1965 Plymouth Valiant 200: Regular Car Reviews
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- čas přidán 27. 06. 2021
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This is the epitome of "It's a shitbox but it's MY shitbox."
I mean that in the best way possible. It was the same thing I said when I was dailying my beat to hell 91 Firebird. It was a V6 and an automatic, one of the previous owners swapped in a weird dvd player headunit (that wasn't secured- just flopped around in the whole where the original ac delco one was) and half assed swapping in the seats and center console of the next generation of F bodies. But I loved her. She was a shitbox, but she was MY shitbox. She had overheating issues even after I replaced every damn piece of the cooling system at least twice (including heater core), and would need a new alternator about every 8 months. NOT a good daily at all. But I loved her, and it broke my heart when I had to let her go. I wish I was able to do with that Firebird what this guy does with his Valiant, but he's a better man than I for being able to persevere through all the bullshit. If I had more than one designated parking spot (or better yet- a garage) where I live, I would have kept her.
@Saint Fifty One I'll tell you right now, my 2002 auto v6 mustang was a shitbox, no doubt
This.
*contextual shitbox
@@nitehawk86 between your comment and name, I read it as "Celestial Nighthawk" instead of "contextual shitbox"- I guess I play too much Destiny
“Chris looks like a guy who dailies a ‘65 Valiant painted primer black” glad he had the balls to say what we were all thinking
I'm still not convinced it wasn't Macaulay Culkin trying to stay incognito
this fkin killed me
Chris was the type of cool that I could never achieve!
Roddy Dykes looks like the guy who says "glad he had the balls to say...", when it took no balls to say it.
i love him
"you ever take a dump so big you have abs again?" wife looked over and was like "wtf are you watching??" lol
I love that the Falcon went from "cheap as shit" to "coveted australian muscle" because of a single movie from the 80s
“The last of the V8 Interceptors!”
Just remember, slow crank for slow cars.. then they look really fast on film.
In OZ we loved the Falcons and were sad to see them stop being made, had 2 my self over the years and grew up in one
Running on empty?
I legitimately couldn't tell how old chris is. Guy looks like he's 27 going on 53. He could be a hipster late-20's dude, or an actual "I was a young adult in the early 80's" and I can't tell which is more true. All I know is that I agree, he looks like exactly the person who should be driving that car. It suits him well.
He looks just like a slightly younger version of my [61-year-old] uncle, except he looks like he’ll happily admit to being a hipster
Well if we take a reasonable guess that he bought this car when he just passed his test, he'd have been in his late teens, and that was 15 years ago, so now he'd be in his early 30s.
@@Scrubworks he owned a home during Katrina, so he had to be in his mid-20s minimum in 2005 - I’m going with late Xer: 40-45
Looks to me to be approximately 35-40 years old, which would fit the timeline well
He is 40, for sure. He admitted that in one of his 2021 video, trying to sell some male baldness lotion.
I'm really glad that the mentality of "loving the unlovable" isn't lost on humanity. I love the farm trucks at the place I work at, because of their coolness and their survivor-ness. It feels the same as this. Respect to the owner of this car for keeping it going while not overdoing it. Here's hoping he has the car and does what he does with it for many years to come.
Where I live, all of those old farm trucks have hitch mounted bike racks with road bikes on them.
@Jake Webber hmmmmmmmm lmao
@@trainman05matthewb.65 howdy Matt
@@thestarlightalchemist7333 ayyyyy
Any vehicle as old as this that is still around is lovable to me because of how long it has lasted. If I had my way I would take one of every car ever made that still exists, have the fluids drained from them and lock them all in a big vault so that people in the future could still see a real one.
Chris and this car were made for each other. It's something special when you can daily a 60 year old car for 15 years and it still looks like you just pulled it out of a junkyard yesterday. Good on ya Chris, you're doing it right!
Also, let's all tip our caps to someone who can keep a 56 year old Chrysler product on the road.
There isn't a simpler car to keep running. I bet even you could do it.
@@jeffsicklesteel1655 Leanin' tower'a power.
We had those in Australia- I had a 63 model (AP-5) which meant the 5th model Mopar built completely in Australia- the previous ones were Chrysler Royals. We only got the 225 which meant it was a supercar compared to the Falcon and the Holden competition. 1966 saw the 273 option- the first of the big 3 in australia with a V8.
The owner is basically Garth from Wayne's World, but with an even older car.
Wayne's World if it came out in 1987.
@@GoredonTheDestroyer but Plymouth was still a car maker in Wayne’s World, while AMC was not. So if they were to reboot Wayne’s World, they would pick a joke car from a defunct manufacturer that most audiences know about. But to be honest, producers would cast a 20yo Plymouth, probably a PT Cruiser, rather than a Valiant.
@@UmmYeahOk If Garth's car had to be from a defunct manufacturer in 1987, couldn't it just be an older AMC, from 1968? If not, would it need to be so old to be an Edsel Station Wagon?
This car was old when Wayne's World came out
@@101Volts you don’t get it. The car itself has to be a “loser mobile.” And not just a “loser mobile,” but a “goofy misfit loser mobile.” We are dealing with a 15yo orphan car, which by 1992 standards was out of style, a joke, non classic. Now they have value. In 1992, it did not.
