1962 Plymouth valiant signet, KING OF COMPACTS
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- Опубликовано: 22 мар 2024
- Today on what it’s like, if you come to this channel to see the weird and different, unique cars that never get the time of day. This is definitely one of them 1962 Plymouth valiant signet.. designed by Virgil Exner forward look.
Really cool episode with tons of ads even a commercial
This car is currently for sale at Classic auto Mall Morgantown, Pennsylvania with over 1000 cars for sale when recording this episode anybody can go there and proves their inventory whether that be online or in person for more pictures directions and to get the scoop on this car, be sure to click the link below after the show 
www.classicautomall.com/vehic... 
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GREASE-The 4 Seasons
Congratulations gene you got it right out of the gate. I love that song I love the four seasons in general.
The Four Seasons didn't sing Grease - Frankie Valli did. Barry Gibb wrote the song.
I took it right from their greatest hits album Frankie Valli, and The Four Seasons either one would’ve been acceptable.. I just found out about that not too long ago. I also found out that red red wine was a song written by Neil Diamond, Neil Diamond wrote a lot of songs, as did Barry Gibb
Always thought John Travolta was the singer of Grease.@@LearnAboutFlow
People would be surprised at how many popular songs from one generation such as The 70’s were rereleased versions of songs from original written and sang in previous decades, good tune or lyric doesn’t just disappear
My college girlfriend had one of these which was 10 years old in 1972. Once we drove from western PA to my parents' home in NJ, about 345 miles. Even with 5 of us in the car she did 70-75 mph on the PATurnpike with no strain. Yes, as others have said, a 225 cubic inch slant 6 combined with Torque Flite was almost indestructible.
Thank you so much for sharing that memory =)
Unless you lived with this car, you have no idea how good it was. At one point I owned all of the early 60's small American cars. 61' Falcon wagon, 62' Chevy-11 2-dr htp, 62' Valiant 2-dr hdt, 64' Falcon Sprint 2-dr hdt, 65' Nova 2-dr hdt, 66' Corvair convertible, and I loved them all, but the Valiant and the Corvair stood out from the rest. The Corvair for its handling and exquisite forever styling inside and out. The Valiant for its solid everyday practicality and it did handle pretty well especially with some suspension upgrades and wide oval tires and alloy wheels. One tough little car and ours was the Black & Red like the featured car.
Thanks for the memories.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with these
I know. I'd still see some of these cars around in the 80s.
. . . one of the most underrated and underappreciated cars of the 60s . . . beautiful . . . driveable . . . reliable . . . a bulletproof engine . . . thanks for a great vid . . .
I love featuring the overlooked under appreciated, underrated cars that are just different some my age may not know about the cars that never get talked about every one and there mom has a tri 5 Chevy.. just like different
Glad you dig this video
Yes, it's easy to forget the REALLY BAD build quality of AMERICAN (but,especially Chrysler) products from that era! I remember when the first Valiants hit the showroom floor, with the WRINKLED headliners (they had REAL cloth back then) and "sealant putty" for the rear window glass that hadn't been removed yet! Ford and Chevrolet had MUCH neater cars sitting on the showroom floor!
What a beautiful car. I remember it well, being 81 years old.
=)
I also am old, and remember when a friend of mine's DAD bought one of these...at the time, I thought the styling was ugly!...Now, I think it was ahead of it's time!
Jay: first, it's amazing that this is your 462nd episode! You continue to do a really great job on each one and I'm always impressed how you've kept your enthusiasm throughout -- it really shows and makes your channel fun and informative. Now...the Valiant. I've always thought these 1st generation models were weird but kind of cool. And with the "leaning tower of power", they were extremely durable. What a nice example! And yes, I'm sure those seats (and likely the door panels) have been redone. Very tidy. And I'd take the Falcon and the Valiant.
All of these would you rather cars were in the neighborhood where I grew up in the '60's.
The examples that left an impression on me were the Mopar offerings because of the styling.
The cars that I recall were '62 Imperial, '64 Belvedere, '65 Valiant and the car I learned to drive in '67 Fury III.
There were other desirable vehicles too other than Mopar marques.
Thanks for the memories!
Cool car! I can see it’s a relative of our old ‘62 Savoy, but Valiant does its own thing. In the 60’s the owners of Falcons and Chevy II Novas thought this looked odd, but it grows on you. It stands out today. RIP Virgil Exner.
For style alone I go with the Valiant! My dad had a Valiant wagon. The style reminds me of my 64 Newport, at least the front end. Definitely an acquired taste.
