As 2022 came to a close, I had received an invite to a New Year’s Eve party for the first time in several years. The pandemic was still very much a concern as 2020 wrapped up, and while my social media news feeds made me aware of a few gatherings taking place to ring in 2021, there was nowhere near the amount of partying going on at that time as there had been in years past. At the end of 2021, the Omicron variant had reared its ugly head, which I’m sure had put the kibosh on the NYE plans of many. The end of 2022 just over a couple of weeks ago seemed like the first “normal” year-end since 2019. A lot can happen in three years.
Marketing gave the illustrated test Valiant a tough, durable appearance…
which was not dissimilar from that of our featured car.
Following a voluntary decision to initially take a break from alcohol back in February of 2020, this eventually morphed into the decision to cut it loose on a permanent basis, as I’ve made reference to a few times here at CC. Even though my alcohol consumption had previously been limited to only weekends and holidays (almost exclusively), it didn’t take too long for me to find all the intrinsic benefits of complete abstinence, none the least of which was more money in my pocket. Drinking isn’t a problem until it becomes a problem, as it has been said. Before you stop reading, understand that this isn’t about me drink-shaming anyone or advocating for a second wave of prohibition. I love being around my friends, whether they drink alcohol or not, and I find value in those social interactions. You do you.
As previously spotted in Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois. Sunday, October 25, 2009.
There’s that whole period after you’ve made a life decision like quitting alcohol where you and your friends are feeling each other out. Have you talked to Joe lately? Is he going to be all intense and weird now that he’s not drinking anymore? This goes both ways, as I’ve had to evaluate if I would be able to handle being around certain individuals absent a certain level of intoxication to make their personalities more palatable. (Life lesson: If this is ever the case, you don’t need such people around you. Show them the door.)
I also didn’t want to come across as someone who was “repenting” of all the good times I had ever had while imbibing at bars with friends. I’m sure I’ve made mention of a few of those nights even here at CC. Even while on my Las Vegas vacations (sober) during the past couple of years with some of my oldest friends, we’ll still occasionally laugh so hard at some of our old adventures that I’ve come close to snorting my mocktail out of my nostrils in a burst of laughter. Nowadays, though, an accurate distillation of where I am at present is a much calmer, toned-down place that’s still full of fun, adventure, and contentment.
It took bravery to declutter certain aspects of my social life, risking exclusion, and to stick with those decisions, not knowing how those around me at the time would react to my new choices. I needn’t have worried. Some people fell away, and it didn’t take too long to figure out which individuals had wanted me around only as a party-pal. My social circle did get smaller, for sure, but the quality of those remaining relationships improved or deepened in ways I hadn’t fully anticipated at the beginning of that process.
Roughly three years ago, I had written about how the ’62 Plymouth Valiant appeared to be doing too much. Hidden under that wild, out-there styling was a package that was well-engineered, reliable, likable, and efficient. Even after my fourth or fifth shot of Jameson, I was still a really nice guy. Honest. Empaths make the best drinking partners because we care and listen, and everybody in the bar has got a story. It’s why many people drink.
Enter the second-generation ’63 Valiant, radically toned down, on a 106-inch wheelbase that was half an inch shorter than the outgoing model. It featured a much more rectilinear shape and details than the curvy, first-generation “Forward Look” cars. Powerplants were carried over, with two Slant Six engines displacing 170 and 225 cubes, rated at 101 and 145 horsepower, respectively. Both the standard manual transmission and optional TorqueFlite automatic had three forward gears. Our featured car is one of about 30,900 top-line Valiant Signet 200 hardtop coupes sold that year, representing about 13.7% of total production.
Buyers responded well to the new, more minimalist ’63 design to the tune of just over 225,000 units, up 43% (~67,900) from the prior year. Even if the outgoing Valiant was in its third year by ’62, increased sales of 251,000 for ’64 showed that the new model’s popularity was no fluke, aided as it was by the addition of an newly available, 273-cubic inch V8 with 180 horsepower, as well as the Barracuda fastback (23,400 units) that was still technically part of the Valiant line that year.