In fact, it was such an uncool silly little car that in 1995, Goofy, himself, owned a 1978 AMC Pacer in A Goofy Movie. Most Disney cartoons drive generic made up vehicles, but they chose to have him road trip in one because it complimented his character so well.
I suppose, instead of a PT Cruiser, a rebooted Garth would drive a Pontiac Aztec, a car so unloved, that you could buy one brand new several years AFTER production stopped.
I like these kinds of cars for the same reason Chris does. Sure it's a tin can with zero options that's really only happy at 55 mph and it's a ghost ship of an economy car, wandering the asphalt seas long after most of its brethren had the good courtesy to rust away or be scrapped.
But so was the Model A. So was the 2CV and the Beetle. The average non-car-nerd in 2021 has a warped perspective of what Regular Cars were 50 years ago. No we didn't all drive Boss 429s and Hemi Cudas and SS396s around, but that's what they see at the car shows.
THIS is what Joe Q. Lunchpail dailied. This and Falcons and Corvair Monzas and Rambler Americans, with a Stanley lunchbox riding shotgun and a Dr. Grabow pipe stuffed with Carter Hall clamped in his stolid jaw. You only needed 2nd and 3rd gear because that's the speed the world moved at.
This IS one of the great Regular Cars.
FYI, the Valiant was made for only 17yrs, while the 2CV and VW Type 1 were made for 42yrs and 75yrs, respectfully. BTW, some of us also drove '69 BOSS 302s, back in the day! Wish I still had that '69 "calypso coral" BOSS 302 with the "sports slats"!!
19 years in Australia 1962-81 including just over a year by Mitsubishi Motors Australia.
Hey! I drove a '63 Ranchero to work for at least 5 years - _and_ I took a lunchbox with me! I was a Regular Guy and didn't even know it! But my middle initial isn't Q. My pipe wasn't stuffed with tobacco, either. How 'bout that...
Agreed. I am more interested in this than the standard issue muscle cars, for the same reason I am more excited to see a 90s camry wagon than a Lamborghini; as a regular person, I can relate to a regular car.
This is regular as.Salute
I had several of these and the similar Dart. When the wiring in my '64 burned up, I went to a junk yard and bought the wiring system from a '65. They were similar, but not identical. I laid out both on the floor of my apartment, and spent three days making the '65 wiring match the '64 wiring, with the assistance of copious amounts of weed.
Love it. :)
Those old valiants from the 60s with the slant six were awesome cars, they were tanks and ran forever, you have to keep in mind that back in the 60s if your car made it to 100,000 miles it was a miracle.
I dunno. I've never bought a '60s car with less than 100,000+ on the clock, and used them all as daily/road trip drivers for at least 3 years, usually more. Sold one at 280,000+ miles.
Cars in the 60s as a rule lasted bare minimum 250k
That's not true at all, my buddy has a 64 valiant that has more than 400k on it, it's literally the only daily driver he's ever owned at 50 years old. If you keep them serviced they are great cars and will literally run forever and FAR outlast any new car.
@@TheREALOC1972 Keep dreaming.
@@domenik8339 No dreaming about it.... The PROOF is right there. That car is 50 + years old and still has the original everything except wear out parts. Your NEVER going to be driving a Honda civic for 50 + years with 99% of it's original parts, GTFOH with all that. Your lucky to get 10 years out of any new car before you have to throw it away and get another one. They stopped building REAL cars in 1987.
Daily this for 15 years? Mad respect man. 👊🏻That’s love right there.
👍😊👍
Chris looks like an extra from That 70's Show.
@@colin-nekritz all the lamest aspects of it though lol
Bill and Ted's excellent adventure......
The shirt, jeans, and hair seem pretty standard 70s. What are all the lame aspects?
"You ever take a dump so big, you have abs again?"
No, but I once shit so hard that my back cracked. It sounded like someone hitting a tile floor with a broom stick. Felt amazing.
The slant 6 is one of the best motors Mopar ever made it's hard to kill.
That's what an inline 6 is known for in addition to smoothness, WITHOUT balance shafts...
Their best six is still the Hemi- shame the Yanks never used it themself- there'd be a lot more around today. Personally I'd say we were spoiled in Australia when Chrysler ditched the slant for the Hemi- it made the slant look like shit.
@@rossbrumby1957 The leaning tower of power is still cool but yeah the Hemi is the stuff of legend.
That car looks a Soviet copying what an American car looks like.
My first thought
Anticapitalistic bold eagle vehicle.
The Volga GAZ-24 from the 1970s looks a bit like this 1960s Valiant..
From the thumbnail I thought they were reviewing a volga gaz 24.
lmao
Like my grandma used to say "it might be slow but it beats walking"
@shafta99 public transportation is dope though
@@rybread1346 lmao you haven't been on enough public transportation
@@echodelta2172 I mean, it depends where you are. Unfortunately we destroyed our public infrastructure to the point that only a skeleton remains in most cities
@@rybread1346 it's shit even where i live in europe. i'd take the train to work if it didn't smell like last soccer games' piss and didn't take 3 times as long to get me there IF it even runs. the day public transit gets more reliable than my 30 y/o beat to shit volkswagen i'll get on the bus with a smile on my face.
