Road-testing the 1974 Chrysler Valiant 770 Charger | RetroFocus
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ม.ค. 2019
- In this episode of 'Torque' from October 1974, Peter Wherret road-tests a classic V8 muscle car, the Valiant 770 Charger.
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He's like a guy with an understanding of technology in 2020 reviewing a 1970's car. Ahead of his time.
Peter Wherrett was a legend in his presentation in the tv show Torque.
Absolutely ajead of his time! Predicted the end of the 3.3 holden 6 when reviewing all the way back at the VH!
As soon as he mentioned the importance of stress testing things, I instantly thought "this guy has post 2000 knowledge"
Yeah. He came out as a cross-dresser in the 80's, publicly and openly on national television. Way ahead of his time.
@@professornuke7562 ridiculed for it too.
Whatta cry baby........go buy a Citroen 2cv....if you want bland
Please put the entire series on line. I loved this. Not only did it remind me of my childhood in oz but the language, idiom, and norms shining though we're such an incredible reminder of a different era. Thank for putting this one out. I'm smiling still.
Hey Charger ,,takes me back to happier days as kid
This was fantastic! A beautiful blast from the past and the joy is I own a 770 Valliant Charger. Beautiful old car!
I had a brown 265, Charger 770, still my best drive ever, Mildura- Melbourne.
Rest in peace Peter and Richard Wherret. You truly are missed. 🙏🏼💔🫶🏻
Have you read Desirelines?
In 1984, I had a clapped out 1971 VH 4.1 litre 3 speed and it was a bloody great car! Rather light in the tail, it was hairy to drive around bumpy curves as the rear wheels felt like they would let go at any moment. But, the Hemi Six was a brilliant motor for its day and surprisingly economical yet powerful. Loads of room too. Unlike modern cars with their bulky centre consoles, the Charger allowed the driver to stretch his legs out on long country drives and get really comfy. Easy to repair and built like a friggin' tank I loved my Charger, Had it until 1994 when rust sealed its fate. Some spunky chicks sat in that car too......
A great engine indeed. By the time Chrysler was done with it....wow. They stuck FI on it for the Jeep Cherokee, and the damn things FLEW in the 2000's.
4.1 are you sure?
4.1 Close enough. He probably had the 245 hemi just at little over 4litres. The 265 hemi was 4.3 litres
@@professornuke7562That’s what I thought…it’s actually on old AMC engine…☹️
@@professornuke7562nothing to do with the cherokee inline- theyre based on the last brand that owned jeep before chrysler.
9 years old when this came out and I remember as an 18 yr old nearly buying on of these. What a great review Peter Wherrett
What a well produced and presented show. I can see why his show lasted so long.
No one saw a car like this being worth $500.000.
True. I never thought that $450 HQ Holden I sold in Alice Springs for $600 in 1990 would be worth $40K now or the $2.5K V8 HG Monaro I dumped at the side of the road in Bondi back in 1984 would be worth 100K+ today.
No one saw an enter-level house in Australia being worth $1M either. I wish I had parents that owned a home. lol
@@dasdasdsdasdasdasd363 a mate bought a HG 350 Monaro in 1980, we put the motor and 4 speed in his van and took the rest to the tip.
I sold a HK Monaro for $600 :(
@@liamgross7217 They are worth like 100K or something ridiculous now.
@@dasdasdsdasdasdasd363 yea, crazy $$
I had 3 Valiants, over 12 years ( a sedan, wagon and Charger ), all 6 cylinder and never considered wanting anything bigger. A 4.0 litre/ 245 motor was a good workhorse and very reliable. If only Chrysler Australia had looked into rust prevention......
Was it a VK, CL or CM? That would explain it. The VH and VJ were much less prone to rusting.
@@jamesfrench7299 sedan and charger, which rusted, were CL and the wagon was a VJ
@@richard63 I saw a few different VJs and VHs left abandoned in paddocks and they all had clean metal all around the windscreen.
CLs and Ms would be rotten, though I once saw a CM wagon sitting in a guy's yard with solid metal there.
Have you noticed many Valiant owners over the years are often not very friendly people?
I didn't have very good experiences when I met other Valiant owners. Funny crowd. Some were good but many I didn't consider good characters.