Coincidentally, Barracuda sales would almost triple for ’65, to 64,600 units. Though the Barracuda never posed any significant sales threat to the Ford Mustang, I think it’s noteworthy that ’65 Mustang fastback sales, at 77,000 for its slightly abbreviated model year run, were only 20% higher than those of the single-body-style Barracuda. Getting back to the Valiant, ’65 sales were again respectable, at 167,000, even with the Barracuda broken out into its own production numbers that year.
In a few, significant ways, transformations in my own life over the past few years have mirrored that of the ’62 Valiant into the more conservative-looking ’63. No longer prone to “doing too much” in social settings, I have found that most people have responded warmly to who, what, and where I find myself today, regardless of whether or in what capacity they had known me before. Even as I think about individuals whom I have admired, quiet confidence often resonates much more effectively with me than loud revelry. To my fellow “practiced extroverts” who know how to turn it on and off in social settings, understand that you have an ally in me. And to anyone considering making any kind of positive change in this new year, consider me the (imperfect) proof that anything is possible. Just be brave. Be valiant.
Andersonville, Chicago, Illinois.
Saturday, October 11, 2014.
Brochure photos were as courtesy of www.oldcarbrochures.org.
Of course the Valiant was never a ‘Plymouth’ in Australia. Chrysler Australia sold the Valiant as its mid size family car. Valiants were never considered compacts down under in Australia.
If anything, Australians recall the Valiant as being Chrysler Valiant. First introduced in 1962 when Chrysler Australian assembled them from Imported CKD kits. Later they were Built by Chrysler Australia from a combination of imported and Australian parts.
The last Chrysler Valiants rolled off the South Australian assembly line in the early 1980s.
I had to look up a few pictures of the final Chrysler Valiants just for reference, and I like what I see. Australian Chryslers have long intrigued me. It’s interesting for someone like me who was raised with U.S. Chrysler products in the driveway (up to a point) to recognize certain aesthetic similarities common to Chryslers in your part of the world. Reading about them at this site has been almost like discovering long-lost relatives.
And the Valiant arrived Down Under as a successor to the Aussie Chrysler Royal who was based on the 1953-54 American Mopars having some updates to the body with the AP1, AP2 and AP3.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-australian-brands/curbside-classic-1958-9-chrysler-ap2-plainsman-happy-accident/
Interesting analogy, Joseph. I guess my takeaway is that by simplifying the design after the first generation, the Valiant went on to a long, stable, life; becoming one of the stalwart cars of the 20th century (here in the US at least, and seemingly in other parts of the world as well).
I’m also interested in the 1963’s 5yr/50K mile warranty. I have to wonder what the role of this was in bolstering sales with the new generation car. It seems that such a warranty at that time would have been pretty inspiring for buyers…and of course pretty expensive for Chrysler.
Thanks, Jeff. And the 5/50 warranty in the online factory brochure pages grabbed me right away. Before seeing it there, I thought it had been an Iacocca invention of the ’80s during Chrysler’s resurgence! I can still vaguely remember the “5/50 Protection Plan” commercial spots on TV.
One caveat about that 5/50 warranty — it applied only to the powertrain; the rest of the car had only a 1 year/12,000 mile warranty. According to Chrysler’s own literature for dealers, the newly designed 1963 Rambler Classic (and presumably also the Ambassador) had a 2 year/24,000 mile warranty on the entire car.
If I were a buyer back then, the latter warranty would have had more appeal.
Here’s the relevant link, which I meant to include with my prior comment (warranty info in the lower left): https://www.hamtramck-historical.com/images/dealerships/DealershipDataBook/1963/63-Plymouth-comparisons_0013.jpg
Thank you so much for this. And I concur that having a basically worry-free 2/24 warranty would’ve spoken to me, as well.
Examining one’s one on a regular basis is a good way to keep one truly alive and aware of where a person is in life, where they want to be, and how the art of living can be modified or adjusted to meet new, or re-clarified, objectives.
So to you Joseph, I say congratulations.
When the first Valiant came out I loved the radical design, the snappy engine and TF transmission combination, and the fact that it had 3 speeds unlike the competing Falcons and Corvairs. But I must admit the ’63 hardtop was a really nice design as well, and probably more appropriate to more people.
oops, Examining one’s life …
Very well put.