Or as my father used to say: "Do you prefer a good walking over a bad driving?" :-)
Chris looks like a really good bass player who just deals with the rest of life.
accurate.
"Driving a three on the tree is like driving a fraternity handshake"
I wonder what would Mr. Regular said if he gets to drive the Indonesian market Mitsubishi L300 (basically a 2nd gen Delica that's produced for 40 years here) which has a *five on the tree* gearbox
Well I have seen a four on the column but five I have never heard of.
If you can't accomodate earlier systems with just two watts of brain power, give up and take an uber everywhere. Young nothings.
@@normangensler7380 whats a manual
“Young nothings”
???
Honestly, 28mpg highway from an old 60s car with a 6cyl is actually impressive. Slant 6 fans in the mopar circles always said with the right carb & tune a slant could do close to 30mpg, guess it's not so farfetched.
On the other end of the scale they can also make something vaguely resembling power when built right. Not near as much as a V8 (or even the Aussie Hemi six) but enough to be respectable.
I had an Aspen with the 225, and it would get 30 mpg on the highway, if my teenage self kept it at 60 mph.
@@Oddman1980 safe to assume it didn't have overdrive?
@@knote4958 Correct, it had the A904 three speed automatic.
@@JRSmith06 If anyone would stick WMI (Water and Methanol Injection) on this and advance the timing, it would probably be getting 35 HWY.
We used to call black primer “Jersey Suede”
And the duct tape was bronx chrome
In the 60s and 70s, my Dad used to see some old cars just rolling around in black primer and never getting refinished...
@@jimeagle1155 And the plywood was "Brooklyn Marble"
@@101Volts grey/blue primed 70's novas and Pontiacs are where it's at
The town I used to live in was Candor NY....the guys I used to hang out with told me one night "You know what a Candor Flame Job is?" and when I said "No" they explained to me "It is a gallon of gas and a match!"!!! LOL
I love the utter simplicity of this thing. It can literally be kept going forever. You can even make parts yourself! When compared against a modern car, the same is not true. Think about trying to find an ECU for your 2005 Volkswagen in 2055... Ain't gonna happen!
“Loving an unloved car, is like a bottle that never empties.. you can only put it down” as a owner of a 74 super beetle I drove daily for a year after buying running on 3 cylinders and vacuum leaks from hell it has turned into such a love after all the hell it’s put me through
Good for Chris. He like what he has, that's not easy.
👍😊👍
i'd listen to tame impala but impalas are too mainstream
You made me spit out my dab smoke in a rage of loud laughter and coughing. Worth it.
Primus sucks btw
@@cranklabexplosion-labcentr8245 hope you're ok that shit's lethal
My uncle had a 1972 Valiant. It drove for 30 years, even after the floor boards wore out leaving a giant Fred Flintstone hole in the footwell.
The one positive thing about this beat-up 1965 Plymouth Valiant 200 is that hey it's still running!!!... It shows dedication with the owner as well as the fact that this car has more longevity than some cars that are 5 model years old that already went to this car is a survivor and I will give this car its utmost respect. That slaint 225 cu in line 6 has more skin in the game than most cars out there..... respect it !!.
The car looks absolutely perfect. Worn and shabby. It’s a masterpiece!
10/10
true
It's the real thing
Awesome video as always! This one lands close to home, as I daily drive a small fleet of 1960s and 70s Mopars. That 170/3 Speed combination came with 3:23 gears standard, and many had 3:55's. Couple that with the small diameter wheels and they are pretty miserable on the highway. 2.94's with a taller tire and she'll roll at 75 all day long.
That 170 is just an amazingly sweet engine. I just got done stuffing one into a Miata. Actually fits in there better than you might think!
As I was watching this, I couldn't stop thinking "what would Uncle Tony think if he saw this video" and here you are.
Uncle Tony knows what's up, really digging the 170/Miata build UTG!
@@GeneFever Can say the same
UTG laying down the law like Moses
based Tony
Mad respect to anyone who dailies a 60’s car. I daily my ‘84 RX-7, but Chris is on an entirely different level. What an absolute chad.
I had a 1964 Plymouth Valiant Signet 200 with a 225 ci engine and push button automatic. I absolutely loved that that car and no matter what you say at that time this vehicle was great. No it was not the fastest or the most luxuriest, but for the the money it was the best car I have ever owned.
Honestly, it looks like the car the main character in some indie movie that got picked up by a major distributor would drive
Or a made-for-TV movie that had extra scenes filmed and got a theatrical re-release. Maybe by some new director no one's ever heard of, Steven something...
Three on the tree and power assisted nothing. The same option package as the '74 Dodge pickup I leaned to drive in.
It reminds me of the $200 cars people would buy when I was in highschool with the mandatory "Drove when I parked it" line in the ad.
Chris has a high appreciation/masochism level to daily in that beast. Congratulations on keeping it going.