It is definitely an acquired taste but once you get a taste for it, they’re really cool I remember seeing them when I was a kid and I thought they were the most hideous thing on wheels but to me they aged like fine wine… the wagons are super cool I saw one at a car show and I missed my opportunity two years ago to ask him if I could feature it for the channel still looking for one
My folks had a Newport, nice cruiser.
Sweet! Drove one all over Texas back in the late Sixties. That car never missed a beat.
I had one of these as my beater-DD in the eary '80's... absolutely thrashed, bodywise (the lower RR fender simply felll off one morning due to the advanced rust) but that indestructable six just kept on truckin'. I became adept at "playing" the keys af the push-button tranny to keep up with traffic, but it could cruise at 60-70 mph all day. I called it "Dogwaffle", after the custom of the first waffle being a throway, and fed to the dog; the second being the start of the Engel-cooked one, that's actually edible. It was a faithful little tank; I'd have another in a minute; I've grown accustomed to it's face!
Fantastic car Jay!! They sure had their own look!! These were made RHD (4 door only) for our Australian market at the time - almost identical. Two differences: we only got the big (225) motor. Also our dash fascia was different - & can i say more attractive. Interesting that if you had 3 auxilliary gauges, they were fuel, temp & amps (instead of fuel, temp & oil).
HI Jay - I had the Valiant's sister, a 1962 Lancer GT..actually my gramp's but he let me drive it.
That’s awesome. What did you think of it? That’s the version that I would really want to have. I think they look better. Did you have an automatic or stick shift?
I spun out one night, on an unfamiliar road, and a pine tree took the Lancer's front right fender.
I LUVed that little car and was always looking for an excuse to drive it.
Torqueflite transmission and it would scream!@@What.its.like.
Had a '61 Lancer Wagon back in the '80s. Black w/red trim and interior, 170/auto with a factory twin 1bbl intake setup.
Awesome Car and it went to a Good Home!
a face only a mother could love unusual, very different,but i love them for that very reason
Hi from Australia.. over here the Valiant was a stand alone make. Over here these S and R series Valiants.
Yeah, it’s crazy in different markets. They did all kinds of different things.
And, in New Zealand, for some reason we didn't get the R and S series Valiants .
I understand Australia did/does quite a job of upgrading and building high performance slant sixes.
@@danap2766 Yes, especially these days. And in the past , it was pretty common to fit them with triple sidedraught carburetors , which didn't seem to be generally done in America.
If I ever get one of these, that is one of the first modifications, I would totally do there is nothing sexier in my opinion then opening up the hood and seeing a six cylinder with triple Weber side drafts, it Has to have the velocity stacks as well I think that paired with a big cam match maid in heaven
The '60 valiant was well ahead of its competitors in terms of reliability, handling and power, another point, it was quieter too .
the slant six was a beast, unkillable.
I've seen 400+ horsepower come from the Slant Six..
One did the 1//4 mile in NINE SECONDS... Impressive!
I would love to do that to a car like this that’s actually like a dream of mine. I know it wouldn’t be cheap.
Do you wanna be really IMPRESSED?Watch a full size station wagon blow the doors off of a Camaro or a Mustang.THATS funny.
I raced a Mazda speed three the other day my Prius and I beat him and he couldn’t believe it when he pulled up next to me at the next traffic light he was like what do you got in that thing and I said it’s just a Prius engine, people don’t like it when you pass them in a Prius and they really don’t like it when they can’t catch you..
My biggest pet peeve when driving is people that pull out in front of you and they go slower than you were going or slow people in the passing lane people do it to me all the time in the truck they’ll pull right out in front of me and I can’t stop And you can’t tell those people that that truck will go through their car like a hot knife through butter..
@@What.its.like.those are the ppl "caught on dash cam"-RUSSIA editions are funny AF
Bought a 62 in 1964 wish I had it all back!
A high school friend of mine and I improved on a 1961 Hyper Pack Valiant in 1965. We turned 11 5 seconds at Fremont Ca and 125MPH a Bonnyville UT. He sold it to me after my Tour of Duty. What a sleeper! Never got a ticket, but the guy I sold it to was so reckless that the car got crushed. Great memories/
You went 11.5 seconds in a quarter with a Hyper Pak? More like mid 14s.
I bought a 62 Valient 200 in 1977 for $50, the first car I actually paid for , before that I drove a 63 Galaxy my Dad got from a junk yard for $35 {it had a full tank of gas and gas had just gone up to 75 cents a gallon}. My Valient was light green and wasn't a hardtop like the car featured here. Loved the pushbutton torqueflight, that car could handle anything a 15 year old boy with barely 6 months of driving experience could throw at it. I scraped the side of a '78 Cadillac from the back of the drivers door to the back of the car with the tail fin at a local drive in when the lady driving the Caddy just kept going while I was parked in a stall there.. The cops determined she was at fault so I didn't get in any trouble or have to pay for the repair to her paint. She did smash the chrome trim on my tail fin though. Sold the car a year later and bought a '70 Rally Nova because its cool factor, very important to a high school me at the time. The Nova ended up becoming a dirt track car in 1980.
