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Classic Car, Modern Roads: 1974 Plymouth Valiant in 2024
16K views
Feb 4, 2025
Drive around with me in this 50-year-old car, as we explore what’s new and the challenges of having a half-century-old car on the road #mopar #plymouth #classiccars #1970s #driving
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0:07
today we're going to talk about oh hold
0:12
on if we can get this thing started
0:15
we're going to
0:19
talk so today we're going to talk about
0:21
driving in 1974 classic car on today's
0:26
roads in modern 2024 times
0:31
and we're going to do some comparisons
0:33
with modern cars because most of us
0:35
still drive a modern car day today and
0:37
we keep the classic car for parades and
0:39
car
0:42
shows so here I am wishing that I had a
0:45
backup camera we're just going to go
0:47
down and do some filming and you can
0:49
hear just how loud it is inside this
0:52
car I've got one triangle window open
0:54
otherwise all the windows are closed
0:56
from the outside you can see the Valiant
0:58
is a stylish car for the time quite boxy
1:01
with lots of chrome the Chrome is plated
1:03
over actual metal those Amber front
1:06
directional signals and parking lights
1:08
are not original they are the only thing
1:10
that differentiates the 75 from the 76
1:13
we're being followed by our Chase car
1:15
which is a Dodge start for the irony one
1:18
thing about a car with broken air
1:19
conditioning is that you always stop in
1:21
the shade if you can you get plenty of
1:24
uh pep here in first gear it hopes that
1:28
this engine has an awful lot of tour
1:29
torque it's tuned for torque rather than
1:32
horsepower so this is my uh stylish boxy
1:36
Valiant boxy actually was quite in for
1:39
that time period as were vinyl roofs so
1:43
that's a vinyl covered steel roof that
1:45
I've got there I think originally the
1:48
idea was that it would look like a
1:49
convertible without being a convertible
1:52
now driving a car like this on Modern
1:55
roads one of the things that you find
1:57
out is that your car has much higher
2:00
gravity than most cars and the way that
2:02
that works is that as you're driving
2:04
along some people start to stare at the
2:06
car because it's so
2:07
unusual and then as they stare at it
2:10
their attention goes to it and they
2:12
start to steer right into your lane and
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right into the car and this is not
2:17
something that's unique to me I mean
2:19
I've talked to a lot of other drivers
2:21
who have had the same issue the stripe
2:23
down the side of the car has a real
2:26
function that was a trim option on a lot
2:28
of cars and the goal was to stop your
2:32
car from getting dented when the guy
2:34
next to you open up their door too far
2:36
in a parking lot so they look good but
2:38
they also protected your car most
2:41
Valiants had the very plain uh hubc caps
2:44
that we call dog dishes now they were
2:47
much smaller than the Big Shiny ones
2:48
that you see there which were actually
2:50
an extra on that car that the original
2:53
owner ordered between the Valiant and
2:56
the duster and the dart they had
2:59
hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
3:01
these made every year they really were
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very common especially since they were
3:06
also pretty well made they shift into
3:08
neutral and help the alternator out so
3:11
in modern cars you never think about the
3:13
alternator and whether you're charging
3:15
or not and you definitely do in the
3:17
older cars because the
3:18
alternators alternators were brand new
3:21
for uh the modern design of alternator
3:24
came about in
3:25
1960 when a guy at Chrysler found out
3:28
how to do it with iodes even so you
3:31
don't get a whole lot of energy being
3:34
developed at idle speed compared to a
3:37
modern car modern cars you know they
3:39
don't think anything of having 150 amp
3:41
alternator this the standard with air
3:43
conditioning I believe was 35
3:46
amps it's not all that
3:49
[Music]
3:50
much you get less than half of the total
3:53
amperage when you're at
3:57
idle versus at maximum rpm
4:00
in fact modern cars usually don't even
4:02
bother with voltmeters because you just
4:05
don't need to think about it you've got
4:06
such a big battery and such a big
4:08
alternator it doesn't really matter at
4:10
all and I'm lucky because I have an
4:13
alternator and not a
4:16
generator people in the older cars who
4:18
have the generators it's a bigger
4:21
deal and for whatever reason I don't
4:23
have to worry about the engine
4:24
temperature and this car it's always
4:26
been good uh the cars that I've had back
4:29
in the day when when they were my daily
4:30
drivers man those things they
4:33
overheated this one is never overheated
4:36
in its life and a lot of that is the
4:38
maintenance that was done before I got
4:41
them and this car I got with very low
4:43
miles only has about 2,000
4:52
[Music]
4:58
now we're only going 40 mph and you can
5:01
hear it is quite loud in here because
5:03
I've got the triangle windows open but
5:05
without them it'll be like being in a
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steam
5:16
[Music]
5:22
bath I always love that wine in first
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gear I'm not mechanically Adept enough
5:28
to know what it's from
5:36
the brakes in this car are quite good
5:38
for the time they've got a good
5:40
feel let me just use the electric
5:43
windows there we
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go takes a little agility to close the
5:48
passenger side window so this is the
5:51
sound with all the windows closed and me
5:53
cooking in my own juices here and we're
5:56
nor going about 35 M an hour
6:00
the rear window shape is pretty much
6:03
like a parachute and they fixed that on
6:05
the 1970 duster but they didn't have
6:08
enough money in the budget to fix it on
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the vant as
6:12
well so the steering's a little loose on
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this particular car if you bought a
6:16
police version and you got a much
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tighter steering Chu I had one that had
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the toe package for 76 and that included
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an awful lot of police equipment so
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these cars are really still quite good
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for or going around town in terms of the
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acceleration they do 0 to 30 pretty well
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when you get up to highway speeds that
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three-speed automatic shows why they
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went to foursp speeds in terms of noise
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and in terms of overdrive uh giving you
6:46
much better gas mileage the seat that
6:47
I'm sitting in because the Springs are
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so loose it actually has the effect of a
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bucket seat I sit down the seat goes
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pretty you know the Springs really give
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way and that gives me a good amount of
6:59
support
7:00
with the police version of this the
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Springs are really stiff and you have no
7:04
support and you slide all over but in
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the days when this was made the bench
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seat was normal and the bucket seat was
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really kind of an unusual Sports thing
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the only advantage of the bench seat
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that I know of uh other than if you're a
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teenager and you don't have any place to
7:20
go other than your car and you can fit
7:23
three people across in a pinch when
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you're driving an older car you really
7:28
do have to know more about how the car
7:30
works you have to understand the
7:32