My '74 Dart also had the unsynchronized 3 speed, dinky 9" drums all around. Forgivable in '65 but not by then. These cars could and would run forever, and for the same out the door price in '65 as a VW Beetle, which wasn't a highway king, either. The was an honest, spartan unpretentiousness to these cars, and Elwood Engel gave them a nice European styling with his re-skin of Exner's earlier iteration. The torsion bar suspension was better than the Falcon's and the engine was ten times more reliable. Few got them with the manual transmission because the automatic was so reliable and well-behaved.
The TorqueFlite was a world beating transmission and the Slant was a smooth operator itself. Made for one refined affordable family hack that pissed on the other two equivalents at the time.
Talked to a man still driving a 1960 Aussie Falcon and he said all wheel drums are fine as long as they're adjusted right. He said the problem is they rarely are.
My top two favorite cars I owned:
1956 Jaguar MK VII Saloon Car - $150
1963 Falcon Ranchero 170ci 6cyl 3-speed manual - $100
With gas at 24.9¢/gal and 53.9¢/gal respectively, it was like driving for free.
I think a three speed manual is perfectly fine for mostly around town driving. Little to go wrong.
We had a 64 Valiant with _pushbutton_ auto transmission in the late 70s. it was in average condition and comfortable enough, and a very reliable 25 year old car. Traffic was bad, so its acceleration, handing, and brakes were never tested much. It survived road trips and general usage. It had no cool factor back bthen, but like others pointed, was functional.
Kudos to Chris for finding his car and keeping it very, very real.
When I was in school learning to be a car mechanic, I was working on one of these. (estate model)
Rust proofing the floor, fixing the drum brakes and adding new carpet.
I realy liked it because of how simple it was compared to new cars
I am a simple human.
I see simple car.
I like.
Sorta similar deal with the Ranger I'm helping a friend with
The one he has is a 2000 model, but they hadn't significantly changed since 1993. So as a result, parts are easy to come by and it's _relatively_ easy to work on. Some things are frustrating, namely the oil filter and spark plugs, but overall it's easier than the 2013 Escape his mom also has parked in that driveway.
There are some modern things, yes. fuel injected, ABS. But where it counts it's oldschool. Throttle is cable driven, emergency brake cable is literally right there under the drivers' side sideskirt, gear selector cable is clearly visible on the side of the transmission without even jacking the vehicle up, etc.
This may sound standard to anyone with a 20+ year old car but to me, someone who learned to wrench on a 2007 Focus (where there isn't a ton of room to see all this stuff), this is all really cool.
@@TheRedCap tell him to slap in an 8” rear and a 5.0L 😬
I have to replace the !#$$%^ spark coils on my 2011 Suburu Outback. Holy shit! The simplicity of this car is beautiful!
You mean "today's" cars?
I'm gonna start introducing my Dacia to passengers as my "contextual shit-box". Thanks RCR! :D
Also, out of the economy variants of the big 3, the Valiant was my favorite. I live in Romania so seeing any American car was a big deal.
But about a couple of bus-stops away from where I lived, there was an old '69 Valiant in a faded turquoise / Green parked in front of a building.
It seemed abandoned and I have no idea how it got there (it had a DOT inspection sticker last dated '82, and this was around '99), but it looked so cool and unlike any other car that was around at the time.
Sadly, it was taken away when they decided to re-organize the parking area it was in, and it never returned after that :(
Friend of mine grew up in Targu Mures, told me about driving Dacias and Beetles and an old diesel Renault that puked head gaskets so frequently, he'd gotten adept at swapping them on the side of the road and moving on. Lol
I LOVE the Dacia Lodgy..
Chris makes me feel "Dazed And Confused" in the best way.
Love a 3 on the tree. That slant six - well, anyone who knows cars knows how durable they are.
Valiants were good little cars for the time! I had a 65 barracuda (basically a valiant signet fastback!). Was a fun car and I miss it! What a back window!
Chris is literally Garth Algar from Wayne's World: music attached, joyful dorky and nerdy looking guy happy to be in an old car chilling with a buddy... that's the best of life in a nutshell!
These uploads always come up right before my morning dump. And the length lasts just as long. Perfection.
Brownest comment of the day.
You should eat more fiber. 16 minutes to poop is not healthy.
Like you shouldn't eat just gainswhich jrs all day every day smh
@@reijerlincolnQuickly turbo-pooping is also unhealthy... for one's mental health. Pooping is a sacred time, for resting, meditative reflection, regrouping, contemplating one's next move in the day and watching CZcams. Also, in defense of constipation, the more difficult the turd, the greater the subsequent poophoria that follows it. Everyone should ensure their duce drops are a *minimum* of 20 minutes, the world would be a happier, kinder, more satisfied place.
@A H You, are 100% correct, no kids, and loving the slow poops.
This car brings back good memories of the 60"s. My sister bought a brand new one when she and her husband got married, and my brother had one in the 60's also and made a hot rod out of it. Back then they were good little cars🙂👍
This looks like the cars that would spawn in the poor neighborhoods in GTA
"flame vore"
From the Finnish american car culture perspective:
- Want a mopar but I don't have any more than five thousand to spend...
Another Finnish perspective: I drove a friends1966 Valiant, with a slant six and manual, in the 1990's. It was just awful: pressing the throttle caused torque steer and the steering had almost a quarter turn of play. Yep, torque steer in RWD car!? Also, the engine was the loudest I've ever heard. Thankfully, it was summer, not winter. I would've ended in a ditch in the winter. My friend reeeeaally loved 1960's American cars :) His other daily was a 1965 Chevy Bel Air station wagon, with a slant six.