A 1963 Galaxie has been my dream car for many years, and the thought of paying only $35 for one seems crazy. 🙂
@@barrycuda3769 My Galaxie was a 2 door hard top, white top, grey body grey vinyl interior, bucket seats consul shift automatic.My brothers and I went through quite a number of cars that are 'desirable ' now. At the time they were just nearly worn out twenty and thirty year old cars that rural highschoolers could get for cheap.
@@jix9 I live in New Zealand, and there will be lots of imported Galaxies here now , but years ago ,not many , there were far more Impalas and Pontiacs . I remember in about 1975 , on a road trip in the family Valiant, we were behind this big car with big round taillights, and I asked my dad what sort of car is that? , he said it's a Ford Galaxie, it was a '63 , and I was very impressed. I'd like to own one , but Iv'e got little enough space as it is with two Valiants, and I'm not getting rid of those .🙂
When I lived in Australia during early 80s variants were still quite common on the roads. I had a 63 valiant 4 door slant 6.
I had one of these in the old days, paid a hundred bucks for it and drove during my college years. It was a three speed on the column and it was a blast to drive. I would take this over all the choices you offered.
Awesome, thank you so much for sharing your car with us
Thank you very much for presenting this car. I owned a 1962 Valiant Signet 200.
The first-generation Valient's were known as, Road Toad's. That's OK, I've heard worse of other cars, and the nice-or-not look of any car is always subjective anyway.
My Valiant had white paint with a fully red interior. The video car here was changed to the combo red and black, perhaps an exercise in modernizing the interior.
Had a 1962 Dodge Lancer 170 4 door sedan 170ci with 3 on the tree, bought in 1967 for $350.00 mint condition was one of the best cars I had.
In the winter with a set of Firestone Town and Country snow tires the car the was a beast, plow through any amount of snow! Good times.
Sold the car in 1969 for $300.00, ordered a brand new 1970 Dart Custom 4 door w/225ci loaded, what a piece of junk . Used the car as a trade in on a new 1973 Caprice 2 1/2 years later.
Was the last Chrysler car I ever bought!
Hi Jay! Valiant! The Froggy car! (I don't know why, but I always thought these looked like a frog about to jump from the rear! I was a kid then.) You know, when you showed the front of this car, I was thinking darn! This thing looks like a cross between a 1960 Corvair and a 1959 Lark! Corvair around the headlights, and, of course, the Lark style grille! What really strikes me about this car is the NICE interior! Don't get me wrong, the Corvair Monza and Falcon Futura had similar seats, but the Valiant dash layout and control layout is superior! This particular car is gonna make some one a NICE family cruiser! And with decent mileage, too! You know, if Chrysler Corp., could have beaten Ford to the punch and put a sporty long hood short deck body on this platform. . . .history might have been VERY different! The Valiant dash has almost full gauges already! Just replace the idiot light with an oil pressure gauge, throw the pushbuttons on a nifty console in the middle! Just think about it! You could have had the Barracude before the 'Stang. Oh well, it didn't happen that way!
WYR#1 Even though the dash isn't as good, I have to go Falcon here! The styling is a lot better. #2 Well. . .I had a cherry red 1962 Corvair Monza in high school. . .never got it running, but it WAS a cool car, even though the floors were missing!! Would be nice to have a solid, running one!
Thank you so much for sharing that insight and information great choices
A friend in High School was given his grandmother's 1962 Dodge Lance GT Sport Coupe with the 225 slant six engine and pushbutton automatic transmission. The car was White with a Blue Vinyl interior. The car was 30 years old when he got the car, but just like new and only had 19,000 miles on the odometer and Air Conditioning. He still has the car and gets a lot of looks when he takes it out for a drive.
Thank you so much James for sharing that awesome story it gets a lot of books because it doesn’t look like anything else that came before it or after it and although they are kind of an acquired taste once you get the taste for them they’re really cool.. and I never saw one in that color combination
Beautiful Car, My Aunt & Uncle Had A 1962 Plymouth Valiant Station Wagon.
The Valiant and the Tempest were the best compacts of '62 by far.
I had a ‘65 Signet Hardtop as my first car and I loved it. Wish I still had it. Great video!
Awesome =)
The second series were really attractive cars. And of course, the power trains were outstanding. Ford's Falcon six looked like something out of the forties.
