Classic TV: Hey Charger – Chrysler Valiant

Hey Charger’ was the tagline for Chrysler’s Valiant Charger in the 1970s, and it has remained part of the local vernacular ever since.

The combination of pretty women, Chrysler’s Valiant Charger sports coupe and the ‘V for victory’ hand signal proved a strong selling point.

Actors such as Graeme Blundell (who played the naïve and mischievous Alvin Purple) and Geoffrey Rush (a future Oscar winner) played normal blokes who were swamped by attractive women because they drove a Charger.

‘The unbelievable can happen to you’ was the Chrysler tagline and, oh boy, did it sell!

Advertising rep Fred Schepisi can lay claim to this successful campaign, and his genius wasn’t a one-off. He later went on to direct The Devil’s PlaygroundThe Chant of Jimmi BlacksmithRoxanne and most recently, Words and Pictures.

The catchcry and hand signal from the ad continue to be used today when a Charger is spotted out in the street, and has even been adopted by younger generations.

Not only did the ad’s popularity make the Charger a hit, its price of just $2795 brand new (try buying one for that now!) helped. Add to that the fact that its two main rivals in Ford and Holden had gone sedate with their two performance models, and Chrysler’s coupe made the perfect hero model.

The Charger won the prestigious Wheels Car of the Year award in 1971, further elevating its standing among consumers of the day.

Motorsport helped, too, even though Chrysler chose to compete with a six-cylinder motor instead of the V8. The six-cylinder was chosen after hundreds of testing kilometres by Chrysler’s factory team at the South Australian Mallala circuit because its weight benefits outweighed any horsepower deficiency.

An underdog compared to Ford and Holden, the Charger enjoyed some success, including a third-placed finish at the rain-plagued 1972 Bathurst 500.

However, all things come to an end and the Charger’s fate came in 1978 as sales continued to dwindle, leaving Australians with little more than paragrahs in the history books and lasting memories of the ‘Hey Charger’ salute.

Writer

“If it moves and makes a noise, count me in. That pretty much sums up my lifelong passion for motoring and motorsport history. Rich has worked in various roles in the digital and motoring media world, starting his career at Autosport and also working at Auto Action, Motor, and as the founder and publisher of Motorsport Retro.

Most recently, Rich successfully launched Collecting Cars in the Australian market, growing the brand from 0 to $150 million in sales in just 3 years.”

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