I was quite happy to back to my East-German Wartburg after that deathtrap on wheels. Yes, I dailied a Wartburg for years back then :)
@@tuomashelin555 "A quarter-turn of play." Well, now I can rest assured of that, if I ever see another 1930s - 1960s movie where the driver's moving the steering wheel back and forth erratically.
The three on the tree is as close to a perfect anti theft device as anyone could get
You can park that in Oakland and no one, except maybe some old boomer gen folks, would be able to ride off with it.
Ya for sure. No one under 50 is hawking that car 😆
I had about 5 minutes to learn how to shift a 3-on-a-tree when a customer brought a 64 Econoline truck in for some new tires. Not that hard once you learn the shift pattern.
@A H My dad has a '65 mustang. It had a 5 speed stick to its 289 but he changed it out for an auto when he put efi in it for trips up to the Sierras. Only thing needs ironing out is the Brake system proportioning front/ rear
If you can drive a standard H pattern manual would it be easy to learn a column shifter? As far as I can see the location would be like the major difference
I love it ! Always did. I’m 77 I remember it well.
This video hits so close to home for me. I have a 64 Valiant that I daily drove for years. It taught me everything I know about cars. Lily was always a joy to cruise around in, cost nothing to keep running, and I always got those same three questions at the gas pump! Running out of space in the driveway means I finally have to let the old junker go. I don't know how you were able to so accurately assess how it felt to own one of these cars, but your assessment is right on the money! When my future kids ask me what my Valiant was like, I'll have to show them this video... and maybe hold back a tear or two.
You'll skip the bit at 11:09 when you show them though.
This was sold in Australia as the Chrysler Valiant. The Dart was also sold down here under that moniker. Like the Falcon, the Valiant was a car that Australia picked up and ran with, for longer than in the US. Still very loved down here.
And they're better than the US Valiants too.
@@dudstep yeah the valiant charger 🤠
@@darcykeddell4930 the mighty Val
The 1965 AP6 has the same panels as this from the A pillar forward.
I actually like the rear end of this American one better. The VC model that replaced the AP6 in 66 had a much nicer rear end.
@@jamesfrench7299 yeah I'm loving the rear end on this one. Those cathedral tail lights 👌
The “z-bar” is a piece of clutch linkage that only left-hand-drive cars got.
I thought he might have been talking about a Watt’s link on the rear end when he mentioned that. Thanks for the insight
If the guy bought that Valiant for a grand, and then drove from Long Island to New Orleans with just a broken z-bar, that car does'nt owe him a thing, it should give him bragging rights !
My RHD Valiant has a z bar
If a car has a clutch it has to have a z-bar, or at least a clutch pedal(even if a hydraulic clutch).
Mr. Regular, you have entered a golden age in your writing ability for RCR's. Honestly, this has to be some of the best content being produced anywhere about anything on any platform. You and Roman are gold.
The frat handshake analogy for the column shift was spot on 😂😂😂😂
“WHAT YEAR IS THAT?” Haunts me after daily driving a classic car for 2 years
Well we don't see old cars very often. We're curious about old relics.
I love asking that question because it's a great way to get someone talking about their car
I have a daily driver that eventually became a classic. In 2014, I had a kid ask me “What year is this?” I told him 1994. I later wondered if he was asking me about the car itself, or the literal year, as if I was stuck in my own 90s time warp and he just wanted to know where in time I chose to live in.
I dailyd a Beretta and got this question a lot. Its was a rusted out heap of shit, but it delivered pizzas just fine, and i drove it till it literally fell apart.
Me too. I daily an 87 Pontiac Firebird. I get the same questions too plus the most annoying “iS tHaT a CaMaRo/IrOc Z?
It literally says “FIREBIRD” In big lettering on the fenders.
I grew up tooling around in one of these in high school. In the 2010s. My buddy's dad had a fixation on this model, it seems like he always had two or three in different states of disrepair/restomod at any given time. Three of my favorite high school stories revolve around the clutch in the same valiant going out
This review hits hard. Amazing that no matter how shitty a car may appear, its journeys make its soul more beautiful.
I love my 70 duster, got it senior year of high school and have had it for 17 years now. 225 slant six with a cam, have a two barrel for it but went back to the factory carb to keep it on the road. Has a three on the floor with manual everything and drums on all four corners. Its a mess of a car but I still love it.
I had the automatic trannie. I loved that car, and wish I still had it. Reliable, easy to fix, so uncool it was cool.
Same story with my edsel!
I had a 68 with Automatic. I had it when I was younnger and didnt know how to work on Cars. Wish i knew then. Miss that car.