electrical system issues that you can
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have you have to understand the
7:35
carburetor because it's much easier to
7:37
stall out you sometimes had to be
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willing to get out of the car and jam
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open the throat of the carburetor with
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the screwdriver while you started it
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there was a lot of Maintenance that you
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had to know to do yourself and the
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schedules were a lot tougher than today
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you had to lubricate the suspension
7:52
parts at least once a year for one thing
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so that's why they called it an oil and
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lube the radiators tended to gum up
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after a few years and so you'd start
8:01
overheating you know you look at a
8:02
modern car things that you take for
8:04
granted you can't take for granted when
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you're driving a classic and that
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includes brakes the brakes are so much
8:10
better on today's cars it ain't funny
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today when you slam on your brakes you
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do not expect the rear end to go
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swinging out this car has front disc
8:18
brakes which are great and they're not
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powered which is even better because
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otherwise the powered brakes and a lot
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of mopar people here will back me up if
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you get them as a factory sold them they
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will lock up the front brakes really
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easily people now go through and they
8:31
replace the wheel cylinders today's cars
8:33
of course have electronic brake
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proportioning even the cars before that
8:37
from the 80s while they'll have
8:39
proportioning valves built in and one
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reason for that at Chrysler was because
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Bert bamp went to Chrysler Europe and he
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said wow this is standard on all the
8:47
cars here it really should be standard
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at home too most modern cars can out
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handle a classic car unbelievably the
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big heavy cars of today like a Dodge
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Challenger man their performance in
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handling is just stunningly good
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compared to any of the vintage cars and
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you don't have to pay very much to get
9:07
good handling if you go back to the
9:09
original neon they were running 0 to 60
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7.8 seconds which was the equivalent of
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a lot of the old muscle cars actually
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was better than a lot of the old muscle
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cars and the neon would do it day after
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day after day without ever having to
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retune it the main difference is that
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back then the engines were designed to
9:27
give you a lot of torque from low RPM
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whereas today a lot of them require that
9:32
you rev High to get there but some of
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them don't anyway when you drive a class
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a car today on Modern roads you have to
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be very aware of your surroundings you
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have to know what's going on in front of
9:43
you because almost every car has much
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better breaking than you do so if you
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don't leave some extra room then you
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might very well end up causing a crash
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well the person in front of you really
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causes the crash but you'll still end up
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as the car that slams into the back of
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another car and in some states that
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makes you automatically at fault you
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also have to be watching people around
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you because people will cut you off
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without thinking for a moment that you
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don't have those great breaks and people
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will also get very distracted by your
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very presence on the road and drive very
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strangely around you and so you have to
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be aware of who's in both lanes next to
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you because sometimes they drift into
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yours while they're
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staring it is a challenge to drive a
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classic car on today's Road but it's
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also very enjoyable and it's a lot of
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fun to drive in parades I've shown some
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parades on this channel so that you can
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experience it from my driver's point of
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view and if you have a classic car I do
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encourage you to take it out for a ride
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but I also suggest that you put on that
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third brake light like I've got because
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it's not that distracting from the
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original look of the car but it can also
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save you from having somebody not seeing
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your incredibly dim tail lights and your
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relatively dim brake lights and just
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slam right into you today's brake lights
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are much brighter than the ones in the
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classic cars so having an LED third
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brake light really can save your car I
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will say that if you're in the northern
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New Jersey area and you have a classic
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car you might want to think about
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joining the restored Rusty relics and T
11:15
Mobile Club
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