I recall hearing that some were leaving the factory with rust bubbles under the paint- especially on metallic blue ones.
...and perhaps some rack-and-pinion steering, tighter suspension and flo-thru ventilation. The Big 3 (and Leyland) were all doing virtually the exact same thing - four flavours of the same concept - and none were really interested in evolving the motor car. A waste.
Half a second of truck tire squeal
"That is the supercar burnout"
Australians nowadays "BWAAAAÀAAAAAAAAAH"
*tires popping*
Always loved watching “Torque”, Wherret’s books on driving were a great reference when I started driving in the 80’s. Pete’s description of being in control of big, powerful rear drive cars is so true. They are easy to drive but at the limit you have to be right on top of them or they will eat you. Cars back then really went but had far less grip and far more body roll, at least you could feel the limit coming.
He, why do all you young people insist on pulling into moving traffic because there is a tiny gap in the left hand lane .... doing zero .... I change lane and we both die. You also drive on multi lane roads overlapping and hiding in blind spots. Utes and trucks cannot see you when you creep up on the left hand side ... risking a lot, be aware!
Aussie cars, RIP 😢
I used to watch this show, back in the day.
I think Peter was ahead of the game in MANY ways.
That Australian 70s accent - music to my ears, bizarrely :p
No Yanky twang at all.
Sounds normal to me.
I brought an orange E49 charger with original 30ks on clock in 1986 for $2,500 from a bloke that needed to sell it because it was thirsty and couldn’t keep running it.
lol that car has been on stands covered in blankets and tarp sitting in a garage since 1992 and that’s the last time anyone opened it’s doors.
It’s going to see daylight in the coming weeks
Apple Muffin one year on - how’d she go?
Well let’s just say it whipped my HQ Monaro
My best drive was in a 265 Charger, got 16mpg over 350 miles. Great memories.
My 1956 FE Holden if I drive it at 55 MPH gets 33.4 mpg.Not bad for an old car.
You must have been 4/5 to the floor to get that bad from a 265. My VH 265 auto got at best 32.5 mpg highway and 12mpg thrashing around dirt roads and back streets of my town over 3 days( long enough to do a reliable consumption test). It wasnt a fresh motor, and other than extractors completely stock.
@@Westyrulzold cars driven slowly could do pretty well considering no overdrive.
It doesn't need 360 cubes? 440 could be my choice! Hey Charger✌
Nah, 318 is enough
360 cubes with non power assisted front disc brakes. Chryslers option lists were amazing, you could option 318's with drum brakes if you wanted.
With TRIPPLE'S.
@@RemusKingOfRome My transplanted 440 ci VH begs to differ. Excess is not enough!
The 360 (E57) featured here was a dog motor.... only a 2 Barrel carb (same as the 318) and a very long stroke (which was imbalanced, so could not rev high). There was absolutely tons of torque but very little "power" since it couldn't pull more than about 4 grand. The best of these Chrysler V8s.was the 340 (E55) as it had 4 barrel carb and the shorter stroke of the 318, so it revved heaps better.
I watched PW when he first hit the screens and saw him race at Bathurst. He was a natural on and off the track with honest and intelligent comment.
My boss had this very model in 1975, and he wasn't your average sedate middle aged man. Being motorbike crazy all my life, I often encountered him when I was riding to work. Me being low 20s and aimless, and George just as young as heart, every time our converging paths crossed, a race would develop. No holds barred, I could never beat him. The bloody thing was quick enough to hold me off on the straights, and too bloody big to get around under brakes. Viva the Charger 770! Fondly remembered, though I never owned one. 😀
A child in the 70's watching a police officer driving a charger was so impressive. RIP Peter
Remember the slogan, "hey charger" doing the peace sign?
@@HellAwaitsThem Yes I remember that add on TV "Hey Charger".....I was 7
The 70's, when stuff was manufactured here.
Then came the Lima Convention + the removal of hundreds of thousands of government jobs ( many were railways)
Then thousands of disfuntional young migrants with little hope of employment.
No wonder carjackings & home invasions are up 1000 of % in 20 years.