I totally understand this guy . It’s charisma, ya. It can be a mess , but it’s loved . And Chris is awesome for keeping it rolling 🤘
This reminds of my daily. People avoid eye contact with me when I drive 😂
Wow does this bring back memories! This is one of the first cars I drove when I got my driver's license at the age of 16... back in 1969 with my parents 66 Valiant 225 Slant six 145 horse three on the tree, manual steering and no radio .... the only thing I didn't like about it was that non- synchronized first gear. I got her up to a hundred miles an hour on the freeway side by side with a buddy with a automatic 6 cylinder 65 Mustang flipping the bird at each other... That slant 6 was a bulletproof indestructible engine and it was well maintained! I would Rev it up to the max all most all the time going through the three gears until the clutch faded out from burning rubber in first gear... I think any other engine would have blown up...
My family had a '63 Dodge Dart with the 225 slant 6 and 3sp auto. It towed a boat up Summit mountain in SW PA!
The "we have a Ford Falcon at home" starter pack.
This review took some turns that I wasn't expecting. These are usually fairly telegraphed early on, but this one added a new layer of intrigue. Well done. I'd love to see more of this.
I’m so glad Roman still has that Mustang.
The engine bay is as empty as boris Johnson’s promises to ease the lockdown
😂😂😂
Delta variant says Hi.
We're raw dogging the Delta here in the US lol. Our Government just doesn't care anymore.
@@_dmfd Hope you got vaccinated.
@@twistedyogert i'm not getting vaccinated, already had it and my immune system did its job just fine; that and it is still in clinical trials so i'm let lab rats take that risk for me.
Feels like I'm shifting nothing at all. Stupid sexy transmission.
I see the owner has as good taste in cars as he does sparkling beverages
Learned to drive on a powder blue ‘65 Valiant that had been my Nana’s - LOVED that car.
"When driving this car, I felt cooler than acing a test I didn't study for..." Sincere or self-deprecating? Tough to tell...
When I drove my son's '65 Dodge Valiant (a Dart) it was a self-deficating experience. I was so scared, I shit.
My childhood friends family had a white Valiant as their family car, in the 90s. It was weird.
Weird how? Trying to say they were poor?
@@ingusmant I feel like even if they were poor they would be driving something a *little* nicer.
Weird as in it was hanging in by a thread at all times and in Florida with no ac. The whole not having seatbelts was also kinda freaky to me at the time. I look at it with some fondness now, but at the time being sweaty in a car with no seatbelts weirded me out as a kid whose grandparents even had seatbelts added to their Saabs in the 60's. His Dad was a mechanic so it makes sense now as I'm older.
@@wreckingpress7080 After five years there's almost certainly something cheaper to buy and maintain than your existing car. It takes a certain heroism, or at least extreme sentimentality to keep an old car as a daily driver. That increases with each passing decade. Any family car that's reached 30 years is remarkable.
Mr. Regular,
You get so uniquely creative and passionate with your old-regular-car reviews. This was such a treat.
Trundle. I learned a new word!
"Ever take a shit so big you have abs again?" 🤣
Love the shots of swinging the steering wheel back n forth. I get this car perfectly. I speak "2nd gear moment". Good job Chris, defying the odds and making 15 years.
Talk all the smack you want, it’s still running…
That engine will live through the apocalypse.
The one in our Dodge Tradesman was burning oil at 50,000 miles and the compression in each cylinder would leak down about every ten seconds as it slowly rolled down an incline when parked in gear.
@@Bartonovich52 say what ya want it still runs
Well, good for the owner.
It's amazing how an alfa romeo and many other European cars of that era had about as much HP and were faster than this with 1.6l 4 cylinder
It's more amazing how few horsepowers per liter American cars made tbh
It's a little wack to compare luxury or performance models to the most bargain basement economy car niche in the US market. Equivalent European cars were typically making half the power and if they were fast in any sense of the word its because they were absolutely tiny in comparison. Small size is hardly a marker of superior engineering.
How many litres is this i6?
101 hp for the same money in the same era would be achieved with a european 2.0-2.2 i4/i6 usually
@@DrewLSsix and yet the luxury Lincoln continental mark 4's 7.5L v8 couldn't manage more than 200 hp
@@smittoria honestly it is
This episode is a masterpiece, from the narrative and emotional ties to the literal shit. Really, one of your best Mr. R! No sarcasm at all.
This is honestly one of my favorite episodes of RCR to date, still excited for you guys to do a Corvair someday.
"I got a '64 Valiant, a handful of valiums, a couple of beers really do me right!"
Wild in the streets!
I LOVE it. Engines that have sweet spots are wonderful. Also props to Chris for daily’ing this car. I totally get the “manual everything” desire. Same.
Watching you swing the steering wheel between 10 and 12 just to keep it in a straight line just took me back to my first car, a '64 Dodge 440 sedan. That thing had a real grudge against the white lines.
MOPARS would do ONE THING very well, go like a cruise missile for 1320ft, but when it came to the twisties, not so much! Actually "MOPAR" is an acronym for: Move...Over...Pick-up...Approaching...Rapidly!
Incredible review thank you so much! Your style just flourishes with classic cars.
Damn as a german that merch part in german was so confusing. I thought, I had a spam tab opened in the background or something.
Same here. i was looking at my Task Manager with horror.
Imagine how the Japanese viewers are going to feel when RCR dubs that ad into their language.
