CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

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CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

Here are three CM Valiants I have photographed in the last couple of years still on the road.These cars are now a rare sight due to their propensity to rust around hard to reach parts of their body structure.The CM ,being the final Valiant model was built between late 1978 and mid 1981.CM was by far the best Valiant built with their unique (to Australia) feedback carburettors which were connected to an early type analogue engine management computer known as ELB (Electronic Lean Burn).This resulted in greatly improved fuel economy.Their handling was greatly improved over previous models as well to the point where motoring writers actually praised it.Something unheard of in Valiants.
The CM ,being such an ageing design sold the least amount of units of all valiant models,only around 16,000 being produced.
Despite a relative trickle of units made,Mitsubishi reportedly made a large profit on each one sold after their takeover of the Chrylsler Aust plant Adelaide in mid 1980 and they were keen to keep making them as long as possible.Engineers from Mitsubishi Headquarters in Japan even came to personally inspect the cars to try and help find ways to improve build quality and add design improvements.They included crimps in the bonnet so as it would crumple in a crash better and side intrusion beams in the doors similar to Volvo's SIPS technology brought out years later!Only 1980/81 models have these features!

This well kept looking one I took in Potts Point a couple of years ago.I saw it parked (outside :evil: ) there for a while before it disappeared.I spotted a rather rough and dented one like it last week.I hope it isnt this car :evil:
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I came across this lovely metallic brown example in Forestville in Sydney's North a couple of years ago.
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And this one I photographed in traffic at West Gosford a couple of years back and am happy to report is still appeared in superb shape when I passed it last Thursday!
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by STA 1440 »

Ah yes, the closest us Aussies will ever get to a yank-tank land-barge. :lol:

A car is only a car if it is atleast 50ft long, handles like a waterbed/ocean-liner, weighs atleast 10 ton, chews up fuel like a semi and seats a minimum of 6 people. If not, it's a pissy little golf-cart... :P :lol:

Thanks for the interesting read! :wink:
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by boronia »

The one time "Marrickville Mercedes". :lol: :lol:

Definitely the best looking version of that bodyshell.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

boronia wrote:
Definitely the best looking version of that bodyshell.
I agree but I like the looks of the VJ and VK models as well such as this 1973 model VJ Regal.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... 973_01.jpg

This body ,introduced as the VH in 1971,was the first entirely Australian Valiant.The VJ model above was sold in South Africa with 225 Slant 6 engines (!!) instead of the hemi 6 as standard fitment in Australia.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by leyland clippers »

The Valiant otherwise known as a "Greek Mercedes" or "Wog Chariot".Where' the pom poms and fluffy dices :?: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Herbert »

I thought the joke was about another ethnic group ... you know, something about Tasmania & Valiants don't float? !!

One of the first cars I ever drove was my mum's 1969 Valiant.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by leyland clippers »

The Valiant was around for quite a number of years. The R and S Series plus the AP5 if fitted with Torqueflite automatic transmission had push button controls on the RHS of instrument panel. When the AP6 was introduced the push button system was replaced to a traditional lever system located on the steering wheel. My ex step father in law had a 1973 Dodge ute which was a VH.Can remember when you put gear lever in reverse it was practically vertical.As far as i know it is still going.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by MaxHeadway »

Deanes 5013 wrote:The VJ model ... was sold in South Africa with 225 Slant 6 engines (!!) instead of the hemi 6 as standard fitment in Australia.
They were also sold in Thailand - you see one at the beginning of Good Morning Vietnam (shot on location in Thailand), even though it was supposed to be 1965 (dunno about there ever being a LHD version either)!
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by boronia »

leyland clippers wrote:The Valiant otherwise known as a "Greek Mercedes" or "Wog Chariot".Where' the pom poms and fluffy dices :?: :lol: :lol: :lol:
I remember many years ago, maybe in the 70s, seeing this bright red Cortina with all the "european trimmings" - pom-poms, dice, nodding dog stop lights, etc and a very southern euro looking driver; what really set it off was the number plate: WOG-001
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Andrew »

Deanes 5013 wrote: I came across this lovely metallic brown example in Forestville in Sydney's North a couple of years ago.
Image
Nice to see it has its original plates too.....
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

Andrew wrote:
Nice to see it has its original plates too.....
Yes I always like to see that.I almost got a beautiful white one with 6 months rego and LPG fitted with original plates for $1700 drive away.I had a dispute with the dealer over cost of detailing.The sticker said $1500 but he insisted I pay $200 more for a detail or I couldn't have the car so I walked!
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by GM »

Our family had many Valiants in every form, Sedan, Ute, Panel Van, Charger from VH to CM.
The CM was a very good model.
It is a shame that they did not produce the replacement model. GM
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Derwent »

