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dfm: Readers rides spotlight on Stephen Cole’s Valiant Charger

Laird Darren Gallagher talks to Stephen Cole

Owning that special car is in many ways hard to accurately describe.  The birth of a child?  That first father to son shaving lesson that would tear up a Gilette Razor Company Executive?  It’s so much more than that.  I had a chance to chat to Stephen Cole, one of the automotive owners that will be rolling out his classic for this year’s ADF Show and Shine as part of the ADF Christmas Treat at RAAF Richmond.  This is what he had to say:

My classic car is a 1972 Valiant Charger. Released in 1971, the Charger won the Wheels “Car of the Year” award in that year.  The design and construction of the two door car, in less than 18 months with a budget of $2 million (ridiculously small even in 1971), is an amazing success story!

My Charger was manufactured at the old Chrysler Tonsley Park site in South Adelaide, and due to the nature of the compliance plate one can determine the date of birth as 8 September 1972.  As body number 1548 it is relatively late in the run of the first Charger (VH model) which ran from August 1971 to March 1973.  VH Chargers are distinctive as they are the only Charger with rectangular headlights. 

The car was ordered from the factory with a number of options (motor, interior package, wheels) and Chrysler was very good at providing what the customer ordered.  Thus the car is unusual in having SOA (Special Order Approved) stamped on the inner guard beside the body number.

My Charger is fitted with a 265 cubic inch Hemi six cylinder engine and automatic transmission.  Whilst it is not an R/T Charger, it is finished in the correct paint livery and has many of the options sold as standard on those vehicles.  The R/T Chargers were brought out to tackle the XA Falcon and HQ Holden Monaro 2 door models, both of which were sold with optional go-fast packs which included unique paint and stripes, trim and drive-train combinations. 

Unique amongst the R/Ts were the Bathurst specials which had very highly tuned 265 hemi engines, including the amazing triple Weber carburettors, and other performance upgrades.  The R/T name comes from the Dodge Charger in the US and stands for Road/Track.  The competition Chargers fitted with the Webers were called “6-pack” chargers, also a name rooted in the Dodge Charger, where it denoted a V8 with three two-barrel downdraft carburettors. The Charger 6-pack R/Ts were very successful in competition motor sport, especially on tighter circuits where the handling advantages of the Charger made them very quick.  They are legendary in New Zealand where they dominated touring car racing for seven years.  Lacking a large capacity V8, the Chargers were ultimately unsuccessful at Bathurst, as they fell short of the all out top speed of the Falcon GTs.  Nevertheless the best and most highly tuned R/T, the E49 engined 4-speed Charger R/T, developing 302 horsepower, was a seriously quick road car, and very rare as only 149 were built.  Today the E49 engined R/Ts in restored condition will fetch over $250,000 if you can find one for sale.

My car was sold new in Yorketown, South Australia (SA) and used as the company car of the dealership management.  It must have been quite a spectacular sight in outback SA tearing around in its bright red livery with a white interior!

Subsequently the car was sold to a gentleman in Yorketown who used it as his daily driver for some 20 years. During this time it was fitted with a heavy duty towing package and used to tow a caravan on annual holidays.  Some time around 1989 the car was driven into his shed and placed on blocks, and it was in this state that I inspected it in 2002.  I purchased it on the spot, for $3500, which my brother in law thought was outrageous for a Charger!  I changed the oils, and drove it back to Queanbeyan on a permit.  It never missed a beat on the way home.  I know that because the exhaust fell off so its beat was unmissable….

The car was in very good condition for a 35 year old vehicle with only minimal rust, and it passed a roadworthy with minor front end suspension work.  However, it never got on the road as I began to pull it apart.  I am sure you all know how it goes – you can remove a headlight, the carpets and maybe a wheel, but one more item and it’s basically on a full restoration. 

The panel work and paint were done by Paul Bradbury at Fyshwick and I am really pleased with the finish.  He added the R/T Bathurst special stripes and then finished the car with clear finish.  After each session in the baking oven it was parked out the front of his shop – and so everywhere I go in Fyshwick it is recognised as the red Charger from Bradbury’s!

The interior is largely original as it was in amazingly good condition. I had the front seat recovered and the tops of the door trims I redid myself as the painting would have wrecked them.  When I bought the car I bought it as a red car with a beige interior.  After two weekends of scrubbing with Jif I realised the interior was in fact, white.  Half of the dust from Yorketown had come in the windows.

When the rear lower guards were cut out for replacement, I took out two buckets of sand and dust from the panels.  So I now know where the other half of the Yorketown dust went.  All that dry dust (it’s like talcum powder) meant that the inner guards and the floor pan still had a shiny coat of original red paint – I couldn’t believe it when I took out the carpets – the floor pan looked brand new.

The automatic transmission had to be rebuilt.  It had had a hard life as a towing vehicle and the specialist had to source a number of replacement parts to get it back to as new.
I haven’t as yet rebuilt the motor, as I am undecided on what to do to it.  The engine is tired and a bit rattly.  I think now I will pull it down and get it rebuilt to near original specifications over winter. 

Most Chrysler Valiant parts are readily available as they didn’t change much between models.  Trim bits specific to Chargers are another matter.  My car was fitted with the R/T fully instrumented dash, which I am restoring to its original condition.  These are rare and cost upwards of $1200 on the second hand market.

The car had its maiden Club run on the Chinese embassy run late last year, and it didn’t let me down.   Fran and the girls enjoyed the outing.  Since then I took my son to Melbourne in it and it survived 43 degrees in Albury, where we stopped for the night.

The Charger is a popular car.  I didn’t realise just how popular until I started driving it!  I enjoy the cruising around bit, and getting to meet people with an interest in classic cars.  Despite a suspension design dating back to 1956 the car is ok on the road, although what a young driver would think of it is another matter.

It’s good to see a few more Mopars getting around the place with the muscle car scene booming in popularity.  It will be good to get the car out for the show this year, and I hope the weather will hold out.