How the Valiant went from this dynamic car to the impotent sedan that Dennis Weaver drove in “Duel” nine years later is beyond me.
Government mandates for "safety and mileage"! They destroyed a lot of good cars with their nonsense.
As I grow older that era of Valiant gets more handsome. I had a '63 V200 not nearly as nice as that one . Beautiful styling on that car!
Aged like fine wine
Really. When I was younger I found those particular models a little awkward, but now I find them quite compelling, interesting how your tastes can alter over time.@@What.its.like.
First and second choices the oddballs 62 Chevy II With the rare 4 cylinder engine, and the Rambler American .Glad you found a Valiant after you done a Lancer. I have a couple of books on Australian cars and utes, the Valiants, and Falcons were very popular there.
I like the look of this car.
My Dad's last car was the Dodge Lancer version from this era. He actually did roll it, caught the steering wheel in the abdomen and nearly died, but thanks to an alert nurse and a good surgeon, he made it.
No standard seatbelts then. If I had a car of this era now, I'd install them.
Later I had a 1973 Dodge Dart Sport with the same 225 slant six. Tough beast. But it did have a weak spot. It rained a lot where I lived and a heavy splash from a puddle could penetrate the low hanging distributor and drown the ignition. I made it a cover from an inner tube and voila! No more drownouts.
To answer the question which 1962 compact I would want, it would be the Valiant, for certain. No doubt.
AMC Rambler American - Good economical car. Ugly as sin. Wouldn't be against it, but prefer the Valiant.
Chevy II - No hate, but 13" wheels and style looks cheaper.
Chevy Corvair - in 1962 it still had plain swing axles. I'd go for a 1965+ though.
Ford Falcon - like the style, but engine and trans were weak IMHO and they had more QC problems. Oh and marginal cooling system.
Weaknesses of any could be addressed in a retro-rod build. But straight OEM, Valiant every time.
Awesome choices great insight and information thank you so much for sharing your dads car with us glad he made it out alive, I to like the lancer GT version over this
Black over Red and a clean paint at that 👏👏👏👏👏
Chevy II ❤️🤍💙👏👏👏👏
Ramblers are good car 👍
Great Episode
Happy Motoring ✌️🤠
Basic HEI ignition, basic feedback throttle-body injection, and dual hyd. front disc/rear drum brakes. Build it just like that today and they couldn't build them fast enough to keep up with sales demand. I'd buy three of them, today. Oh, and give it a front sway-bar, too.
My first car was the 4 door Lancer, a 61. I got it with a slightly burned out engine and the 3 speed manual on the floor. Swapped the 170 for the 225. Ran like mad but would overheat in the summer if pushed hard. 65 MPH felt like you were really flying in it due to the low gearing. I kind of miss that car. I got 16 MPG and that is pretty darned good because I drove that thing really hard. I broke a clutch plate just about every 9 months. Great first car, solid but handled really well.
I love the styling on that car Jay and your right. no other car looks like it 👍
=)
$5 less than a Lark huh? That's some price difference
Lol!
Remember that the average US wage then was $40ish per week.
That is like a $50 difference in today's money.
My First choice got to be the Valiant just for it's sheer oddity, I have to say I usually prefer Exner's earlier work but had to hand it to the man he thought pretty outside the box. Plus I chose it because it has a claim to an important innovation first car with an alternator. My second choice would is a surprise to even myself usually I choose the the Corvair, though the Rambler and Valiant are tied for an extremely close second, just because I have to give GM props to make something completely different so out of the box can't help but admire that. Also as my way of saying Nader is a hack.
I have driven several of these - they are a superior vehicle - certainly better than a Falcon or a Nova. Even without power steering they are very easy to handle and with the torsion bar suspension they corner and take railroad tracks with ease. I have never driven one with radial tires - the handling must be even better than stock. What really puts it over the top is how incredibly easy they are to work on.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with these with us
You also notice the visible "screw heads" on the inside AND outside! It made it easy to remove parts because you didn't have "hidden" fasteners. For someone that became of age in the '50s-'60s, I really get nostalgic and teary-eyed thinking about those FUN days!
=)
I absolutely LOVE the original Valiant. Exner's styling at this time was typically unusual and an acquired taste, but to my eyes, the Valiant's typical Exner styling worked PERFECTLY here. Over at GM, Exner's opposite number Bill Mitchell was quoted (unrelated to the Valiant) that "styling a small car was like tailoring a dwarf." Yes, in a way he was right, but Mitchell always loved BIG and flashy. Valiant looked magnificent and expensive, certainly unlike the dowdy Falcon, and the slightly-less dowdy Chevy II / Nova. Ford was extremely reserved and conservative in the styling department, and GM's outlook was that you had to PAY extra for better styling and move up to a more expensive Chevrolet, or even better, to a Pontiac, Olds, Buick, or Cadillac if you could. They didn't dare have a car of this class with styling that could compete with a car in the Cadillac league. But Valiant actually looked better than Imperial and all the other Chrysler products of the time. I am not even a MOPAR guy (definitely GM), but the '60 to '62 was gorgeous, looked glamorous, and had some more interesting touches than the spartan competition. And of course the Signet raised the ante with a better-equipment package. It was very bold!