Old Valiants are great old things...and the CM is one of my favourites.
My mate's old VJ ute had a 245 Hemi with a tow cam, 350 Holley, Cherger R/T headers, a Falcon 5 speed gearbox and a limited slip diff. That thing cost him a couple of grand all in, would tow a double horse float up the Southern Outlet out of HObart at 140 kmh (Hobartians will know just how impresive this is) and used to do pretty impressive burnouts at any opportunity :lol:
He wishes he hadn't sold it, and I wish I had buoght it off him when it was for sale...
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

When I was a student with no money I was offered a very straight looking silver CM Regal with unusual dark blue cordaroy cloth trim for $200 back in 1993.The owner couldn't get a pink slip due to a smokey motor with worn rings and was going to send it to a wrecker.It was a grand looking car :( .
I once saw a standard CM Valiant ,vynyl seats and all,with power windows!The owner showed me the option code for power windows stamped on the compliance plate to prove it came like this new. :shock:

Touches I liked with the Cl/CM Valiant range was the standard courtesy lights in the front footwells under the dash and the rear demister that would turn off automatically.My 1995 VS Commodore had neither.

The Chryslers really were a cut above their rivals.I even noticed one Mercedes E class of the same era using the same Borg Warner airconditioner compressor as my 1978 CL!
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by PETERGRIFFIN888 »

We had a couple of the older Chrysler Versions in our family long before these ones came out.

Brings back memories.

The weirdest thing was they sold these in much the same showroom as the Alfa Romeo At least that is what they did in Adelaide and the Colt and the Sigma.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by boronia »

boronia wrote:
leyland clippers wrote:The Valiant otherwise known as a "Greek Mercedes" or "Wog Chariot".Where' the pom poms and fluffy dices :?: :lol: :lol: :lol:
I remember many years ago, maybe in the 70s, seeing this bright red Cortina with all the "european trimmings" - pom-poms, dice, nodding dog stop lights, etc and a very southern euro looking driver; what really set it off was the number plate: WOG-001
This theme was noted again on Motor Way Patrol last night, they had pulled over an extremely modified BMW 3 series with rego WOG80Y. For some reason they chose not to blur out the plate.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Daniel »

Saw a CM wagon driving alongside me down the Princes Highway the other day. Immaculate condition with the ELB badge still displayed too. Had "Another Valiant still going strong" stickers on the rear windows, alongside what looked to be original "Sutherland Chrysler" dealer stickers. Top notch.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Frances »

For some reason there's quite a lot of Valiants around Surry Hills and, to a lesser extent, Redfern. Most of them are earlier models though. Here's a couple of the later ones:

Image

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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by AEC Decker »

Andrew wrote:
Deanes 5013 wrote: I came across this lovely metallic brown example in Forestville in Sydney's North a couple of years ago.

Nice to see it has its original plates too.....
Original sports wheels also.
Valiants and Dodges (remember the Valiant ute with Dodge badges) are very collectable these days and original rust free 360 V8 Chrysler By Chryslers can command quite a reasonable sum of money.
Rare 1960s US Dodges and Plymouths are worth over US$300,000, especially the ones with the Mopar 426ci Hemi engine and they run between 11 and 13 seconds on the ¼ mile, straight out of the factory. :shock:
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by ben73 »

I found a really nice 79 black wagon one for sale. 17K. Great condition, but it has gangster rims that are a bit excessive.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

franfran wrote:For some reason there's quite a lot of Valiants around Surry Hills and, to a lesser extent, Redfern. Most of them are earlier models though.
Here are some other pictures taken in 2007 I discovered on one of my memory cards.All not far from where you discribe.
This rare VF ute in King St Newtown
Image

This presentable CM Valiant I took in Salisbury Rd ,Stanmore (not far from Mc Donalds).It is a standard Valiant model which has had a Regal grill fitted as there is no hood ornament and the seats are vinyl and not velour in this car.
I owned a 1980 Regal in this colour back in 1996 with a tan vinyl roof and the original metal hubcaps.It had airconditioning and power steering and the much nicer velour trim.The 265 had some go from the lights and it drove beautifully .The interior was immaculate but had nasty rust in the plenum chamber and windcreen surrounds which these models are notorious for so I had to get rid of it.Such a shame.It used to turn heads everywhere!

Image
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Frances »

Saw two of them so far today - a nice dark red one (looked like the top of the range model) with a beige vinyl roof when I was on my way to the station and a second one was a light blue/grey station wagon I saw from the train as it was approaching Newtown.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

VALIANT THE LEAST THIRSTY OF THE SIXES

By Christopher de Fraga, Melbourne Age, 5/12/78.
Fuel efficiency is now top of the list of car engineer's priorities in the wake of the rising petrol price and the less urgent emphasis on safety and anti-pollution.
In the battle to lift fuel economy, nothing works quite so well as light weight -but engine efficiency is a good place to start.