People’s priorities change over time, whether we realize it or not, and sometimes it just helps to assess those things in our lives that can get us stuck in a rut. Easier said than done, of course.
And I agree that these Valiants are a great design. For a relatively plain car, they’re still interesting to look at from every angle.
And of course there’s this type of story as well:
https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2023/01/17/nyc-sober-bar-owner-cnntm-cprog-vpx.cnn
I always appreciate your insightful observations. I absolutely reserve the right to evolve and change as I see fit, which is probably one reason I don’t have any tattoos. And thank you so much!
Seeing the red brochure photo of the nice-condition ’63 Signet hardtop really gave me an appreciate for the basic goodness and right proportions of this design. If I squint really hard, I can kind of see that through the worn condition of the featured car (which I hope is still on the road, though I haven’t seen it for years).
And that sober bar in NYC totally looks like something I’d hit. I do still go to my old neighborhood bar on occasion for my mocktail like only my fave bartender can make them, and just to see everyone, hang out, and have fun for a little while.
I’m so glad I was able to renegotiate with myself how to just be there and not feel triggered to have any alcohol myself. I’m not going to lie – there are some things about bar culture that I still really enjoy, mostly the camaraderie and just being part of a friendly group of kindred souls.
I cannot look at one of these without remembering a 64 Valiant convertible that a guy I knew tried to sell me in the late 80s. He was a car guy who had enjoyed it for awhile and was looking to sell. Why I never went to look at it is beyond me, and maybe if I had my resistance would have melted.
I always liked these hardtops, but always preferred the details on the 64 over the 63. But good grief, those tiny 13 inch wheels!!!
As for the alcohol, good for you. I will still have a beer or a cocktail here or there, but have found that my consumption has decreased quite a bit with age. A 12-pack of beer can last for several months around here these days.
Within the context of the late ’80s, and without taking anything away from the K-based convertibles (Chrysler LeBaron and Dodge 600), which are / were nice rides, for my tastes, a nice-condition ’64 Valiant convertible would have had more style. And with a Slant Six, while it wouldn’t have been quite as efficient as the LeBaron / 600, that wouldn’t really be the point, right? It would have run for a very, very long time.
“…I’ve had to evaluate if I would be able to handle being around certain individuals absent a certain level of intoxication to make their personalities more palatable. (Life lesson: If this is ever the case, you don’t need such people around you. Show them the door.)”
Excellent advice, good for all social settings. If you want to amp up the fun factor, apply this to family. I shall leave it at that.
As one who also quit drinking a few years back, much of what you say is very relatable and true.
In regard to the Valiant, that ad showing a muddy one does appear to be the featured car. The qualities of these Valiants have certainly grown on me over the years.
Jason, I have to say I agree with all of this, from the first sentence to the last. N/A clinks to you! It seemed almost like a sign to me that I had chosen the right automotive subject to write about when I saw that brochure illustration of the muddy Valiant that looked like a ringer for the featured car.
A ’63 Valiant is probably as good a choice of a basic collector car as anything out there, and the Signet does look nice. I think we’ve talked about this before, but I’m with you on the “practiced extroversion” thing; my outgoing persona has helped out the “real” me quite a bit in life (and got in the way a few times). 🙂
Aaron, I like that. I think both the natural introvert and practiced extrovert in me are finally starting to make friends and coexist peacefully. It has been all about my learning to set boundaries and not feeling bad about doing so.
This is one of Virgil Exner’s last designs for Chrysler, and its uncluttered simplicity and clean lines leave me wondering how mid-60s Mopars would have look had he still been in charge then. Its nicely proportioned with soft radius curves rather than the sharply chiseled boxiness of the 1965 full size cars or the next generation Valiant in 1967.
I wonder when I see cars like the featured one if the owners specifically wanted to drive a vintage car, or did they just wind up with it after being passed down from family or such? If you’re just looking for cheap wheels, something like a 2001 Hyundai Accent would probably be cheaper than any Valiant that’s in decent shape.