I love how Mr. Regular glossed over the Valiant spanking the Corvair and Falcon at the races in the compact department. I had an 85 Dodge Ram Van with a 225 Slant 6 and a 4 speed od on the floor. With 3.90 gears the Slant would push that brick up to 68mph. 71mph downhill. It got like 19mpg too. It was not fast but it would pull anything you hitched it to. I remember that Slant lugging like a diesel when I used it to drag an early 2000s Cadillac Deville that was stuck in park out of a grassy lot. I was young, dumb, and did eventually manage to blow that Slant up. Brakes went out and I overrevved the motor downshifting down a hill. Rod bearing on #2 spun. Put a motor from a Volare in it and eventually sold it.
This thing survived a hurricane, and 15 years of continued use. I love it. It's perfect just the way it is. I'm trying to go backwards. Ive driven a 92 chevy truck for 12 years (330000miles) I'm trying to start daily driving a 76 stepside. I hope I can continue to buy pre 1985 and just use them.
This feels exactly what the Renault R4 is/was in Europe. To a tee.
Chris seems like a cool dude.
I have a soft spot for Mopar A-Bodies, and the "Leaning Tower Of Power" inside. Glad that this one still exists.
This technically isn’t the leaning tower of power. The leaning tower of power is the 225 cubic inch mopar slant six while I believe this is the 170
Dear Mr. Regular, I haven't seen one of your videos in a while, but this one here tops them all. Your power or description, humor, and overall approach to your writing left me laughing more than I have in days. Thank you for a job well done!
These old Valiants are a big part of my family history. My grandpa bought a gold '64 Valiant wagon (3 on the tree) new. He was a travelling salesman. By the early 1980's, the floor rotted out, but the 225 Slant Six didn't miss a beat, even with 300,000 miles. He bought a white '64 4-door (with a cracked block), out of Washington state, and transplanted the high-mileage engine into it. While grandpa his this white 4-door, my dad bought a blue '65 Valiant (the 1965 Canadian Valiant was a US Dart with Valiant badging). This had a short life, and then we bought (for $1) grandpa's white '64. We drove that until 1995. There was a '75 Valiant that grandpa had, and then passed on to us. Mom also had a '79 Volaré for a while.
When I bought my first car in 2001, I bought a blue '68 Valiant 2-door post. I loved it so much, I bought a '69 Signet two door for parts... then a couple of four doors (68 & 69).
I learned a LOT about cars from my history with Plymouth Valiants:
1) Drum brakes SUCK.
2) Tell mechanics about the 'left-hand thread' BEFORE they start removing your driver's side tires!
3) A Slant Six will never leave you stranded.
4) Always carry extra Ballast Resistors with you, when travelling.
318 and a 4 on the floor would really help this thing.
Shitboxes are cool because the sheer garbage of them is charming. If you make it driveable, what's the point?
thats cool but the slant 6 is legend as well
A door trim and bend the other side of the bumper evenly first
with only the 4 on the floor is enought, in mexico those were sold with the salnt six and 4 in the floor, the only automatic Chrysler were the expensive ones you know New yorker and lebarons. the valiant was a direct competitor of the vw bug and datsuns who had 4 on the floor.
japanese and euro brans were in mexico since the 50`s.
-Mr. Regular: ..."like a Lions Club broken gum ball machine."
-Me: "Bows with deep gratitude."
Good memories. My sister's first car was a '64 Valiant (automatic transmission / no radio). For some reason it made a flute-like noise when starting, so we always knew when she was starting the Valiant out on the street. We took that thing on a road trip from Pennsylvania to Florida in the mid-70s. By the time we got to Florida the tired Valiant was sounding like a flute every time it dropped to idle, but it got us there and back. Don't be too harsh on these cars, they were the "grocery getters", they got the job done.
You haven't fully experienced a three-on-the-tree until the linkage crossed up and it wouldn't go into gear. Then you had to go under the hood, down where the steering column passed through the firewall and jimmy the linkage back into place. (you can see the linkage at 11:15, right behind the air cleaner) Some of those memories still give me a chuckle. I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Love them old valiants every year they made them indestructible very reliable and fun to cruise in cheap
They were the best "Winter beaters" because they were SO CHEAP to buy!
@@TheOzthewiz and super reliable
I’ve had about 30 valiants and darts from 62 to 76. They are some of the best budget classics you can buy. Reliable, parts are cheap, and they are fun!
I like changing cars, I’m that kinda guy
@A H A 55 year old car will need clutch and transmission repairs, radiators etc! A Toyota Corolla won't go 55 years without those kind of repairs. Some people aren't good with making repairs, but a Valiant is a car in which normal repairs are inexpensive when done by the average person - some people don't have the time or aren't willing to pay someone to do the work - sell the car to someone who can repair. You really shouldn't expect to own a cheap old car and keep it cheap if you can't do most repairs yourself.
@A H I'd like to have a Subaru one day, they have made the boxer engine practical. Well, I like the air-cooled VW too. I changed the clutch in my Valiant without a transmission jack, but a cheap tool from Harbor Freight is nice to have, which I now have. I drove the car on a ramp and blocked it up. Its not a difficult job on these old rear drive cars. Pulling the motor and replacing the rear seal isn't that difficult on a slant six. Think of the Valiant as something like an early generation of the brick era Volvo - not sophisticated but beloved by many. Both Volvo and Chrysler lost a market segment when they no longer could build simple cars anymore, mostly due to changing regulations, the need for better fuel economy etc. Boring but beloved.
