E37 VALIANT R/T CHARGER ALBERT AYOUB
IF THERE’S a more eyeball-piercing automotive colour than Magenta, then we haven’t seen it. And while it’s a bit love-it-or-hate-it, if you’re Albert Ayoub (who owns the car on these pages) then it’s Magenta first, daylight second when it comes to desirability. Mind you, Albert’s got fairly defined tastes in cars, starting with the fact he’s one of those traditional Mopar-or-no-car dudes. The Ayoub garage is also home to whatever the collective noun for a bunch of Mopars is. There’s a new Demon (still left-hook) a Superbird, Cuda, Challenger and, of course, the E37.
Albert has owned the Charger since 1993 when he answered a newspaper advert for a white Charger. As far as the seller knew, the thing had always been white (as it was in 93) but when Albert decoded the tags, he discovered it was an original Magenta car. “Mate, this car’s pink,” he told the surprised seller.
“Would you wanna drive a pink car?” says the bloke selling it.
“My bloody oath I would” Albert says, “That was it. I paid a deposit on the spot and headed down to buy it. The Magenta thing goes right back to when I was a kid and my older cousin had a Charger. A mate of his rolled around in another Charger, and that one happened to be pink. I took one look at it and knew I had to have one. And that car in that colour stayed in the back of my head for years.” An original E37, the only non-standard parts on the car are the four-speed, close-ratio R/T gearbox (“It’s hard work driving a three-speed, let me tell you,” says Albert.) and the Bathurst spec fuel tank known imaginatively as the big tank option. But there are also holes and mounts for a harness. That has led to speculation that the car was once raced (hence the big tank) and while the colour-change from pink to white may have been on taste grounds (theirs, not ours) it’s also suggestive of a racing history as many race-car liveries start with a white background. In the end, it doesn’t matter, because Albert knows he’ll never part with this car. “It’s never going to get sold, so it doesn’t matter to me what it is, I just love it.”
And the best thing about a six-cylinder Charger? “It’s a combination of things. To me, it’s that motor with the triple Webers. And the look of the thing, particularly from the front. Oh, and the stripes. They could never build this car again.” And right there, you get the feeling that Albert – just like Chrysler Oz did back in the day - has absolutely nailed it.
desirability (Check out Cliff y’s fiscal histor y of the thing on these pages).
So, again, what’s changed? It’s hard to know exactly, but it’s fair to say that, like any steel-bumper Aussie car, the car and its admirers have financially matured in parallel. But there’s also no longer the cultural cringe that once existed. Pop-culture still throws up the odd Charger reference to give us a refresher course, and even stuff about the Charger that was daggy back in the day, has suddenly become cool again, just as surely as hipster jeans are a thing again. (Can acid-wash denim be far behind?) Tartan seat trim? Cool again. Back and white TV adverts with none other than Geoffrey Rush copping the Hey Charger V from admiring mini-skirters? (Check out: tinyurl.com/4puuf hc8). Yep, cool again (probably always cool, but you get the point). You can’t look at an Aussie-cars social media site these days without pictures of Charger Highway Patrol cars cropping up, clips from the Alvin Purple movie car chase or any number of other references to the Val’s place in motoring histor y. Suddenly, we get it. Again.
Also, once you’ve cleared away all that psycho-baggage about who’d buy a Valiant and what sort of half-wit wants a six-cylinder car over a V8, there’s also the fact that the Charger is, to many eyes, the best looking Aussie car ever minted. And in a world where a lunch-money hot-hatch can show a GT-HO
“ANY CHARGER – EVEN A BASE-MODEL 215 CUBIC-INCH CAR WITH A COLUMN-SHIFTED THREE-SPEED – IS A POOL-ROOM SPECIAL”
“THESE DAYS, I HAVE A MOTLEY VH CHARGER IN MY SHED WITH A SIZZLING 265 HEMI”
the door across 400m, that counts for a whole hell of a lot. Now take another look at the photos on this page and tell me if there’s ever been a hot-hatchback that can hold a stylistic candle to something as outrageous as a stumpy, pink hot-rod like a Charger. Exactly.
And just as surely, there are blokes like me who dug all the things that played against the Charger in the day. Most notably that six-cylinder engine. I remember driving a mate’s 245 VG sedan way back in the 1980s and, having come from a diet of Holden sixes, from the first bootful of throttle, silently wondering to myself how long this Hemi thing had been going on. I’ve also always been one out and one back in my views of the necessary number of cylinders. As in; a V8 is a great car to take to a race-track. Provided it’s towing your six-cylinder race-car.
These days, I have a motley VH Charger in my shed with a sizzling 265 Hemi (60-thou over, E49-and-a-bit cam, big four-barrel) under the lid that my brother built for me. And I swear, every time I turn the key on that mother, it feels like I’m letting something wild off the tether. As if turning the key off again might one day not actually stop it. It honestly scares me. Just a little. Just enough. Like a slightly unhinged critter on a slightly too-long leash. And in a world where you get a trophy for turning up, and nail-clippers come with safety goggles, maybe that’s just what we all need now and then. And when you look at all the Aussie muscle cars that have come and gone, a sawn-off two-door with a grumpy, wailing six and a mad set of stripes was probably about as anti-establishment as it got. Then and now.