40 years ago home burglery was rare, despite pulling a louver window out & unlocking the laundry door from the inside was all you had to do, in many cases. No alarms, no CCTV.
All these things, ( including fighting crime) is an industry.
Yep, shows how fake the economy is (Bill Hicks). Crime is good for the economy.
& all government policy (no, they're not idiots, there is a reason).
If was free trade agreements in Australia with other parts of the world that destroyed industry , why else do you think Donald trump one of the worlds biggest buisness minds is increasing tariffs
@@iamasmurf1122 I think rather than the free trade agreements, it was the uneven playing field of too much taxation, regulation, and the outrageous cost of energy. Business unfriendly governments doomed us to be an agrarian and mining economy.
Kind of agree with some of that but how bad were these cars?
Fuck Yeah! 🇦🇺👍✌️🇦🇺
Australia's Golden years between 1947 - 1977. Everything went downhill after that.
Yeah brakes that f
ade after 3 attempts is the pinnacle.
started going downhill after incompetent whitlam and corrupt grassby...
Okay boomer
What an intelligent commentary. I'm now going to look him up for some more material.
In today's online social media world, there are literally an abundance of car reviewer's and car testers, many in youtube. I'll only highlight a few that I think are the very best about now, Harry Metcalfe, Andrew Frankel, Henry Catchpole, Matt Prior, Chris Harris, and i'll throw in one American, Matt Farah, and all these are very knowledgeable car reviewers/engineers! ....But I'm afraid none of these or any other current car reviewers will ever hold a candle to our Australian Peter Wherrett, the depth of knowledge of the car industry he possessed for just one humble man, was extraordinary, and his ability to communicate it to whoever was interested to listen, was exemplary. And many now I think have forgotten, that Peter was no driving miss daisy! Having competed as a racing car driver on arguably the toughest most dangerous racing circuit in the world, Bathurst. And with this last point, I'd easily rate him above any youtube car reviewer I've just mentioned here. I am not aware of Chris Harris tackling the Mountain, he may prove me wrong.. Peter Wherret's "Torque" is of course now so out of date, when talking specific cars, but can you apply the knowledge of Peter Wherret in today's Automotive world......Hell yes!!!! Peter never pulled any punches, which was his most endearing quality as a Automotive journalist, car tester, engineer.
I had dozens of Valiants. It’s sad all that stuff is gone now.
So did mate. I feel your pain. My two favourites were a 360 Chrysler by Chrysler and a Hemi Orange VH R/T 2BBL
Had both :)
@@TheHeretic435 Nice. I lost all the photos I took of my Charger :(
I had one last summer slant six nice body sold it to a dealer he lost the key so he jnkd went to the junkyard searching for a part and my old car was sitting there stripped down over a key people with money do not appreciate history it could have been just a 225 slant six but do you have to ditch it over a key,I asked the junkyard how much to get my car back and this hillbilly spit some chew and said all of it boy, I never felt so strange in my life, thanks Beechnut! for killing my dreams.
@@ct9827 That is sad as Hat. My first car was a VE (non Regal) optioned with the 160HP and 904 torqueflite. It had a serious oil leak and when it finally died and I pulled it out I discovered it had only one engine mount that was any good. I used to do single line burnouts in it everywhere as you do when you get your license. That slant was great. But I finally killed it.
We pulled it out and it was on an engine stand and my mate decided to rotate it by himself. Big mistake. She fell over on the concrete and broke off some of the block. So I took a very straight rust-free body to the tip and watched a big Cat dozer squash it. I still dream of finding it again which is messed up because I watched it die.
RIP Peter Wherrett, rigorous journalism in Australia, and the Australian car industry. All much needed today.
Great stuff abc. Upload more. Especially anything to do with valiants please lol
Supercar burnout? Oh Peter, that was just your vehicle losing traction for a second. Try and buy one of these Valiants now for under $30,000.
300,000 you mean mate.
No Dan, in the day that was a burnout. Not the modern bogan burnouts of today.
Have to agree... pretty pathetic burnout, even by mid 70s standards. And notice only one wheel spun - showing it didn't have an LSD, or SureGrip in Chrysler-speak. So can't even rightly call it a Supercar; if the 360 in that was stock or non-Police then it would not have really been a performance car, just a torque monster.
