Carlo Varone came to own his Chrysler by Chrysler in a rather unusual way. “I was out walking early one Sunday morning listening to 3AW’s Buy, Swap & Sell, and this 90-year-old gentleman came on who wanted to sell his Chrysler by Chrysler V8,” he says. “He was the original owner and had purchased it new in 1972. I had been looking for an Aussie-made V8, but I didn’t want to pay Lotto money for it – it didn’t matter if it was Holden, Ford or Valiant – so I knew this was the car for me.”

First published in the May 2026 issue of Street Machine

The CH-model CxC was in completely original condition and – most importantly – registered, so Carlo convinced the bloke to sell it to him for a fair price. Once the car was his, Carlo made sure to cruise around the block occasionally just to keep it ticking over while he worked out what to do with it.

It took a little shove from one of Carlo’s Chrysler-mad mates, Branko Cvitkovic, to really get the ball rolling. “He had a two-door Chrysler by Chrysler, and he asked if he could come and have a look at my car,” Carlo recalls. “He goes, ‘Don’t get rid of this; you’re bloody mad. You better fix it up – it’s worth good money with the condition it’s in, being white with no vinyl roof, a black interior and the options it has.’ I thought to myself, I’ll do it, and I’ll do it my way.”

Carlo’s way was to send the body to Donburn Customs and the original 360 engine to Theo Diamond at Diamond Engines & Automotive. Being a one-owner car when Carlo picked it up, the body was in pretty good shape, but it still had a little bit of rust that needed rectifying. And then one thing led to another. “I didn’t even mean to get it mini-tubbed; I only decided that about halfway through the repair,” says Carlo. Of course, once you change one thing, there’s always a knock-on effect. “The leaf springs had to go inboard I had to modify the back seat, and then the fuel tank wouldn’t fit back in so I had to get a custom tank,” Carlo says. “But it was well worth it for the look.”

As well as the mini-tubs and associated mods, the crew at Donburn Customs also fitted chassis connectors and then prepped the body for the mile-deep black paint. Carlo couldn’t give us a name for the particular black used, but he did tell us the instructions he gave the painter: “I want the blackest of blacks, like you’re looking into space.” The Donburn team definitely met that brief, as the car looks like it’s been dipped into a vat of crude oil, although Carlo admits that it’s a pain in the arse to keep clean.

While the body was in for its glow-up, Theo Diamond was hard at work giving the old 360 a new lease on life. While the engine was pretty good for what it was back in the day, the 255hp on tap was mostly for making nice burbly V8 sounds and not really about performance. Theo has well and truly sorted that out by boring and stroking the original block to 410 cubes with a forged Scat 4.00in stroker crank and rods, JE forged flat-top pistons and a Comp Cams solid-roller. To get the air in, a Trick Flow single-plane intake and CNC-ported heads are topped with a Quick Fuel 950cfm double-pumper. There’s around 600hp at the motor now, but Carlo reckons that in a year or so he’ll slap a centrifugal supercharger on it to really give it some go!

Theo also sorted out the rest of the running gear, getting the Torqueflite beefed up and slotting in a TCE 9.5in converter. There’s a nine-inch out back put together by Diff Technics, filled with 35-spline Moser axles, a Truetrac and 4.11:1 gears – a massive step up from the factory 2.77s. Up front, the ride is sorted by Koni shocks with torsion bars wound down a bit, while nine-way adjustable Calvert Racing shocks and a set of CalTracs live out back to keep the leaf springs under control.

To finish it off, a beautiful set of Billet Specialties Win Lite wheels were selected, with 15x5s on the turning end wrapped in 195/65 rubber, and massive 325/50-clad 15x10s out back. You can squeeze decent tyres under the bum of these things even without the tubs, but you wouldn’t get the stance as spot-on as Carlo did with his Chrysler.

While a CH Chrysler by Chrysler body might look pretty much the same as that of the VH Valiant it’s based on, it’s actually four inches longer in the wheelbase. Thanks to some clever engineering and some extra glitz with a quick swap of the grille, bumpers, head- and tail-lights, the CxC was a much flashier-looking rig than its Valiant counterpart – Chrysler’s attempt to compete with Ford’s luxury-focused Fairlane and Holden’s similarly snazzy Statesman.

The interior in Carlo’s example features brocade nylon trim in – as the brochures say – an Interlaken pattern. What’s most amazing about the interior, though, is that it hasn’t been modified or restored – this is the original interior from 1972! It’s amazing that it has survived in such pristine condition, but its due to the original owner not having a wife or kids, so usually only the driver’s seat got used, and even that was in near-perfect condition.

To get the build over the line, Carlo had a lot of help from Branko, the friend who had got the ball rolling in the first place: “We spent many late nights in the garage fitting and adjusting door glass, tail-lights, bumper bars, stainless trim and many more bits and pieces – thank you, brother,” he says.

From early-70s luxury barge to a 21st-century pro street stomper, Carlo’s transformation of the Chrysler is finally complete. It seems the Mopar crowd agreed with Carlo’s take on the model, awarding the car Best Chrysler by Chrysler at this year’s Chrysler’s on the Murray. A worthy recipient indeed.

CARLO VARONE
1972 CH CHRYSLER BY CHRYSLER SEDAN

THANKS
Theo at Diamond Engines & Automotive for building a tough engine and doing the running gear, front end and suspension; Frank Princi for all the electrical work; Richard at Rowville Exhaust; Stelios at Diff Technics; Brad and Paul at Elko Performance; Jamie at JD Custom Automotive for the custom aluminium fuel tank; everyone else involved in the build – I hope I haven’t left anyone out.