=) totally agree,
I saw one of these when I was 14ish taught it was ugly I just saw edsel and Chrysler turbine car for the first time not long before that ( I don’t come from a car family I’m a outlier, aside from my brother but he isn’t car crazy like me lol ) but yeah the most hideous thing I thought I ever saw than.. but now I love them I’m all about different and that’s about as different as it could get I like the lancer GT more tho
All of them Jay
Awesome
I always liked this car.
62 Chevy
62 Corvair....and I am a Chrysler guy normally....
Well done....kind of a cute car....it kind grabs you.....
Happy you dig this episode
The basic 4dr Valiant were are patrol cars when I was a MP in Germany (64-66). What a solid, trouble free vehicle. We fought over them as the alternative was the M 151. They will never produce vehicles like these again.
For WYR, it's the Falcon, and the Valiant.
As far as styling goes, I think the '63 was better, but this was pretty decent, too. I especially like the interior of this one. I never thought this car was as guilty of some of the excesses of the full-size early sixties Chrysler cars. This one is relatively toned-down.
I did notice there are similarities to the full-size '62 Plymouth, which was a huge improvement to the '61. Although there are those out there who would disagree, I don't think the '62 was such a dog.
19:02 I spotted a '66 Valiant for sale with the lower body literally stitched together with pop rivets and sheet metal patches where the unibody had rusted out the entire length of the passenger cabin, and the single circuit brake cylinder blew out when a friend was testing the brakes in the parking lot.
As for styling being _an acquired taste_ I would compare acquisition of the taste to the '58 Packard or the '61 DeSoto.
It was $5 less than a Lark Librarian 500, that's a decision changer!
My first schoolteacher had a 60-62 Plymouth Valiant. But here in Australia it was called a Chrysler Valiant.
Thank you so much for sharing that memory with us. It’s really cool, the different markets, and how they marketed things in other parts of the world versus here.
Love this Valiant.
Me too super underrated car
I had one, black/red in the mid-70s. Fun machine.
Sweet which engine did you have in yours and what did you like the most about it? What did you like the least about it?
@@What.its.like. 225. Only hate that I ever sold it.
I had a 62 4 door. It looked a lot like the one in the black & white commercial. 170 slant 6. Second car I ever owned. Wish I had it back.
The Plymouth Valiant was sold in Australia as the (1962) SV1 series (also known as the S series) "Chrysler" Valiant, not as a Plymouth. It was fitted with a 225 Hemi engine (3.7L) It was only sold as a 4 door. It wasn't until 1963 that we got the Chrysler Valiant AP5 Safari wagon. It was also not considered to be a "compact" in Australia, it was consider a large family car. By 1971 we were up to the 265ci (4.3L) (Straight 6) and that 6 cylinder would see Chrysler Australia out until it closed it's doors in 1980.
The Va;iant certainly had interesting styling - of the big 3 compacts it was said to be 'European' in design - you can see some of Exner's Italian leanings in there. More techically interesting than the Falcon, and probably a better driver than the other two - it got creamed by the Ford and dusted by the Chevy. Syill it obviously was a lifeline for Plymouth when the downsized 62 Plymouth bombed - a sizing and style mistake (never take lower model design cues and apply up market - GM would re-learn that lesson with the 86 Riv/Toro/Eldo 25 years later). First American car with an alternator. Made more sense as a 4dr - the odd window solution on 2 doors never looked right. WYR 1) I prefer the less radical Falcon in design, but the Valiant was a better car for the money. 2) the Corvair - with a camber compensator as my first mod, lol
My 1st car was a 60 Valiant. I was 16 in1966. Paid $40. For it. Everything dented but the trunk lid. Didn't look too good but that was one rugged / 6. Those were the days 😅
Here in Australia back when this car was introduced, Chrysler left Ford And GM Holden here for dead, if you had one of these it was considered a top of the range classy car and you had Snob value and social prestige, also it meant you had money, I consider this car to be the best ever Styled car from the days when US cars dominated in this country.
Great information thank you so much for sharing that
a great little car, practical and reliable!