Try and buy a 770 or R/T for 30 K,? I wish...
@@rustykilt The E49 had a list Price of $4975
Really good review. Back to my childhood!
I had one of these in '79 ....... Jesus was I proud, Mandarine Orange, GT Stripe, Girlfriend who loved me .... what more could you want for?
Igel Liebe ...and fast forward 40years, now divorced, no money, old and no charger :(
@Epsensieg 18 ...such is life
Beer
Igel Liebe beer
@@jeffreyjohnston2445 It was Pot in those days with a Beer or Two to clear the throat. :-)
Yep, Pete was right about the rear end being easy to lose in the wet, as I found out with my 318 under the Punt road bridge one rainy day. Ended up with both passager wheels tucked under the car after dropping it back into second to get across the amber lights and drifting across the lanes in front of the cricketers arms!! Slammed a pole and the blue stone gutters did the rest of the damage, lucky as hell as the cricket finished 5mins later and Punt rd was then full of traffic !
OMG! I remember Peter Wherret as a kid. Memories!
They certainly made lumps of cars here back then. Admirable even with all their faults, as they make nothing here now.
Got to love the crazy body roll. I Remember the old films of Bathurst in the 70’s nothing but rumbling and Tyers screeming. Sweet
The golden times, loved them, had 2 Holden HK 327 V8 Monaros in my time, Raw power was the day....
This was a great show, I loved it when I was a kid.
Ahh yes the Bolwell (Intro), they still look good even now
Steamboat steering , fuel guzzling , crappy stoppers , combined with 19th century roads made a fast drive in a Valiant a thing to remember. ...loved it....probably because didn't kill me.
i surrived it all the same
@@pf1468 , yep Peter , my dad did his best to break all land speed records every time he drove his VC Valiants , buggered if I know how we all survived when I think back at the things he did on the roads we had.
Myst have been a little skill and a huge amount of luck.
It probably made people better drivers cause they had to concentrate a lot more to survive just going for a drive lol
@@paulfrank1201 , too true , driving the Pacific Highway nowadays is a recipe for boredom ....not like 30 years ago , thank Christ !!
@Phoenix Swooping yep mate , had a regal wagon , same vintage .huge interior and probably worse to drive than my 65 AP5. .
Yes ,they were undoubtedly more dangerous times.
One of the very last people to casually employ 'town carriage' whilst not cracking a joke.
I'd love to find a VJ 770 with the factory 360 in it....
Totally agree with you!...
I loved my 770. Was my first car. Hemi orange and beautiful.
Same, I knew there was something special about it. It is the only car I have ever regretted selling.
I had a '74 770 too! Mine was a 265 but that was enough for me. Colour was orange, of course.
I had a 770...318 torqueflite,my first new car,it was Sherwood green 1974 loved that car.up untill 5 or 6 years ago.I used to dream of it frequently.I only had it for 4 years.but every now and then in my dreams.there it would be,in a shed or garage that I never had.but knew was mine.:).it always needed some repair or such but I was always thrilled to find it again.:)
Wot a croc! The 2bbl low compression 360 struggled to make 255HP - a long way off 300! But what it did do well was bags of low-down torque - 360 lb ft @ 2600. That's what spun the wheels. Even the Hi-po 4 bbl 340 only made 275hp, hampered by the exact same cam as the average 318. Interestingly, the 318 made the same torque as the 340 - 340 lb ft @ 2500, but of course did not breath like the 340 could. The only Valiant engine getting numbers around 300 was the famed E49 265 in-line 6 at 302 hp.
Is that all. I remember my Au XR8 made roughly that much, and it was not particularly fast. That fool wherrit calls it a super car.
“Pollutant in the air” - wow! I can’t remember any 70s road test mentioning that issue. High fuel consumption, for sure. But more on a running cost perspective.
LA was already having smog issues in the 70's. Ronald Reagan was heavily pushing for smog regulation when he was governor there in the late 60's/70's. Wasn't an issue here so much because of the much lower population.
Nonsense. It was an issue at the time as Wherrett mentions & the rules were changed to incorporate anti-smog gear on Oz manufactured cars in 1976.
