Chrysler VH Valiant Charger at SEMA

The “Hey Charger”

In 1971 and 1972, Chrysler Australia built and sold a two-door hardtop coupe as the Chrysler VH Valiant Charger. Based on the United States Chrysler A-body platform used for the Plymouth Duster and Dodge Demon, the VH featured the same front suspension, but with wider front fenders and a wider rear axle than United States A-body cars that gave a more muscular appearance.  Chrysler Australia advertising used the tag line "Hey Charger!"

  

Owner Mario Ciarrocchi bought this car in 1986 as a 17-year old and through the years envisioned a full custom with Ferrari design cues mixed in with the timeless Chrysler design. Massachusetts-based Ben Hermance of Hermance Design made renderings then Mario enlisted Justin Hills of Hills and Company Customs of Taree, New South Wales to build his dream car.  The “Hey Charger” appeared in the Mothers Polishes outdoor booth at the 2019 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show.

The custom grille and custom front air dam show the Ferrari influence while the molded-in rear spoiler and valance improve on the original Chrysler design, topped off by a gas cap from a 2008 Challenger. All the custom bodywork including the custom bumpers is covered in Ferrari “Rosso Corsa,” or “Racing Red.” The shine is preserved by Mothers car care products available at http://www.mothers.com/ .

Under the custom carbon-fiber hood is the 540 cubic-inch engine that uses the “Indy Maxx” Indy Cylinder Head Products aluminum V-8 block topped with 440 aluminum cylinder heads. 

The induction is handled by custom aluminum throttle bodies on an Edelbrock Six-Pack manifold controlled by the Fuel Air Spark Technology (FAST®) EFI ECU system.   The jewel-like engine surrounded by custom-built black anodized inner panels, transmits the power to the rear wheels through the TCI® six-speed 4L80E automatic transmission.

The interior draws heavily on the interior design of a vintage Ferrari 365 Daytona with a fawn-colored Hydes full grain leather interior with black stitching and carpets, a custom dashboard and a leather-wrapped Billet Specialties steering wheel backed by paddle shifters.       

The car continues the Ferrari influence with Independent front and rear suspension, power rack and pinion steering, while the one-off wheels designed by Ben Hermance are reminiscent of  the nineteen-seventies Motor Wheel Corporation Magnum 500 wheels used on many muscle cars.

Built by custom wheel manufacturer EVOD Industries, the front rims measure 18-inches diameter by 7-inches wide while the rear wheels measure 19-inches diameter by 11-inches wide, wrapped in Pirelli P Zero tires. All four wheels are fitted with Wilwood disc brakes and calipers.  

Photos of the finished custom are by the author a proud member of SEMA.

Dream cars at the Petersen Museum

The author recently had the opportunity to visit the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles and we will feature a number of features from that visit in the coming weeks. Today we look at the ‘Dream Cars’ exhibit which displayed three dream cars built in the decade of the nineteen fifties.

Mercury D-528

First up is the Mercury D-528, built in 1955 as a test vehicle for advanced concepts that included air conditioning, “safety seating” and suspension. It was radical for its time as its original design used a cantilevered roof with no front "A" pillars and four headlights. The car rode on coil spring suspension cloaked in a fiberglass body built in house at Ford Motor Company. The unusual name came from it being the 528th Ford experimental design. Apparently the pillar less top was a problem as eventually the car was rebuilt with thin “A” pillars.   

 

Auto manufacturer foresaw air conditioning as becoming a popular option in the future, but in 1955 because the required evaporators were so large they had to be located in the trunk. This affected the design – in order to provide adequate luggage room, the characteristic hinged rear humps were added on the rear fenders, with the gas tank access on one side and the spare tire in the other. The hooded reversed retractable back window became a design cue used in 1963 Mercury production cars

In the early sixties the D-528 was sold to Paramount Pictures and sent to Hollywood where it was remodeled by George Barris, who painted the car red and removed the name "D-528" from the front fenders and replaced it with "Beldone" – a name selected by its new owners. The “Beldone” fitted with a number of remote-controlled features was used in the 1964 Jerry Lewis movie, The Patsy, (a loose sequel of his 1960 film The Bellhop) and appeared later in several other movies and television shows.  