Locked into a now unfashionably large Valiant for at least 18 months, Chrysler Australia found itself blessed with a noisy harsh but efficient engine.
Adapting the latest electronic gear to this, Chrysler was able to make it accept less fuel yet retain performance and anti pollution standards.
So successful was the engineer's work, that in strictly country running, the big Valiant was able to a deliver 30 miles per gallon Chrysler said.
To show just what the new Valiant sixes could achieve in fuel economy, Chrysler last week ran three of the latest Valiants from Adelaide to Sydney with different drivers and careful fuel checks.
This week's road test tells of that day's run from Adelaide to Melbourne in the base $6,850 Valiant, the sort of car which has proved popular with buyers seeking a tow car for trailer, caravan or boat.
The only non-standard fitting on the car was a special drain plug on the fuel tank to make it easy to empty the tank.
It is difficult today to get reliable fuel economy figures from the usual pump filling because of the anti-pollution tank vents which trap petrol fumes and make it hard to squeeze in the tank's full capacity of fuel and then squeeze in exactly the right amount to refill it.
So the plan was to run from a tank which had been emptied, and into which a known amount of fuel was added. The rest was to be drained and measured at the other end.
The Valiant I used in the run was first checked by the Royal Automobile Association of South Australia to make sure it met the handbook specifications and there were no special fiddles in the engine to boost economy.
The engine tune was adjusted slightly by the RAA after it's check.
The new electronics of the Valiant engine, which precisely time and spark, vary the timing in response to load. The timing at idle varied from 7 to 12 degrees and this was reset at 7 to 10 degrees.
The idle speed was increased from 680 to 735 RPM, and the emissions adjusted to cut carbon monoxide levels from 1.2 to 0.7% of the exhaust.
The speedometer and odometer were checked for accuracy and the odometer was found to read 5% fewer kilometres than the car actually travelled. At an indicated 70 km an hour, the true speed was 69 km/h.
At 100 km/h the true speed was 100 km/h and at 110 km/h the speedometer also was accurate.
Chrysler then inflated the tyres of the cars in the run to 30 psi, using the master gauge of the engineering department on cold tyres.
When I picked up the car at Adelaide Airport, the tyre pressure had crept up to 35 psi according to a tyre gauge there.
The Valiant came with the $30 fuel pacer, a fuel economy device which told the driver when he had his foot hard down by turning on a light on top of the right front mudguard -the same globe used for the turn signal repeaters on the mudguard tops.
It worked by sensing low inlet manifold pressure.
And it brought the price of the test car to $7,640, including the automatic transmission ($501) and power steering ($259).
This road test had a special added interest for me. Ten years earlier, with Ford's fuel economy specialist, Ken Harper, I had driven a Ford 289 V8 automatic Fairmont from Adelaide to Melbourne as part of a fuel economy test.
The main difference between the two runs was that the first was strictly a fuel economy effort. The second, in this Valiant, was intended to be an example of what a family man might achieve on holidays with a well-tuned car.
There wasn't any "babying" of the Valiant uphill or cutting speed to boost fuel economy. The car was run at the speed limit -110 km/h on the open road in South Australia -where possible.
From Adelaide to the first stop -for lunch -at Bordertown, the average speed was 91.5 km/h, certainly not the sort of average pace needed for fuel economy.
The tyres felt rather tight and over-inflated: over-inflation helps economy a tiny amount.
The engine also seem to run a little higher up the temperature dial's scale than others I've tested -another move which can lift economy.
There was a side wind from the south of about 16 km/h and a mild 23 degree temperature for the run.
The power steering's vague feel and the hard pumped tyres gave the car a wobbly steering feeling in the slight cross winds, but it had good grip and was precise enough on bends.
The speed was kept at Victoria's limit of 100 km/h in the countryside.
The total fuel used for the run was 86.65 litres, and the fuel economy worked out from the corrected odometer reading was 25.05 mpg -11.29 litres/100 km. The average speed in Victoria was just on 85km/h.
The car went on to Merimbula, giving 26.11 mpg along the Princes Highway -10.8 litres/100km. A 4.3 litre automatic with economy reducing fat tyres managed 26.75 mpg (10.57 litres/100km) on that section of the trip.
An interesting comparison, however, was with the 4.7 litre V8 Ford a decade ago, which averaged 70.8km/h, returned 32 mpg (8.84 litres/100km) and made the run on one 16.4 gallon -73 litre -tank, from Adelaide to Melbourne.
It had no anti-pollution gear, of course, and was driven and prepared within an inch of it's life for fuel economy.
SUMMING UP: The Valiant six-cylinder, with it's electronic spark control, can't quite match four cylinder fuel economy -but it is ahead of it's rival sixes in fuel economy. However the four litre engine saves money by using standard fuel.
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by Swift »

The late Peter Wherrett takes a CM though it's paces in this episode of Torque in 1980.
https://youtu.be/rl02SxA8AMo
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Re: CM Valiants still doing the rounds.

Post by scott »

That example would of been fairly close to the last CM Valiants, would of been a late 1979/early 1980 build. There are more old Torque road tests on YouTube, including one where he gives the HJ Holden a scathing review.
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