ADR27 was a thing by then, and ADR27A was not far off, if it wasn't already in force.
they were about to ban leaded petrol.
@@GM-fg3bi About to? That unleaded petrol for new cars in Australia didn't become compulsory until 1986. This was recorded more than 10 years before that. It wasn't until 2002 that leaded fuel was no longer available for everyone at their local petrol station...
Dammit Peter, I want one now....
Worth a small fortune today!
Peter was ahead of his time... Would love to see his Auto reviews for today's cars...
None of those drawbacks would have discouraged me. Wicked car. 😎
They're not bugs, they're features.
honest, intelligent, informative pros and cons of this motor car they are worth a lot in today's money
The Valiant Charger was a missed opportunity IMO, more development work would had produced a real gem.
My word - if they'd invested the budget that went into the Hardtop and the CH Sedan into the Charger instead, and really put an effort into making it a great car, it would have been an epic design.
Too much power? Ummm... it IS possible to NOT push the accelerator ALL the way down every time...
hehe yeah - he IS a bit of a tosser though.
@Blackie BMW Motorwerks I own one mate, they drive fine
@@jellyfish942 I agree. I've got a 265 VJ Regal sedan. Driving to suit the conditions is not a problem in a Valiant.
@@DoctorBrodski as old cars go, they drive great! Any car is dangerous if you don’t drive it properly. Nice name too! Shout out to Red Sovine
Great points about braking seats, seat belts, and development
More of these please ABC
Had one of these damn i wished i still had it was a fun car. Colour was limelight stood out
Had one in limelight in high school, loved it.
I have to say that one of the best cars l have ever driven was a P76 Targa Florio,(must have been a tuesday or Wednesday car)it was responsive,the power steering was one finger light and it was comfortable. Apart from being baby shit brown and ugly as sin,it was a great car.
It's been said that Allan Moffat victories didn't sell many GTHOs but it sure helped sell a lot of Falcon 500s.....a bit of overkill on PWs behalf.
The wonderful ABC producing this gem of a show- unbiassed opinions from Peter who was not bound to any manufacturer.
I had a ex police VJ Charger in 1985, best driving valiant I had ever owned
Great tv car 🚙 Show at the Time . On the ABC
Drove one of these back in the day. Man you had to fight that heavy steering. Iconic car.
True, no power steering, big tyres made for great arm muscles. I borrowed a '67 Camaro when my E55 770 340 was off the road, it had the usual yank power steering. When I got my car back I had a helluva time backing it into my carport, my arms had weakened lol.
Valiants right up to the CL were shit steerers. Only in the CM did they finally fix it by relocating the steering box, and then that was it. Valiant was gone.
The car guys guy!! Peter was indeed the true term of a non bias critic and a bloody good great motoring Journalist.
He was very biased- pay attention in many of his videos what he says of aussie cars comparing them to european cars. Hes a car snob big time.
I had a 1971 770 V8 charger in the 80’s. I also did many burnouts on public roads.
"It's big and heavy and cumbersome and it doesn't want to change direction." Sounds like a Chrysler.
Funny how they outhandled the phase 3's on the tighter tracks....and NOBODY beat them on NZ tracks for 7 years- not even Moffat.
I got to drive around in one of these in the early 80s. Loved it much better than I’d be lead to believe. The turbo Cordia was much more of a handful to control.
I worked at Mitsubishi and we sold Peter and his brother Turbo Cordias. Peter went on to race his but gave up fairly soon afterwards.
I raced my Cordia as well, but it never saw a track LoL 😂😂
Even my blanket is wet after that. And I vaguely recall watching him back in the day.
I remember reading a road test on the car featured here in Wheels magazine. They reckoned that by the time the 360 Charger reached 100 mph that the E49 Charger could have got there, stopped and started again.
