VH Valiant: The R/T ‘Super Charger’ that never made it

Image: www.autopics.com.au via the Shannons Club

In late 1972 Chrysler released their fastest series production race car, in its day the fastest accelerating production car in Australia – the R/T Charger E49 Hemi Six Pack. The cars had all the potential in the world, so why didn’t they get anywhere?

The R/T E49’s launch coincided neatly with the beginnings of the ‘Supercar Scare’, a dark time for car enthusiasts in which politics and the media incited a national scare around the sale of homologation performance cars to the public.

The ‘Supercar Scare’ caused Ford to cancel its XA Falcon GT-HO Phase IV and Holden to cut its LJ Torana XU-1 V8 in an instant, with Chrysler to follow by cancelling the R/T program along with factory involvement in motor racing.

Which was a huge shame, because the R/T E49s were quick, climbing to third and fourth outright at Bathurst with no factory support.

It’s a fascinating, multi-dimensional story which you can discover in VH Valiant: The R/T ‘Super Charger’ that never made it over at the Shannons Club.

Image: www.autopics.com.au via the Shannons Club