The Valiant's grille was cast in aluminum instead of the usual zinc die-casting — shaving the whole assembly down to 3 pounds, a quarter the weight rivals carried up front.
Median 94 hp across 213 similar cars
Lead trim: Valiant 170 LG Slant-6 I6 (101 bhp) · up to 145 hp
Plymouth ValiantVALIANT-1960 · 1960–1962
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Plymouth Valiant yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactThe Valiant's grille was cast in aluminum instead of the usual zinc die-casting — shaving the whole assembly down to 3 pounds, a quarter the weight rivals carried up front.
The Plymouth Valiant (first appearing in 1959 as simply the Valiant) is an automobile marketed by the Plymouth division of the Chrysler Corporation in the United States for the model years 1960 through 1976, created to give the company an entry in the compact car market emerging in the late 1950s and well known for its durability and reliability. In May 1957 Chrysler president Lester Lum "Tex" Colbert established a committee to develop a competitor for the VW Beetle, the new AMC Rambler and upcoming compacts from GM, Ford and Studebaker; design chief Virgil Exner made a car smaller and lighter than a full-size car without sacrificing passenger and luggage space, originally named the "Falcon" after his 1955 Chrysler Falcon concept car and renamed "Valiant" at Henry Ford II's request to use the name for the Ford Falcon. It debuted at the 44th British International Motor Show in London on 26 October 1959, was introduced as a 1960 model and was officially considered a distinct brand (the 1961–62 Dodge Lancer was essentially a rebadged Valiant), joining the Plymouth brand in 1961. It debuted the all-new six-cylinder overhead-valve engine, the famous slant-six, with its cylinders canted 30° to the right to permit a lower hoodline, the water pump alongside, and an efficient long-branch individual-runner intake manifold; project engineer Willem Weertman's team built a simple, robust workhorse, and over 50,000 die-cast aluminum-block versions of the 225 cu in engine were produced between late 1961 and early 1963 as extra-cost options. The 1960 model contained as much as 60 lb of aluminum parts (including the first alternator on a car, and the new TorqueFlite A-904 case). The A-body platform used unit-body construction, said to be 95% stiffer in torsion than a body-on-frame 1959 Plymouth, with unequal-length control arms and torsion bars in front and a live axle with asymmetric leaf springs at the rear. Body styles were a 4-door sedan, 4-door station wagons (V100 and V200 trim, 2- or 3-seat, the 3-seat with "Captive-Aire" run-flat tires) and, from 1961, a 2-door sedan and hardtop; the 1962 model (extensive facelift, new asymmetric instrument cluster, the Signet 200 hardtop with bucket seats) won Exner the Society of Illustrators' 1962 Styling Award. Late in the 1961 model year the larger 225 cu in (3.7 L) slant-six became available. Wheelbase 106.5 in (2,710 mm), length 183.7 in, width 70.4 in, height 53.3 in, curb weight 2,750 lb (1,250 kg); the 170 was rated at 101 bhp per the page's 1967 comparison.
Collectors Spotted in the Plymouth Valiant Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Plymouth Valiant yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
2 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valiant 170 LG Slant-6 I6 (101 bhp) | 1960–1962 | 2.8 L Inline-6 | 101 hp | 155 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| Valiant 225 RG Slant-6 I6 (from late 1961) | 1961–1962 | 3.7 L Inline-6 | 145 hp | 215 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
Owning one
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Owners’ builds
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Photographs
In 1976 Chrysler sold cop-spec Valiants with a 360 V8 police package that ran the quarter-mile in 16.4 seconds — fast enough to catch nearly any muscle car still on sale that year.
By 1974 the Valiant sedan wasn't really its own car anymore — Plymouth simply rebadged the Dodge Dart, leaving only minor cosmetic differences between the two nameplates.
The redesigned 1967 Valiant dropped wagons, hardtops and convertibles down to sedans only — anyone wanting the coupe thrill just bought the Barracuda, which was secretly the same car in a sportier suit.
This Valiant's platform beat the Mustang to the punch — the Barracuda, built on the Valiant's wheelbase, hood and windshield, reached showrooms two weeks before Ford's pony car, in April 1964.
The Valiant's grille was cast in aluminum instead of the usual zinc die-casting — shaving the whole assembly down to 3 pounds, a quarter the weight rivals carried up front.
Seven Hyper-Pak Valiants entered NASCAR's 1960 compact-car race at Daytona and swept first through seventh. NASCAR never ran that race again.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
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