The Plymouth 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 and became well known for its excellent durability and reliability. It was one of Chrysler's best-selling automobiles during the 1960s and 1970s helping to keep the company solvent during an economic downturn. Road & Track magazine considered the Valiant to be "one of the best all-around domestic cars".
The Valiant was also built and marketed, with or 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. Its compact size, by American standards, allowed it to be sold as a large car in Europe and elsewhere, without being too large for local conditions.
First generation (1960–1962)
In May 1957, Chrysler president Lester Lum "Tex" Colbert established a committee to develop a competitor in the burgeoning compact car market which included the popular VW Beetle, the new American Motors Rambler and upcoming entries from GM, Ford and Studebaker. Design chief Virgil Exner created a car that was smaller and lighter than a full-size car without sacrificing passenger and luggage space. Originally named the "Falcon" after Exner's 1955 Chrysler Falcon concept car, the vehicle was renamed the "Valiant" (which means "having or showing courage or valor") honoring Henry Ford II's request to use the name for the Ford Falcon.Witzenburg, Gary. "The Name Game", Motor Trend, 4/84, p. 82. The Valiant debuted at the 44th British International Motor Show in London on October 26, 1959.'"British to See Valiant First" by Ralph R. Watts, The Detroit News, October 21, 1959, p. 15. It was introduced as a 1960 model and was officially considered a distinct brand,John Gunnell, Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946–1975, Revised 4th Edition, page 656 advertised with the tagline "Nobody's kid brother, this one stands on its own four tires." For the 1961 model year, the Valiant was classified as a Plymouth model.John Gunnell, Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946–1975, Revised 4th Edition, page 658 The 1961–62 Dodge Lancer was essentially a rebadged Valiant with different trim and styling details. For the 1962 model year, the Valiant returned without Plymouth branding but was sold only in Plymouth Chrysler, Chrysler Dodge, or the rare standalone Plymouth dealerships. For model year 1964 and onwards the car was sold in the United States only as a Plymouth Valiant.
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".'"The Valiant – A New Motoring Concept" by A.G. Loofbourrow, V.M. Exner & R.M. Sinclair, Chrysler Corp., Engineering Division, for presentation of the Society of Automotive Engineers Annual Meeting at The Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel, and Statler Hotel, Detroit, Michigan, January 11–15, 1960' 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. 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".
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 engine were produced between late 1961 and early 1963 and sold as extra-cost options.
The 1960 Valiant exemplified Chrysler's leadership in aluminum die casting. While the aluminum slant-six engine block did not enter production until 1961, the Kokomo, Indiana, foundry produced a number of other aluminum parts for the 1960 Valiant, all instrumental in reducing the total weight of the car. The 1960 model contained as much as of aluminum in structural and decorative forms, with the majority of the material used in cast form as chassis parts.Aluminum Saves Weight in the Valiant (Product Information Bulletin, Chrysler Corp., Engineering Division, Technical Information Services, November, 1959) These parts included the oil pump, water pump, alternator housing (the first car to have an alternator), Hyper-Pak (see below) and standard production intake manifolds, all-new Torqueflite A-904 automatic transmission case and tail extension, and numerous other small parts. These cast-aluminum parts were roughly 60% lighter than corresponding parts of cast iron. A cast aluminum part had the benefit of reduced section thickness where strength was not a vital consideration. Section thickness of cast-iron parts were often dictated by casting practice, which required at least to ensure good castings. Exterior decorative parts stamped from aluminum were lighter than similar chromium-plated zinc castings. The entire grille and surrounding molding on the Valiant weighed only . If this same assembly had been made of die-cast zinc, as many grilles of the era were, it would have weighed an estimated . An estimated —about 4% of a Valiant's total shipping weight—was saved with the of aluminum parts.
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.
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.
Hyper-Pak
Plymouth product planning director Jack Charipar gave impetus for a stock car racing version of the Valiant,Weertman, Willem (2008). Chrysler Engines 1922–1998. Warrendale, PA: SAE International, 419. and while Chrysler engineers developed the Hyper-Pak for the track, the Hyper-Pak dealer tuning kit option was made available in limited quantities on December 1, 1959. Features included of torque, a 10.5:1 compression ratio, dual exhaust pipes on a single muffler, a manual choke and a larger fuel tank.'"Up Goes Valiant-Junior HP Race On?" by Fred Olmsted, The Detroit Free Press, January 21, 1960, p. 18' Dick Maxwell, a Chrysler engineer responsible for many of the super stock Mopars, recalls that "When NASCAR decided to run a compact road race in conjunction with the 1960 Daytona 500, all the factories got involved. We built a fleet of seven Hyper Pak Valiants with 148-hp 170-ci [Slant] sixes having a single four-barrel with ram manifold." The race Hyper-Paks also featured high-load valve springs and long-duration, high-lift camshafts.
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 portion of the high-banked tri-oval together with a twisting infield road for a lap distance of . The race length was 10 laps, . Averaging a speed of ,'"Valiants Survive a 4-Car Smashup, Win at Daytona," The Detroit Free Press, February 1, 1960, p. 26' 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 length totaling . 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 . 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."
Station Wagon
The Valiant station wagons had of cargo space yet required two feet less parking space than a full-size Plymouth. 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.
The four-door station wagon, assembled only at the Dodge main plant in Hamtramck,"Valiant Wagon Lowest Priced" by Ralph R. Watts, The Detroit News, November 6, 1959, p. 17 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. 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.
Design and mechanical revisions The first-generation Valiants, though sold in three model years, existed in four distinct configurations: early 1960, late 1960, 1961, and 1962. The base-model V100 cars received relatively minimal ornamentation.
1960