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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
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on if we can get this thing started
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we're going to
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talk so today we're going to talk about
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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
2:15
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
3:03
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
5:08
steam
5:16
[Music]
5:22
bath I always love that wine in first
5:25
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
5:46
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
6:10
the vant as
6:12
well so the steering's a little loose on
6:14
this particular car if you bought a
6:16
police version and you got a much
6:19
tighter steering Chu I had one that had
6:21
the toe package for 76 and that included
6:25
an awful lot of police equipment so
6:27
these cars are really still quite good
6:29
for or going around town in terms of the
6:32
acceleration they do 0 to 30 pretty well
6:36
when you get up to highway speeds that
6:38
three-speed automatic shows why they
6:41
went to foursp speeds in terms of noise
6:43
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
6:49
so loose it actually has the effect of a
6:52
bucket seat I sit down the seat goes
6:55
pretty you know the Springs really give
6:57
way and that gives me a good amount of
6:59
support
7:00
with the police version of this the
7:03
Springs are really stiff and you have no
7:04
support and you slide all over but in
7:06
the days when this was made the bench
7:08
seat was normal and the bucket seat was
7:11
really kind of an unusual Sports thing
7:13
the only advantage of the bench seat
7:15
that I know of uh other than if you're a
7:18
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
7:26
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
7:34
have you have to understand the
7:35
carburetor because it's much easier to
7:37
stall out you sometimes had to be
7:39
willing to get out of the car and jam
7:41
open the throat of the carburetor with
7:43
the screwdriver while you started it
7:44
there was a lot of Maintenance that you
7:46
had to know to do yourself and the
7:48
schedules were a lot tougher than today
7:50
you had to lubricate the suspension
7:52
parts at least once a year for one thing
7:54
so that's why they called it an oil and
7:56
lube the radiators tended to gum up
7:59
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
8:06
you're driving a classic and that
8:07
includes brakes the brakes are so much
8:10
better on today's cars it ain't funny
8:12
today when you slam on your brakes you
8:14
do not expect the rear end to go
8:15
swinging out this car has front disc
8:18
brakes which are great and they're not
8:19
powered which is even better because
8:21
otherwise the powered brakes and a lot
8:23
of mopar people here will back me up if
8:25
you get them as a factory sold them they
8:27
will lock up the front brakes really
8:29
easily people now go through and they
8:31
replace the wheel cylinders today's cars
8:33
of course have electronic brake
8:35
proportioning even the cars before that
8:37
from the 80s while they'll have
8:39
proportioning valves built in and one
8:41
reason for that at Chrysler was because
8:43
Bert bamp went to Chrysler Europe and he
8:45
said wow this is standard on all the
8:47
cars here it really should be standard
8:50
at home too most modern cars can out
8:53
handle a classic car unbelievably the
8:56
big heavy cars of today like a Dodge
8:58
Challenger man their performance in
9:01
handling is just stunningly good
9:03
compared to any of the vintage cars and
9:06
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
9:12
7.8 seconds which was the equivalent of
9:15
a lot of the old muscle cars actually
9:17
was better than a lot of the old muscle
9:19
cars and the neon would do it day after
9:21
day after day without ever having to
9:23
retune it the main difference is that
9:26
back then the engines were designed to
9:27
give you a lot of torque from low RPM
9:30
whereas today a lot of them require that
9:32
you rev High to get there but some of
9:34
them don't anyway when you drive a class
9:37
a car today on Modern roads you have to
9:39
be very aware of your surroundings you
9:41
have to know what's going on in front of
9:43
you because almost every car has much
9:46
better breaking than you do so if you
9:48
don't leave some extra room then you
9:50
might very well end up causing a crash
9:53
well the person in front of you really
9:55
causes the crash but you'll still end up
9:57
as the car that slams into the back of
9:59
another car and in some states that
10:01
makes you automatically at fault you
10:03
also have to be watching people around
10:06
you because people will cut you off
10:08
without thinking for a moment that you
10:10
don't have those great breaks and people
10:13
will also get very distracted by your
10:15
very presence on the road and drive very
10:18
strangely around you and so you have to
10:20
be aware of who's in both lanes next to
10:22
you because sometimes they drift into
10:24
yours while they're
10:25
staring it is a challenge to drive a
10:28
classic car on today's Road but it's
10:29
also very enjoyable and it's a lot of
10:32
fun to drive in parades I've shown some
10:34
parades on this channel so that you can
10:36
experience it from my driver's point of
10:38
view and if you have a classic car I do
10:40
encourage you to take it out for a ride
10:43
but I also suggest that you put on that
10:44
third brake light like I've got because
10:47
it's not that distracting from the
10:49
original look of the car but it can also
10:51
save you from having somebody not seeing
10:53
your incredibly dim tail lights and your
10:56
relatively dim brake lights and just
10:58
slam right into you today's brake lights
11:00
are much brighter than the ones in the
11:02
classic cars so having an LED third
11:05
brake light really can save your car I
11:07
will say that if you're in the northern
11:09
New Jersey area and you have a classic
11:12
car you might want to think about
11:13
joining the restored Rusty relics and T
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