Plymouth Valiant
In
May 1957, Chrysler president Tex Colbert set up a committee to come up with a
competitor for the increasingly popular small imports.
Plymouth had actually been
experimenting with small cars for many years, including a 100” wheelbase
Airflow model in 1937 and several small Cadets through the late 1940s and
1950s.
The Chrysler "Falcon"
project was the code name for what became the compact Valiant. It was named
after the 1955 Chrysler Falcon two-seater, aimed at competing with the
Thunderbird and Corvette. History will show it ended up competing with Ford
Falcon, Chevrolet Corvair, and Rambler American.
Just before it was to be introduced as the Falcon the crack Chrysler Marketing Group found out Ford had registered that name for their compact car. There was a wild last-minute scramble, and a contest was held among Chrysler employees to come up with a new name. It was a secretary who won the prize with "Valiant."
As an Introduction Day promotion, someone in the crack Chrysler Marketing Group came up with what seemed like a great idea at the time. Why not show off the new Valiant on the streets of New York City as taxicabs?
The Plymouth Valiant had been tested
in every conceivable manner, and nothing bad ever happened to the test cars.
They were truly bulletproof. However, they were never tested in the one thing
taxis do a lot; they sit and idle. No initial production Valiant could idle 15
minutes. Within an hour of starting, all the Valiant taxis had died at
curbside, and could not be restarted. They were sheepishly towed away and
shipped back to Highland Park Engineering.
The folks in the engine lab figured
out the problem in about two weeks, a near-record response time. As for the
original production cars, well, hopefully, no one used them for taxis. The
Valiant ceased production in 1976.
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