1972 Chrysler Valiant Charger VH from Australia and New Zealand - Comments

Hey guys I just bought a VJ charger and I was just wondering if some one could give me some stock horse power figures for the 245, 265 and the e49 please??

From memory it's 160hp for the 245. The 265 had either 203 hp, or 218 for the base model RT. And the e49 had 302hp.

Torque is something like 355 nm for the 265, and about 420-450nm for the e49, but I'm not too sure.

Selling a 76 770 charger very soon, in paint shop at moment this car is a real minter all original 'all papers etc I am interested to know what could be worth.

I bought an E48 about five years ago for $2000. Would anyone know what it is worth now?

Hey just wondering whether it's worth building a E49 Replica? And what would be the best Charger body to start with?

Any info, I'd be gratefull.

Send to pattymellon@gmail.com

Cheers.

How many factory V8 4 speed Chargers were built?

I was told 183, all CL.

Is this true?

Let's put things in context:

1. Most people posting have never driven and never will drive either a E49 or Phase 3, let alone both!

2. How much faith do you put in test figures from almost 40 years ago? The technology wasn't was it is today and we know the writers who tested them were not adverse to winging it on occasion as Joe Oldham admits in his book Muscle Car Confidential.

Also, even with today's timing technology, you still need to factor in mechanical variation. Take 3 identical cars from the showroom. Will they all run exactly the same time down the quarter mile? No they won't! I wouldn't be surprised if you could encounter a variation of up to half a second from cars which are identical. And are/were the cars provided to the mags for testing showroom cars? Well we know that in the US they were often special tuner jobs at the least, or highly modified to the point of having bogus motors and other secret components not available or rarely available to the average punter, so who knows what happened here.

I think the body of evidence has the Chrysler slightly quicker over the quarter, but the Ford quicker from that point and with a higher top end speed.

Personally, I like both cars and I don't think it should be a case of trashing one to build up the other. History has made the Phase 3 the icon of Australian muscle to which all others are compared. Does it deserve this rep? I don't think so. Has the E49 been under rated? Absolutely! I rate it as not just one of our best muscle cars but one of the worlds best. Can either of these cars stack up to today's muscle? No way.

Technology has moved on. Today's cars are faster, safer and much more comfortable and efficient and much less polluting. But the original muscle cars have a charisma that few can match, and that's why people like us write on these forums.