For me it's no contest, I would take the Chevy II Nova over all the other options. The main reason is because that was my first car. Wish I still owned it. Lot's of good memories in that car. God I miss the 1960's and 1970's!!
Except for Vietnam and that POS LBJ, it was a good time …
If I had a Time Machine I’d go
Love the ol’ Road Toads!
I know a lot of folks throw hate at these cars because they are an... acquired taste... but I like the unusual-ness off them. I will say I'm not a fan of the two door version though. Something about the panel window, just looks "off" on the two-door. The dash in these is awesome though! This is also one the few cars I've never seen in the wild! Sweet little car! WYR: 1) ans 2) Valiant, but make mine a wagon 🙂
Awesome choices I really really want to cover a wagon one day. I’ve only seen a handful in my lifetime and I missed my opportunity to do one probably two years ago.
Modern cars have one big advantage over cars if that era, and that would be “ cup holders”.
Yes Cupholders are a big deal.
10:10 _Interesting_ is certainly a more polite word than I would have chosen.
The Valiant always looked unnecessarily complicated in every detail, could have been a lot cleaner without the blades and swoops at the wheel arches.
The Valiant all the Way!
Sweet
I like the Styling 😊
Me too but will say over time the very first time I ever saw one of these I thought it was the most hideous thing on wheels, even more hideous than an edsel
Always thought Valiants (and Lancers not far behind) were weirdly cool cars. The slant six was actually quite dependable- took my driver's in the snow in a 69 Plymouth Fury with a 225 and 3 on-the-tree. If I had a Valiant, I'd try to put a 225 in it, Hyper-Pak it or similar (see what I can find in Australia) tweak the suspension and wheel/tire combo, but other than that, some good bodywork and paint. A semi resto mod using /improving the original driveline.
Had one . Slant 6. Indestructible
Grandpa had a 61 with the fake spare tire on the trunk lid, slant six, push button transmission in black with red interior. I loved that car so much that my second car was a 73 Duster with a slant six. I let him drive it and he was so happy. He felt like he put on an old catcher’s mit.
Awesome thank you so much for sharing your grandpa’s cars with us and those memories
17:57 Retrofit dual master cylinder.
Among US car makes, only Cadillac and Rambler offered dual circuit brakes in '62, with Studebaker offering dual circuit braking standard on their four-wheel drum-equipped cars from '63 to end of production and the rest of the "big three" dragged kicking and screaming into the dual circuit brake systems by federal regulations in model year 1967.
These do have that, so unique, that they're cool look, to me. I could just tell from looking, that the seats are really comfortable. It looks sparse, but efficient inside, and that is in some way really appealing to me. I do like the Falcons, but would rather have the '63 Sprint in that, so I'd go with the Valiant, in both scenarios. 😎
Sweet choices
When I first saw this car at a car show at about 12 years old, I thought it was the most hideous thing on wheels but I’ve grown to appreciate them to the point that I might buy one one day. The seats are really comfortable.
Lee Petty won the 1961 Daytona compact division in a Valiant at an average speed of 84 mph. It’s worth noting Valiants were the only cars offering a competition engine package while most of the others came stock with some coming directly from dealership floors.
Great information
Don’t kid yourself - you look like King Kong in that back seat
Hahaha
9:45 The stamped ridge in the roof panel appears to be a second drip rail limiting the roof runoff over the doors and windows.
The third taillight is aftermarket. They weren't required in 1962. Likewise, the dual brake master cylinder was probably aftermarket. If I had an old car to restore, the first thing that I would do would be to add a dual brake master cylinder for safety. That, and seat belts. This car looks like it has been well taken care of.
Thank you so much for sharing that added information. I found it weird that it was back there but somebody might’ve added it so people could see him stopped. There’s a lot of distracted drivers nowadays.
I had a '62 V200 with the 225 and the 3 speed stab-o-matic transmission. Wonderful car.
Thank you so much for sharing your car with us
I always thought these were odd-looking but not offensive. The dash is cool though. They were good, reliable economy cars. I love the foot pump windshield washer because you can control just how much fluid goes on the window. With my old GM cars if I wanted a short spritz to get the dust off it would keep pumping until its cycle was done. That FM unit below the radio is a Radio Shack FM adapter. You tune the AM radio to a particular station and turn the adapter on to hear FM through the radio speaker. I had that exact unit and used it in a couple of cars I owned. I'd choose the 1962 Chevy II and 1962 AMC American.
Great choices. Thank you so much for elaborating. What that was I never seen anything like that before. I just thought it was an aftermarket radio unit. =) great information
I recall riding in a red 1962 Valiant wagon while on a field trip with with a summer school. That car was in fair condition but in good running order, even though it was 9 years old at the time. My picks here would be the Valiant from the first scenario, but a 2 way tie between Rambler and Corvair.
