You might be curious why this car was a part of my collection. The short answer is that I couldn’t find an Australian Hemi Charger.
Years ago, I was at a car show and saw a very strange sight. I saw a car that was badged as a Charger, but not like one I had seen before. It had a completely different body style, the steering wheel was on the wrong side and it had a straight 6 cylinder engine. To be honest, the car looked more like a barracuda fastback than a Charger. It turns out that it was an Australian Charger, which was made from 1971 – 1978. The really strange part was that the straight 6 motor was actually a Hemi. Never released in the US, Chrysler had an inline 6 cylinder Hemi motor.
I looked for a Charger for a long time, but couldn’t find one. A friend of mine found this Valiant VG, which is also an Australian car and has the inline Hemi. I bought the car and never did anything with it other than take it for an occasional drive. It’s amazing that I never even changed the oil, but the car always started and ran just fine. It has the appearance of a Dodge Dart, but has enough changes that it draws strange looks from people. Maybe it’s because I’m sitting on the wrong side of the car!