@A H Americans, and as far as I know - no society in the world has ever considered vehicle rust to be a preventative issue. There have always been the rust nerds who used Ziebart, or swabbed cooked-down used motor oil on the underbody, or lanolin based products like Fluid-Film, but the majority of us just watch it rust away and complain. A home made cosmoline made from grease mixed with melted paraffin and zinc oxide is excellent - dries to a dark varnish-like film. Paraffin without the added grease will chip and flake away, the grease makes it a little sticky and more self-healing when rocks bounce against it. That might be what Ziebart is. I lived in Michigan for a year and I saw the roofs of cars rusting. The road salt is tough on the roads and bridges too! A lot of that salt comes from mines deep under Detroit metro.
From 62 to 76, which was your favorite year?
Base Model in the 1960s, it's weird seeing a 60s American car with so much Emptyness under the hood.
Indeed, nobody preserves base-level econoboxes, we forget they existed in that era. All we see are the muscle cars. Basically the only cars ever seen from that era are muscle cars, Volkswagen beetles and buses, and Jeeps. The muscle cars because they're interesting enough to preserve, the Volkswagens and Jeeps because they are easy to keep running.
Look back to a fifties flat head with an oil bath air cleaner. Two extra feet of hood just for the clearance!
Not weird at all, ANY American car with a STRAIGHT SIX will look like that. A FULL sized 60's American car with a six will allow you to stand IN THE ENGINE BAY while working on the engine!!
Actually one of the best 6 cylinder engines made in the 60s
Confirm I had one for years the definition of indestructible and pretty good power for an inline 6 of that era.
The things.
1. The imagery and mood created by the description of coming home with a bad report card yet no one is home yet absolutely transported me back in time to that very scene from my youth and encapsulates this vehicle.
2. I used to appraise/buy vehicles professionally and on an HHR I described it to my boss as a shit box that wasn’t worth anything. He asked, “How much gas does it have?” We bought the car because it had a full tank and wouldn’t have even made an offer if it was below half a tank.
Learned to shift column mounted manual transmission by picturing R at top left of capital letter H and 3rd gear at bottom right.
If someone can't learn to drive a three-on-the-tree, they must be uncoordinated as hell !
The full description would be to view the steering column from the passenger seat and visualize a capital letter H. The top left of the H would be Reverse (closest to the top of steering wheel and driver's chin). The bottom left of the H is 1st gear. Neutral is the crossbar of the H. Top right of H is 2nd gear and bottom right of H is 3rd gear (furthest from driver's chin).
Had this transmission setup in my Ford E-150 Econoline work van along with an AM radio and POWER brakes. No air conditioning in South Louisiana.
Good friend had same I-6, 300 cubic inch motor and column-mounted, manual transmission on his F-150 pickup. So of course we drag raced them one Saturday night on a sugar cane field road and I smoked him. That I-6 on my van regularly pulled an 8000 pound trailer on flat ground for 150 miles at a clip. I even caught it once running on just one of the 8 quarts of oil it was supposed to have. It was running just a bit hot in June in New Orleans. Ford could sure build a motor in those days. It also had to make do with a Chrysler radiator my father got from a junkyard after accidentally puncturing the original Ford one with a screwdriver. The Chrysler radiator was from a 258 cubic inch, six cylinder engine, so the van ran a bit hot in summer months with less radiator capacity. No problem - just turn on the cabin heat and keep the windows rolled down IN JULY IN NEW ORLEANS. Life was harder, but simpler in those days.
Slow but a great durable engine, solid lifter cam and the more noise the rockers made the better it ran. Don't pop the bypass hose, virtually impossible to change on the side of the road.
The popular saying is"you can't kill a slant-six. It's time-tested and TRUE !
At 50,000 miles the Slant 6 on my parents Tradesman was burning oil and had such low compression that the cylinders took about ten seconds each to leak down as it slowly rolled down an incline while parked.
I have never before.. nor since… seen an engine in such terrible shape regardless of years (up to 35) or miles (up to 400,000) on any other vehicle I’ve run.
If that slant-six had regular oil changes, it could have made 50,000 miles without breaking a sweat !
Pull the water pump for the 170 by pass hose
@@Bartonovich52 yeah I've seen the same. Plugs on the back two cylinders always oiling up, low miles
Valiant means all of that, all of that and more here in Australia. "Valiant" was really '61-'81 here and morphed in our market into a spectrum from the 'base model' to the 'luxury' models as well. Rubber floor mat, 3 speed manual column, drums all round on a 6 cylinder or big v8, auto, air, power everything, front disc and vinyl roof etc etc on basically the same wheel base for example in the middle ('71). throw in wagons, utes, panel vans, coupes, hardtops, lengthened luxury sedans......... "Valiant" covered a lot of territory.
I drove one of mine to work yesterday. I came home and watched this.
I slept well last night.
Thank you
My Dad bought a new brown Valiant station wagon, automatic and a radio, around 1967. It ended up parked about 1972, and was junked around ‘79. But it was fun because my dad owned it!