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My fondest memory of this beautiful car (named Big Val) was cruising around the streets of Leichhardt, Balmain and Haberfield in Sydney, NSW with my closest mates. We’d be chatting up the girls and generally misbehaving as 17-year-old boys did back in the 1970's, we had an absolute blast!
We would often cruise down to Leichhardt Market Town (the local Pizza place) and sit for hours admiring everyone else’s shiny cars, or we would drive to Balmoral beach on Sunday afternoon to check out the local talent!
‘Big Val’ was a 1973 2 door VJ Valiant Regal hardtop with the 770 option, and it belonged to my parents. It was a standard 265 cubic inch Hemi 6-cylinder auto with extractors and it went like the clappers!! As you can see from the photos, I gradually added bits to make it look cool… or so I thought!
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One particularly exciting feature of this car was when I put two twelve inch (30cm) stereo speakers into the rear parcel tray (probably a first in its day) and hooked them up to ‘Big Val’s’ cassette player – it worked out really well and the loud music was a special treat in the 1970s.
I love the Big Val and it will always have a special place in my heart.
Source: Survivor Car Australia
What would you be driving if you were P-plating in the '70s? Would you be a Valiant driver? Let us know in comments.