The Zeder Storm

Fred Zeder Jr. the son of famed Chrysler engineer wanted to develop an American powered dual-purpose sports car with a “swappable” body which could be partially for racing. Zeder partnered with Eugene Cassaroll, owner of Auto Shippers Incorporated which delivered Chrysler products around the country and Indianapolis car owner and the pair formed the Sports Car Development Corporation.

While on vacation in Europe, Zeder visited the custom Italian body builder Bertone and struck an agreement to build the body for Zeder’s creation. Although the body took six months longer than agreed, the finished car was shipped to New York via the ocean liner SS Andrea Doria and when Zeder drove it on the streets on New York City it reportedly caused a sensation.

 

 

The car, called the Zeder Storm Z-250, was taken to Chrysler's design headquarters in Hamtramck in April of 1954 in the car of his uncle, who was Chrysler’s Chief Engineer. The Chrysler Corporation kept the car powered by a 260 horsepower Dodge ‘Red Ram’ Hemi V-8 with other MoPar components that included the brakes, radiators, clutch, fuel tank, rear axle, and steering system for two years, but ultimately decided the car was too expensive to manufacture and returned it to Fred Zeder who drove it for many years.

 

 

 

The Storm Z-250 concept of American power and Italian bodywork was later still pursued by Cassaroll who later financed the 315-cubic inch Chrysler V-8 powered Dual Ghia with bodywork fabricated by the Italian coach builder Ghia. The Dual Ghia passenger car debuted in 1954, but although it a number of Hollywood actors Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden Desi Arnaz and Ronald Reagan each owned, the Dual Ghia ceased production in 1958 with just over 100 cars built which proved Chrysler’s decision on viability of the Zeder Z-250 Storm as correct.

Plymouth Explorer

 

 

Beginning in 1950 and continuing through the nineteen fifties, the Chrysler Corporation paired with Turin body builder Ghia to create two dozen drivable dream cars with hand built custom bodies.  The 1954 Plymouth Explorer coupe rides on a 114 inch wheelbase 1953 Plymouth Cranbrook chassis powered by a “Powerflow Six” a 110-horsepower 230-cubic inch 6-cylinder engine coupled to a HyDrive semi-automatic transmission; the driver only used the clutch to put the car in gear.

 

 

 

The attractive two-seat Explorer is finished in a brilliant metallic green paint with the bucket seat interior was covered with white leather with fitted luggage behind the seats. The “spear” on the sides of the car is not chrome; rather it is painted white to match the interior.  The last of the Italian bodied specials was the Chrysler “Norseman” was a four-seat fastback coupe built by Ghia. The concept car was lost (ironically) during the sinking of the ocean liner SS Andrea Doria in July 1956.

Due to cost, concept cars have lost favor among automotive manufacturers, but concept cars are still alive in the minds of dreamers, such as this radical futuristic race car model displayed in the Auto Center College of Design workshop inside the Petersen Automotive Museum. Could we see something like this car on race tracks in the near future?    

 

 

All photos by the author

The forgotten marque- the 1928 Whippet

 

In 1908 Elmira New York Overland automobile dealer John North Willys (pronounced Will-is) bought the struggling Indianapolis, Indiana Overland factory and quickly turned the company’s fortunes around around. The following year Willys purchased the Marion Motor Car Company from Marion Ohio and the bankrupt Pope-Toledo Motor Car Co. in Toledo, Ohio and consolidated the base of operations for his Willys-Overland Motor Company in Toledo.

In 1913, Willys acquired the license to build Charles Knight's sleeve-valve engine which was used in cars that bore the Willys-Knight nameplate. With his diverse line of automobiles in the period from 1912 to 1918, Willys-Overland became the second-largest producer of automobiles in the United States after Ford Motor Company. In 1925, John Willys bought out the Stearns Company of Cleveland and added the Stearns-Knight luxury car to his array of offerings.

 

 

 

In 1926 John N. Willys discontinued sales of cars with the Overland nameplate, and introduced a new economical type of car which he called the Whippet, after a mid-sized breed of racing dog smaller than a greyhound often called "the poor man's racehorse."  The 1927 Overland-Whippet was introduced to the American public on June 26 1926, and later in Britain, Canada and Australia. The Whippet was powered by a four-cylinder side-valve engine that displaced 134 cubic inches and produced 31 horsepower, which was plenty of power as the largest Whippet, the 12-foot long sedan, weighed little more than a ton.