I have a quandary regarding bars – I love the social aspects of pubs but can’t stand the feeling of being even slightly inebriated. I love the taste of a good wine but rarely drink it for that reason (I’m not a beer guy). Likewise certain liquors. Also, those social aspects diminish if other patrons drink too much and become annoying. There’s one bar around here I go to because they take their non-alcoholic beverages seriously and give me choices beyond diet cola and fruit juice intended for mixers. Lots of things I don’t see around here often, like the New York Egg Cream (which inexplicably contains neither either eggs nor cream) or the Rhode Island Coffee Cabinet (which isn’t a piece of furniture but rather a delicious concoction made from coffee syrup, milk, and ice cream). I go there as much for the unique beverages as the social atmosphere.
I have gotta tell you / confess that I had erroneously thought the ’63 was an Elwood Engel design! Paul N. very helpfully pointed this out to me in advance of this piece running, and I was able to amend the text. (Whew!) To your point, yes, absolutely – I wonder what else Exner would have come up with and what his overall design language would have been, had he continued on.
And I’m with you on that last thing. What I’ve remembered in sobriety is how much I had always valued being in control of me. (We can’t control others, but we can control ourselves, etc.) Like you, I really enjoy the social aspects of being out at bars, and as I had mentioned in a different comment above, I feel very fortunate that after a yearlong period (COVID-induced) of not going to my neighborhood bar, I’ve been able to go there sober for a couple of years now just to hang out for a little bit, see my friends, and enjoy my signature mocktail without feeling triggered. I don’t miss smoking cigarettes, either. That’s probably the closest analogy I can come up with.
I too thought the ’63 Dart/Valiant, as well as the ’63 New Yorker, were Elwood Engel’s work. Exner is often pigeonholed as the wild rocket-motifs-and-tailfins guy, but the ’63 designs show he could pen simple, almost timeless shapes that were more in line with the predominant ’60s aesthetic. Looking at these cars makes me think he didn’t deserve to be axed. (but then again, looking at the 1961 line makes me think he did).
I technically am an ex-smoker, but I only smoked one cigarette my entire life, when I was 13. Not sure why I did, but I spent the rest of that summer afraid I’d become a chainsmoker if I smoked a 2nd. I never cared for beer, though pretended otherwise when I was a college student to fit in. Of course avoiding excessive alcohol is easy when you don’t like booze, but have had struggles with certain drugs in the past so I understand addiction and how hard it is to overcome.
Funny, I was just looking at a 64 Valiant on CL and lamenting my lack of time, space, and spousal goodwill towards more old cars. Can’t take on a new project without those 3 critical items in place! Maybe an old motorcycle project….
Good on you for complete abstinence, I remain a frequent small scale drinker but have stopped associating with people who push drinks on me that were not requested. My favorite party trick (which I showed my kids) is to have one beer and refill it with water for the rest of the evening.
I think of practiced extroversion more like a hat. I can put it on when I need to and when I’m done I take it off.
Doug, thank you so much, and I also like the analogy of practiced extroversion being a hat. It is very much like that for me. Being more outgoing also doesn’t feel like an act to me. I supposed I’ve just continued to explore the idea that I’m a mutifaceted person (as we all are) shaped as much by my life experiences so far as by my natural tendencies.
Not much to say on the Valiant front, other than a really weak CC effect. My wife likes those true crime shows that have been popping up on the streaming services of late, and not one, but two of the featured serial killers were driving Valiants, albeit the next “librarian-mobile” generation.
As to the giving up of the drinking… I’ve said this before, but congratulations on making this life change and sticking to it, Joseph. Kudos.
When I was younger, the quantity was a whole lot higher than now, and I did like going out to the pubs and beer functions with my friends. And there were MANY. As a homebrewer, these functions and beer socials were populated by more types of beers than number of individuals at most times. One can only drink so much.
But now? Hardly. I much prefer to have a beer or whisky at home. And I emphasize “a” as in ONE. And this only occurs on a Saturday evening, and not EVERY Saturday evening. The irony? I have a better beer, wine, and single malt scotch selection than most bars. The trick is moderation. It will take me YEARS to go through all that I’ve got.
My wife and I will split a bottle of wine on occasion (ok, maybe once a week on the aforementioned Saturdays), but that’s more about the food pairing than anything else, as she and I both like to cook. Our date nights are much different than for most folks.