Yeah that's about right. The E49 was the fastest accelerating production in the world at the time. And the 360 in stock form was nothing special - a torque monster, good for towing boats and the rubber burning up and go bit, but unless some performance work was done on the engine, it ran out of breath very quickly. However once some performance work was done on the breathing (carby, intake manifold, heads breathing work and exhaust and camshaft, it was a huge improvement - THEN it would have been a supercar)
True...my dad had a E49 and beat his mate who had a XW 289 Windsor V8 on numerous occasions
@@cameronmorrison7515 Hell, I wish my Dad had one back then as well. They sure were something else alright. I remember in the late 70's when I just got my license I was punting a hot (or so I thought) 186 Holden. One night I was at the lights with an E38 Charger and thought I would show him. I never even saw which way it went when the lights changed green.
They never put any money into developing the stock 360 like they did to the hemi 6. The cancelled next gen Charger was potentially going to get a much hotter 360 and there was even talk of doing up the Centura with a v8 to compete with the Torana.
The 360 was never the "go" engine. Apart from the very hot sixes, that job was for the 340, which itself was only half baked. Had the 340 received the love the 265 did, along with a manual box, it would have been everything, plus a bit more.
"It just doesn't need 360 cubic inches..." That, sir, is exactly why I would want it.
Better with the HO 340, the 360 was a limo motor, 2 barrel carb etc.
@@briananthony4044 you make your 360 HO. No replacement for displacement.
@@denisovanhybrid9610 and I raise you a blower. Are you ready to fold?
They still had the 340 cubic inch engine. It came out with the VJ valiants.
My 265 worked 4 speed use to haul. Had sandbags in the boot to help with traction. They all cracked chassis rails under the steering box and rust loved them! But totally COOL
Yep, my 245 XL with 350 Holley did exactly that.
Nice looking Valiant. Best one I’ve seen.
Ah, the good ol' 70's Aussie death trap. Seat-belts don't work, brakes don't work, bad handling, so lets give it some excess beans, mate!
Australia was better in the 70s
@@mr.niceguy9316 Our country was making more cars
@Manu everyone that's why older people are against socialism dopey .they have seen our country slowly turning to a shithole because of weenies like you ;)
@@seaworldsocialartslecturer7489 huh australia's less socialist now then it was in the seventies, those auto jobs left because of neo-lib policies like free trade and ending public subsidies.
@@thatguyscomputer bullsht ,look up the button plan , Australia's manufacturing industry was destroyed by the hawk government which was labor
@@seaworldsocialartslecturer7489 aww how cute you think the hawk government and its policies were socialist, also that was the 80s.
This was excellent ABC....can we have more peter wherrett and episodes of Torque please :-)
Love these cars
This was a quality review. I probably watched it back in 1974 but don't particularly remember this episode even though I watched Torque religiously. Those wonderful 70's Aussie classics were simply under-braked and too poorly handling for their engine power...but I wouldn't mind owning one now!
✌🏼 HEY CHARGER ✌🏼
From the days when the ABC reported worthwhile information and news. I was a toddler when my father would watch this program to evaluate his next car.
Abc is still pretty good. Better than the commercial stations anyway
Yes ABC you have a wealth of Classic TV programming from the 1960s onwards in your archive. They may be not have sufficient typical quality for broadcast but they are more than adequate to be published to TH-cam or iview for viewing on a computer or mobile/tablet.
The 6 cylinder 265 handled very well and on a country road made time better than the big v8, i had both and would rather the six any day anywhere.
eternal learner. My best mate had a purple 265 "six" with 4 speed manual - fun car although the handling and brakes still weren't great. It was a '73 model, and yeah you sat too low in it for real comfort as he mentioned of the earlier models. Great memories.
@@phillipevans9414 Mine were both ex HWP cars, firmer "sport" suspension, the 265 4spd was one of the best handling cars i ever had.
I had a 245 valiant ute. Went everywhere at 70+ mph [ no speed limit then, only dangerous driving]. On a good day [early morning with cool damp air and tail wind] you could get 25 mpg. Was casual with service and oil changes, but ran well, started burning oil at 100, 000 miles. Skill was required for braking and handling.Seating was a problem [bench seat] as you tended to slide off.
@@dduckman1423 The charger was the same wheelbase as the ute, shorter than the sedan.
Triple webbers 👍
10:06 - It's a CHARGER! It's SUPPOSED to move quickly from point to point. ;) ;) ;) These cars are very desirable now.
yeah, that particular car and others similar to it would be getting over $50k these days.
