First published in the December 2007 issue of Street Machine

Cast your mind back to 1964. What if Chrysler Australia had followed the example of its parent company? In the US, the Hemi was just hitting showrooms and the 413 Max Wedge (and the 426 Max Wedge) ruled the roost at places like Lions and Orange County, when they powered heavy Plymouth Belvederes and Furys down the quarter in 12 seconds or less.

We didn’t see much of the B-body stuff in Australia (except the Dodge Phoenix and Plymouth Fury III) so imagine if the Aussie boffins had crammed the grunty 413 cubes of Max Wedge muscle into the front of an Aussie-built AP-5 Valiant! It would have been as big — if not bigger — an Aussie muscle car legend than the E49 Charger, GTS Monaro, GTHO Falcons and the Torana XU-1 and A9X. Of course it couldn’t be the four-door sedan — real muscle cars only have two fire escapes — so the engineers would have had to borrow the sheet-metal from the ’63 Plymouth Valiant two-door post sedan and combine it with the better looking Aussie AP-5 front and rear tin.

Dump a Crossram intake on it, with dual AFB Carters and a Ramcharger hood-scoop to feed it all, and it should be good for around 410hp. That much oomph in a lightweight A-body would have made it an easy 11-second runner.

Bright colours, blacked out bonnets, driving lights and Superbee badging pre-date the US by four years, and we’ve mixed Dodge and Plymouth references, but what the hell. If Chrysler Oz had built this in ’63, our muscle car era might’ve looked quite different.

DRIVELINE

A 413 RB Chrysler engine into an early A-body (’62–’66) can be done — Pentastar Parts and Restorations has engine mounts to do the job, for just $425. Headers would be a tight squeeze and cost around $2000. Fitting a push-button 727 auto or 883 four-speed will need some trans tunnel mods, so plan on getting out the grinder and welder. Talk to an engineer first — this conversion is a no-no in some states.

BODY

Most early Aussie Vals are based on the Plymouth Valiant range so grab a two-door body from the US — they have no racing history so they’re cheap. Of course the Yanks have no taste so you’ll have to ditch the hideous front sheet-metal and bolt up the cleaner AP-5 gear. If you want the AP-5 rear you’ll need to rework the rear quarters (tail-lights) as well. Grab the two-door post sedan for better torsional rigidity because the big-block will try to twist the little Val in two.

CHASSIS/SUSPENSION

Welding in a rollcage and subframe connectors will help keep the body in one piece. It’ll add some weight but you don’t want to the body breaking in half. Bolting on later model stub-axles (VH-CM) will give you the 4.5-inch PCD stud pattern up front, with vented discs and you can get an 8¾in Mopar diff cut down to get the same pattern on the rear.