I always liked the cats eye tail lights of the 1st gen Valiants. Interesting the first get Mercury Comet had the same cats eye tail lights. Maybe some spying going on?
I remember back when i used to work at Skips garage then i was a teenager he had a 65 Dodge Dart and i was looking through the owner's manual and everything was a opinion lol even the heat!!! Lol😅 that car has a lot of opinions Chevy2- Plymouth.
My dad had this car, but it was a black station wagon version complete with push button automatic transmission.
The station wagons are really cool I’ve only seen a handful of them
Black and red is the best color combo on any car.
And you gotta love a foot powered Whoopi cushion
Hahaha yeah
Sunvisors are normal size LOl. You'll get used to these earlier model vehicles. My favorites are a 1960 Apache 10 pickup, 1963 Imperial LeBaron, any Corvair, and '66 - '67 Impala/Caprices and Bel Airs. Others too, but those are my favs, though I have about 100 more that I like some not as much but some just about as much as these.
All Mopar alternators were large like that, but size didn't translate to power. Definitely not compact, but they were simple, using a 2-wire voltage regulator. Because of the higher electrical load, police-equipped Mopars often had the much larger and more powerful Leece-Neville alternators.
The Valiant, like some of it's competition, had weird and/or dated styling. If you were after power and more modern mechanicals, in a small car, the Valiant was the way to go. At the time, being new to the market for 1962, the Chevy II had the more modern and conventional styling. They were lacking, power-wise, giving a choice of the 4 cylinder(later to be known as the "Iron Duke" and a staple engine for Mercury Marine for decades) or the first usage of the Chevy inline 6, it was also underpowered. If a person had done what a friend of mine did to his 1962 Chevy II station wagon, he swapped in a 230 c.i. 6. An easy bolt-in, providing the minimal power a car like that needed. That new type of Chevy 6 eventually made it up to 250 c.i.
That little 4-cylinder was a joke in that car. If memory serves, they were rated at 90 hp (gross), and the poor Chevy II was slower than a VW Beetle.
@@Clyde-2055 Probably, but 90 HP in a small lightweight car isn't that bad. Would you rather have a flathead 6 in a Nash Rambler or Studebaker?
Remember, that little 4 cyl. was around for a long time, again, being reborn as the "Iron Duke" for Pontiac's version of the Vega.
Add a 2 Bbl. carb and you've got 120 HP. Increase to 3L and you've got 140 HP.
AMC and Jeep liked it until they built their own by chopping 2 cyl. off of their 4L 6 cyl.
The Chevy II 4 cyl. has been a staple in racing for decades. They got unbelievable HP out of it.
Don't laugh at a Chevy II 4-banger. Chevy would have had better luck with the Vega if they had used it.
@@automatedelectronics6062 - I didn’t laugh at the Chevy II 4-banger … I laughed at the Chevy II 4-banger in a Chevy II …
These are great cars. My neighbor had a 1961 Valiant when I was young. It had the same color combination as this car. That car could hold five people without too much trouble, and it would take them wherever they wanted to go. (Try getting that many people in a Corvair.) We used to go out at night and try to get runs with Ford Falcons, Corvairs etc. We did okay as long as we stayed away from cars with V-8s. If cars had V-8 engines, their drivers often didn't realize we were trying to race them, so there was no harm done.
Thank you so much for sharing those incredible memories 10.2 to 60 time isn’t bad for six-cylinder, and I’m sure you can improve it maybe with some timing in advance.. And a bigger carburetor
@@What.its.like. The car I mentioned had a 170 slant six, but it ran well for what it was. I wish I had one of these cars now. I might need to put front disc brakes on it and some heavy duty shocks, but it would be fine for running errands around town. Thank you for the video.
Too much chrome body highlighting, the earlier Valiant looked awesome with less and the trend of the time was finally getting away from the over-chrome era. Otherwise this is a sharp car, especially the interior. Under the hood, the 170 was a bit slow and the 225 OK but these cars needed a small V-8 which would soon emerge as the 273- the predecessor to the legendary 318 and it's larger siblings. These cars actually handled well and were engineered to last. First with an alternator, only us old-timers can appreciate what that meant as generators didn't put out much juice at low speeds leading to lots of dead batteries if you didn't drive much and only drove around town. These big old Mopar alternators went forever like the slant six engine, needing only a new set of brushes occasionally which were cheap; they never burned out the wiring like many modern compact alternators do. If there was anything under-done, that was the standard drum brakes which faded under heavy use, but the same went for all the cars back then.