Great show
i remember these shows
Lol, he makes it seem like a crazy rocket car .... uncontrollable power even with careful use of the accelerator.
Had a VJ Valiant. 2 things were certain. You couldn't stop it. Dreadful brakes and it had a steering defect. It would turn itself in to every petrol station for fuel and that was only the 245 Hemy.
If you reckon those brakes were ineffective,did you sample the stoppers on the VC Valiant sedan?Five applications of the drums ,in quick succession from 80 kph to zero produced fuming total brake fade.Different times back in 1967.
Interestingly Chrysler initially pitched the Valiant Charger R/T against the Holden Torana 6 GTR and Ford Capri GT V6
Still driving mine in 2023
"It doesn't need 360 Cubic Inches of engine.." NO it needs MORE !!! - they should have shoved a 440 magnum under the bonnet LOL. C'mon Pete, you're no fun mate. hehehe.
Old Pete was a bit against the V8 in cars on the road. He did not like the SLR5000, the GTHO and the GTS Monaro as he believed they had too much HP for ordinary drivers, who lacked the skill needed.
The guy is kinda of a buzz kill as a lover of 440’s I think they should have gone big. Here in the states Chrysler stuffed a 440 or a 426 Hemi in everything and we loved them for it.
@@steve-ph9yg remember this is post oil crisis mate, anything bigger wouldn't have sold to well (the reason the Aussie charger exists in the first place ) , let alone the that the Aussie government would have ripped them a new one if they did, bloody supercar scare.
@@activecamoflage6649 I remember both oil crisis in the 70’s they had a effect on sales of muscle cars but the issue in the states was government emissions regulations with the horse power cut drastically with little gas mileage improvement who cared if you could get a 7 liter engine if it only had 240HP and still only got 10 mpg. A Corvette was getting 210HP sure it looked the same but who wasn’t a sports car with no balls. I’ve owned Mopars from that era 340 Cuda’s sure you strip the emissions crap off put a 340 six pack cam in it headers they will become fast again just like it’s older brothers. I’m a fan of the pre 71 engines when the car companies under rated horse power and with the exception of California had very little or no emission controls installed.
@@steve-ph9yg I don’t mean to be rude but your comment appears to be more about the American muscle car market then The Australian market the Chrysler Valiant Charger was specifically designed for , the Aussie Charger is an A body underneath and Chrysler Australia designed the car around the Hemi-6 ( which produced 302 hp in the E49 Charger) and a 318 being the V8 intended to be on the car, the 340 was added latter in a failed attempt to homologate a Racing V8 for Bathurst after the government stepped in the 340’s were used for the luxury model and the 360 when they ran out of 340’s, Australia never adopted big blocks like America partially due to our most prestigious racing event being held at Bathurst which favours lighter vehicles with small block V8’s ( actually not to dissimilar from the Trans AM racing you 340 Six pack was designed for) rather then an event like Daytona and other oval events that mitigate the downsides of big blocks from a racing sense. When it comes to emissions in Australia we only started feeling it by 76. But overall though I have nothing against big blocks in the context in which they were designed for, small blocks were far better suited to the Australian market
Who remembers motoring in the city before the 90's?
Everyone drove around with their windows down because their cars were hot. The music on your cassette player suddenly stopped when the tape got tangled up. Stop/start traffic often caused overheating. In those PRE-ABS days, if a drivers wasn't paying attention, you'd hear a loud screech, followed by a bang as he hits the car in front - scaring the shit out of pedestrians.
I lived through those days....and they were scary!
This was a brilliant TV show.
I owned one of these back in the late 70's, it was yellow and it only cost me £700.
I bought it from a friend who's dad was a used car dealer.
I had it for about 6 days and had to ask my friend if he would take it back as it was just too powerful for the streets of Glasgow, the petrol it guzzled was far too much for what I earned back then, I was just 19 years of age.
My friend refunded me without any issues but I'll never forget the week of absolute bedlam driving this truly mad mental crazy machine.
Remember Alexei Sayle's Ullo John gotta new motor videoclip? Theres an orange Charger 770 in the background at the caryard behind the Cortina!
These cars came with smaller motors. I dont understand why he hated on V8's, its not like its the only option.