Drinking to get drunk or even just become tipsy has SO lost its appeal as we age. We enjoy (in extreme moderation) the alcoholic beverages more for the flavor than anything else. Would I love to brew a batch of beer again? Sure, but then I’ll have it LONG after its “best before date” comes up. I just can’t drink 6 gallons of the stuff anymore. That was a long time ago, in a youthful exuberance far far away…
Rick, thank you so much.
I actually really like the idea of a librarian-mode (love that! LOL) Valiant being the choice of a fictional serial killer, in that the Valiant has such an innocuous aura. There was this TV movie from the early ’70s called “Duel” where the protagonist played by Dennis Weaver drove a red Valiant. It was a horrifying, hour-long suspense feature, but both Weaver and the Valiant were perfectly cast.
And you hit on something with “as we age”. It’s funny, because after I had declared to my friends after a period of sustained sobriety, maybe a year in or so (I’m at 34 months at this writing), some were like, “Oh, yeah. We don’t drink anymore either. Our bodies just can’t handle it.” I wasn’t expecting my peers (or myself) to just “age out” of drinking.
I think Drew Barrymore said it best when (and I paraphrase) she said something like she quit drinking a few years ago because it “just didn’t serve her anymore”. Word to Drew. She’s just great, anyway.
This is the white-bread Valiant Americans were waiting for. The ’60-’62 was just too…exotic.
Exotic. Sure. Always a diplomat, Mr. Niedermeyer.
Exner’s winged potatoes were “exotic”. Uh-huh.
Paul, I just thank goodness for those finlets atop the rear quarter panels to give the beltline some linear continuity from front to back. Without them, the trunk area would have looked way too droopy!
Do you mean the PLANdemic?
“You be you” Great advice, follow it wherever you can and resist those who say you shouldn’t.
Amen!
My wife & I were working on staff for a small private college in SE Iowa when
we got married in 1978. Living on a shoestring & having decided to move on to California, I checked in with a buddy who ran the campus motor pool to look over the “left behind” cars that were informally under his care in the long term parking lot. The student population had a normal distribution across the states with a slight bias toward the coasts, but the license plates displayed a strong bias toward places that rarely experienced below freezing temps, let alone the sub zero plunges of an Iowa winter. There seemed to be a kind of reverse natural selection going on that left behind the cars that had drivers that didn’t think of things like antifreeze. Scanning the members of the herd that still had a radiator full of sufficient antifreeze, I quickly picked out a beige Texas ’64 Chev Malibu V8 2 dr, a Florida ’65 Plymouth Sport Fury with those Commando V8 call out badges, & a California plated runt of the litter baby blue ’63 Plymouth Valiant hardtop. A car nut coworker got to the Malibu owner in Texas before I could call them, the Sport Fury had a locked up brake drum, a little black sludge showing on the extreme end of the dipstick & a red puddle under the transmission. I called the Valiant owner in California & she was thrilled to send me the title in exchange for $25. She had parked it the previous fall & had expected jump into it again in spring for the trip home. After a new battery & a bit of futzing it fired right up, took us out to explore the west coast & served us well for years.
What a great story John Marble!
Having worked several years for my college, while a student, in the various programs that involved dealing with what students left behind, I was always fascinated by just what kids DID leave behind. Not being the kind of person who ever leaves things behind unattended, it just blew me away as to the furniture, vehicles, food stuffs, pets, garbage bags full of weed (some things were harder to figure out what to do with than others, I’m just saying) that would be left abandoned come June.
Sounds like you scored for sure.
I’ll echo Jeff – John, this was well-shared, and thank you! And I like that the $25 Valiant continued to get regular use in your household. A company can’t buy a feelgood car-ownership account like that. The Valiant was a truly special automobile that made a lot of friends by just being a good, uncomplicated, reliable, efficient car.
Very interesting ~ I find the red hard top looks much better than the white one does .
I miss these cars, they were great and were everywhere until the mid 1990’s .
BTW : DUEL starred Dennis WEAVER, not Hopper ~ Hopper was another movie great but *very* different .
-Nate
Right on – thanks for catching that.
One of the first things I did when I came to California was hunt up that canyon road and drive it .
IIRC it was the director’s first commercial success .
-Nate