 

 

The new Whippet featured 4-wheel brakes, a rear fuel tank, ‘Chadwick type” replaceable main engine bearings, Tryon spring shackles, water pump cooling and pressurized oil lubrication - all features not included on the Ford Model T. Whippet advertising touted the car’s European styling of a compact (100-inch wheelbase) yet roomy body, to combine good looks with good performance, handling, and economy. Early Whippet magazine advertisements quoted John Willys “Never before such beauty and quality for so little money.”  

 

 

The 1928 Whippet Model 96 such as the one on display at the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum (WAAAM) in Hood River Oregon was offered in one of six body styles.  The low-price leader was the “touring car” a phaeton style body with a canvas top but no side windows which sold from the factory for $455.

 

 

Next up the Whippet price ladder came the roadster with rumble seat for $525, then the enclosed coupe and coach body styles which each sold for $535. The stylish Whippet Cabriolet Coupe (convertible) sold for $545 and the Model 96 passenger car line was topped by the four-door sedan as shown at WAAAM which sold for $585.   

 

 

Whippets were advertised as fast, durable, and economical and the factory proved that to the car-buying public with a number of performance tests. Best known is the effort of famed long-distance driver Erwin George “Cannon Ball” Baker who drove a Whippet touring car from Los Angeles to New York in late 1926. Baker who drove in the 1922 Indianapolis ‘500,’ covered the distance of 3,539.8 miles in 14 ½ days under the close observation of AAA (American Automobile Association) officials.

The test began with Carl Laemmle Junior, assistant manager of the Universal Picture Corporation witnessing the start at midnight on November 26 1926. A motorcycle escort led Baker and his official AAA ride-along observer, pioneering early race car driver Joe Nikrent (veteran of the 1913 Indianapolis 500), out of Los Angeles.  Baker and Nikrent followed the Southern transcontinental highway route as they passed through Arizona, New Mexico through El Paso and Dallas. Texas, then headed north to Memphis and Indianapolis and finally east in snowy weather through Philadelphia to the finish in New York City.

George Lewis, the Universal Pictures western silent film star and John N. Willys welcomed the pair at the end of the grueling economy test at noon on December 10 1926.  The Whippet touring car used 82 ¼ gallons of gasoline for the trip with an average fuel consumption of 43.28 miles to the gallon (MPG) which exceeded the advertised fuel economy of the Whippet by 13.28 MPG. At one point during the trip on December 1st between Sweetwater and Dallas Texas the Whippet’s fuel mileage peaked at the remarkable rate of 53.6 MPG.

110,344 Whippets were sold during the 1927 model year, and for the 1928 model year sales nearly doubled despite the introduction in late 1927 of the all-new Ford Model A. During 1928 Whippet added a 40 horsepower 178-cubic inch six-cylinder powered model, known as the Model 98, which sold alongside the four-cylinder model.  Sales continued to be strong and Willys-Overland ended 1929 in third place in US car sales behind Ford and Chevrolet.

As the Great Depression deepened, Willys-Overland discontinued the Whippet nameplate in the United States at the end of the 1930 model year after just four model years in favor of the Willys Six and Willy Eight.  The company staved off its creditors until World War II during which it built 363,000 “Jeeps” and returned to profitability. For the first few years after the war, Willys-Overland chose to concentrate on Jeeps and Jeep-based vehicles instead of passenger cars.  

In 1953, a subsidiary of the upstart car manufacturer Kaiser Manufacturing Corporation purchased the assets of Willys-Overland and changed its name to Willys Motors Incorporated.  U.S. production of Kaiser and Willys passenger cars ceased during 1955, but he company continued Jeep production and changed its name to Kaiser-Jeep in 1963.  Kaiser-Jeep was sold to American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1970 as Kaiser Industries finally left the automobile business.  Chrysler Corporation purchased AMC and the Jeep nameplate in 1987; now a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) Jeep vehicles continues to be built in Toledo.