It didn't sound to me like he hated V8s, just that he thought this particular car wasn't designed well enough to have one.
The smaller motors, the 265 for example with the triples, were higher performance.
Wrong word mate... he wasn't "hating it", he just said, in his opinion, it was too powerful for a road car. Which is B.S. anyway. The 6 Packs had 275-300HP and were much faster than this stock 360.
360 produced 255BHP. 25 more than a 318, 20 less than a 340, 48 less than an E49 six pack.
Bucketloads of torque on tap though.
His private car was some European thing.
360 under steer anchors....... that's why the race cars had a significantly lighter 6 cylinder my 265 powered Charger was sweet to drive it was an E pack just a nice driving car.
It also has 360 degrees of bodyroll. lol
This was a great show in the 70s.
His thoughts on the power and performance are so funny today when cheap small cars are quicker than this and performance cars are now capable of 0-100 in under 3 seconds.
But there isn't a comparison in the handling between the modern car and one from the 70s. The problem was putting 300bhp into a car that lurched as badly as that one. I can't remember the last time I had to fight a car round a corner.
With crap brakes as well
@@chriswatson7965 Other than in a Centura the only times I have ever had to fight a car around a corner where when the suspension had a fault. Usually stuffed shocks.
but chargers were especially bad.
This car with the 265 hemi, held the bathurst lap record well into the 2000s.
Has anyone driven a Chrysler centura?
That car was also a widow maker in the wrong hands.
had the chance in the late 90s to buy this car 4 speed manual on my P plates, 5k I'd still have it now , dad had a 265 when I was a kid, my all time fav cars along side Datsun 260z
When I was 26 mum asked me if I wanted a Charger or a 260z for my birthday, as I'd owned a Charger before I said a 260z. (Project car) great car but in hindsight shoulda said Charger.
I had a '66 American Valiant...sure wish I'd has an Aussie Valiant!
Peter was the Carl Sagan of automotive journalism.
When every brand looked different unlike the rubbish of today all looking the same copying each other.
But compare the engine output of today's "rubbish" to that of the performance cars of yesterday and the word rubbish can be used both ways. As an example the 215 cu in (3.5 L) base engine of the Charger had 140 bhp /100 kW, that is less than a modern day 1.4 engine. The biggest engine in the 770 was a 340 cu in 5.6 L 4bbl V8 engine and had only 275 bhp /205 kW...
Nils Eriksen: People made the same comments in the the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s, and on, and on, and on. In the 2060s someone will see an old video of some car of the 2010s and comment how every brand looked different in the 2010s unlike the 2060s rubbish that all look the same. *yawn*
@@MrGoogelaar the Ford cobra produced 215 hp..it looked fast though.
Ever seen a Hillman Hunter next to a Mk2 Cortina?
1974 300bhp 2019 700bhp
who said the muscle car is dead!
He refers to struggling to control the car while approaching corners and "fighting the car all the way around....." Well, that's what happens if you push the thing called an accelerator too hard, or forget to put brakes on until the last minure. Master these skills and you'll be fine.
Love the accent and the cross over Aussie American styling. Must've been made after July 1974 when you guys went km's for road speed. Came of age in the 80's when they crammed the metric system down our throats in elementary school here in America. I remember my teachers telling me that when your 40 years old America will be metric. you'll measure in height in meters, weight in kilograms, speed in kilometers. This was in 1981 when I was 5 yrs old. I'm 43 and still using inches pounds ounces and feet and miles per hour. But I'm into cameras and know how long a lens in millimeters is in inches 25mm 1 inch 50mm 2 inch etc. So I'm not totally ignorant on the metric sytem. But why you moved to using kilowatts and Newton meters for engine ratings just throws me. Just say horsepower and ft pounds for torque please. Thanks love the videos keep em coming. Love the cars too like to have a holden 48-215. A Buick in miniature.
I got most of the same sub-courses back in 1971. Most everything in laboratory is metric, and most automotive as well, but many lawn mowers are still SAE. Canada regularly laughs at us, which they should.
But theres a quirk where metric and imperial dimensions co-exist on the same product: tyres. Metric in width and imperial in diameter.
I think some building materials are still in imperial in Australia.