Plymouth Valiant V8 – Tire-Shredding Burnout

Nobody buys a Plymouth Valiant expecting a burnout machine, which is exactly why one shredding its rear tires is so entertaining. Chrysler built this car as sensible economy transportation, then dropped an all new V8 into it in the middle of 1964 and quietly changed what a compact Mopar could be. The engine that started it all stayed in production for decades, and the cars that got it remain some of the last genuinely affordable Chrysler performance out there.

Some cars earn their reputation and some cars have it forced on them. The Plymouth Valiant belongs firmly in the second category. Chrysler conceived it as sensible, economical, unglamorous transportation, a compact aimed squarely at families who wanted reliability and low running costs and had no interest whatsoever in a horsepower war. Nothing about the brochure suggested tire smoke. And yet here is one standing on its rear tires and turning a set of them into a cloud, which raises an obvious question about how a grocery getter ended up with this much attitude, and what it actually takes to make one behave this way.

Chrysler Changes the Math in Mid 1964

The turning point came in the middle of the 1964 model year, when Chrysler introduced an all new 273 cubic inch V8 engineered specifically to fit inside a compact A-body engine bay. It was the first member of what became the LA engine family, a lightweight thin wall casting design that would go on to spawn the 318, the 340, and the 360 and stay in production in one form or another into the early 2000s. In its initial state of tune the 273 was polite, rated at 180 horsepower with a two barrel carburetor and a mild camshaft. It was not a performance engine by any measure. It was a promise about what the platform could eventually hold.

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The Commando 273 Was the One That Mattered

Chrysler cashed that promise in for 1965 with the Commando 273. Same 273 cubic inches, entirely different attitude: compression raised to 10.5 to one, a four barrel carburetor on top, a performance camshaft, and low restriction exhaust, all of which lifted the rating to 235 horsepower. That is a fifty five horsepower gain in a car weighing somewhere around 2,700 pounds, which puts the power to weight ratio in genuinely interesting territory for a compact of the era. Suddenly a Valiant could embarrass things wearing far more aggressive badges, and it could do it while still returning the kind of fuel economy that had sold the car in the first place.

Why the A-Body Suits This Kind of Abuse

The A-body chassis deserves as much credit here as the engine does. Chrysler used torsion bar front suspension rather than coil springs, which kept the front end low, freed up space in the engine compartment, and gave the car a front spring rate adjustable with a wrench rather than a parts catalog. The rear rode on leaf springs and a live axle, a combination that is simple, strong, and entirely willing to light up a pair of tires when asked. The light small block sitting well back in the bay keeps the nose from plowing, which is why a Valiant doing this looks controlled rather than frightening.

Plymouth Takes the Valiant Rallying

Plymouth was confident enough in the combination to go competing with it. The company backed a factory rally effort using two door Valiant sedans in the SCCA Manufacturers Rally Championships across the 1965 and 1966 seasons, which put the small V8 compact up against machinery built specifically for the job. Rallying is a brutal test of exactly the qualities the Valiant had in abundance: light weight, mechanical simplicity, durable driveline components, and suspension that could absorb sustained punishment without complaint. It was an unusual place to find a car marketed on economy, and it did the reputation no harm at all.

What Tire Smoke Actually Costs You

The part that rarely gets mentioned is what a stunt like this costs the car. Leaf sprung rear suspension of this vintage is prone to axle wrap under hard throttle, which sends a shock through the driveshaft and universal joints every time the tires break loose and hook again. The eight and three quarter or seven and a quarter rear axles found under these cars are durable but finite, and the single piece driveshaft and its universal joints appreciate repeated abuse even less. Anyone doing this regularly is either running upgraded rear springs and traction bars or is quietly replacing driveline components more often than they admit. Slapper bars, relocated spring perches, and a set of stiffer rear leaves are the usual answers, and none of them are expensive by classic car standards, which is fortunate given how often the problem turns up in cars built exactly this way. The tell is usually a rhythmic clunk under hard acceleration that owners spend months chasing before they think to look at the spring eyes.

What It Takes to Build One Like This Today

Building one to burn tires like this today generally starts with the engine bay rather than the engine itself. The 273 responds well to a modern camshaft, a decent intake, and headers, but the more common route takes advantage of the fact that every later LA small block shares the same mounting points. A 340 or a 360 drops in with minimal fabrication, and either one brings a substantial torque increase over the 273 without adding meaningful weight over the front wheels. The other half of the job is traction hardware: a Sure Grip differential, better rear springs or a set of traction bars, and enough tire to give the car something to argue with.

How the Valiant Fits the Wider A-Body Family

It helps enormously that the Valiant sits inside one of the largest parts sharing families Chrysler ever built. The A-body platform underpinned the Dodge Dart, the Dodge Demon, the Plymouth Duster, and the Barracuda in its early years, which means suspension components, brake upgrades, rear axles, and interior parts cross between models with very little drama. A part that is unobtainable under a Valiant badge is frequently sitting on a shelf under a Dart part number. That interchangeability is a large part of why these cars remain practical to own rather than merely charming.

The Last Affordable Mopar

What keeps Valiants genuinely interesting is that they remain reachable. Charger, Road Runner, and Cuda prices have long since left the realm of the casual buyer, but a Valiant or its Dart cousin can still be found, bought, and built without a second mortgage, and it shares its parts bin with the entire A-body world. That is a rare combination in Mopar circles now. The car was never supposed to be exciting, which is precisely why one behaving like this is worth watching. Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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