WYR I love the old Falcons, but the Chevy II comes close. If the older Valiant was a choice it would have won. Round 2 goes to the American, even with the old-fashioned flathead 6. They had good build quality, were like a tank for durability, and were economical to own and drive. The 62 Covair front end looked better than the later ones with it's pseudo 'grilles' between the headlights. I think the rear sway bar needed to fix the axle-tucking problem came later. Again I'd rather have the older Valiant were it a choice.
Which one of those would I like? Definitely the Falcon. The exterior curves and styling. My mother's old 61 Lancer had brake lights and rear styling that reminded me of those horn-rimmed glasses my parents wore. Super-ugly. Later in the 60s and into the 70s, the Dart / Valiant / Swinger had that "square" rear end that TOTALLY repulsed me.
Although if I could have a station wagon, I would choose the AMC Rambler wagon. Not sure why. Maybe I perceive, with 20/20 hindsight, AMC's status as "the underdog" or "the little guy".
The 1960 was the best. The 62 was cluttered up
I’m so glad you’re not AI, Jay! 🎉 Great job with these videos! One day I’ll join the Facebook group too.
Thank you so much =) sometimes I get accused of being some AI bot and I don’t get it
My Parents Had a Valiant a 59 ,I believe ,A Few years before I was born ,My Dad also had a Fiat in the Mid 50’s !
Awesome =) can’t wait to find a 59
I believe the first model year was 1960, which would have come out in the fall of 1959. The car I learned to drive on was a 1960 Valiant. Loved that car!!
Valiant, both times.
Awesome =)
Where are you? I grew up in New Castle, graduated in 1960, in 1962 I was in art school in Pittsburgh. Eventually got my slant six in a black fastback 65 or 66 Valiant. That must have been around 1972. I've come to the conclusion that there were so few cars of this vintage here in Arizona because there was nobody here to buy them. Took me a while to appreciate Virgil Exner, but I'd still like to find an early Valiant wagon.
I’m from around that area I go to Newcastle pretty regularly.. it’s awesome to hear somebody that grew up around the same place, just like you I want to leave one day just haven’t found a better place to go yet lol
The road toad
Me and my dad are working on a 1964 plymouth valiant signet
Awesome
The Dart/Valiant cars became much more mainstream in the looks department in 1963, but even these ugly-duckling 61’s and 62’s were tough cars - generally considered the most durable and dependable of the American compacts.
WYR:
Valiant- Because they were bulletproof …
Corvair- Because I liked Corvairs, and appreciated the simplicity of air-cooled pancake engines.
Studebaker Lark and the Rambler looked very much like this... Frumpy and serious. lol Love the channel though!!! Keep up the great work!!!
=) this was on a whole another level as far as styling nothing like it except the lancer GT..
happy you dig the channel a really special Lincoln coming Monday 1932 Lincoln model KB Murphy roadster one of three.. I’ll have to check that but that’s what I came up with.. which will make it the rarest car featured on the channel so far
@@What.its.like. I love it! You do a lot of great research and practical things in your videos. Especially the fit behind the wheel portion. Lol as someone who's definitely a bigger solid guy I feel like this is very important, and not something I've seen addressed on any other channels that I follow. It's also awesome that we're close in age, and you also like the odd cars that are often unrepresented and not talked about. I would love to have a discussion on how overall controversial I consider Virgil Exner's work because some of it is genius and some should have been left in the drafting room.
Also, I would love to show getting in some of the harder cars to get into like I did an episode on a Ferrari maybe two years ago and I showed how hard it was to get in that car, which is a big thing when you go to purchase a car am I going to fit in this car? I have friends that are over 6 foot tall will they fit in the backseat..
And I try to show all of the body panels so you can see where the trim is if you’re restoring the car what the fenders are supposed to look like . Hood profiles and such
This is all I ever wanted to do and it’s crazy that I have the opportunity to do it ..
Would I rather? I rather the Studebaker Lark 2d 6 or V8. Not to mention the similar front design.
Great write in forgot to include the park I knew I was missing at least on other contender
The original master cylinders were tiny little 1-chamber deals.
1-Valiant 2-Valiant
Sweet choices
you hit this one out of the park. very,very nice car.i even like it in the color black. question 1#2, question 2 #1 or 2 not 3 ( i do mean not 3). please keep going with the odd stuff like this, great job keep up.
Thank you so much for the positive vibes. I’m glad you dig this episode. I love weird and unusual cars and I’m the type of person that when I eventually get the opportunity to buy cars I’m definitely gonna buy weird and unusual cars cause that’s what I totally did… the mainstream stuff doesn’t do well on this channel but sometimes there’s some really cool stories like the Hertz Mustang story.. another mainstream car I would really love to do the channel is a GT40
Great choices