck lids, a large round emblem surrounded an oblong block-letter "Valiant" callout on a black field. Similar block-letter/black-field callouts were placed on each front fender. On the Signet, the deck lid was adorned with a smaller round emblem surrounding the red-and-blue stylized "V" logo. The "Plymouth" script disappeared from the 1962 Valiant, as in 1960.

3a8082e126