Chrysler to revive Pacer

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Australia will soon release a Chrysler 300 Pacer limited-edition to celebrate 50 years since the esteemed Chrysler Valiant Pacer was released.

Likely to appear on the 6.4-litre HEMI V8-powered Chrysler 300 SRT (from $65,950) – even though the original Pacer was a six-cylinder -- the born-again Pacer nameplate was last sold in 1973.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) Australia chief Steve Zanlunghi told carsales.com.au that the company would soon revive a long-lost badge from Chrysler’s past to demonstrate its commitment to the 300 SRT, which is now produced in right-hand drive only for Australia.

Asked about the future of the Chrysler 300 SRT in Australia, where it remains the only affordable large V8-powered sedan available, Zanlunghi said: “[Chrysler 300] is the only E-segment mainstream sedan with a V8. There is no end date to announce.

“We won the police contract in New South Wales for pursuit vehicles, which are the 300 SRT Cores.”

Zanlunghi stopped short of confirming the Pacer name, but did reveal that a special-edition Chrysler 300 would be released later this year to mark the 50th anniversary of an historical Australian nameplate from Chrysler.

Chrysler Australia launched the VF Valiant Pacer almost exactly five decades ago in mid-1969.

“Stay tuned for some news, because we’re looking to revive a storied nameplate here from our Australian heritage.

“We’re going to do a variant for the 300 off our Australian history. You can go back and see who’s having their 50th anniversary. So, there’s a 50th anniversary Chrysler 300 coming.

“With the Chrysler brand, we are trying to bring back a limited-edition run that we will see in the third or fourth quarter, which will be a special-edition, to celebrate the anniversary of a certain Chrysler version of a car that was built at the Adelaide plant,” he said.

Zanlunghi said the special-edition Chrysler 300 was designed to further appeal to a gap in the market created by the demise of the Australian-made Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon.

“We started talking about it one day because we own that space now due to Australian manufacturing going away – and we won the police contract – so we thought about what can we do to grow it,” he said.

“We’ve got the Australian history, we have the Chrysler by Chrysler, we’ve got the Valiant and Pacer, the plant’s still there, and there’s a 50th anniversary, so we thought, ‘What could we do?’

“There are a lot of diehard Chrysler fans out there. We get a lot of emails we see when we post something on social media. There are a lot of positive comments, so why not?”

Sold between 1969 and 1973, the Pacer was a six-cylinder performance variant of the Australian-made Chrysler Valiant designed to compete with V8-powered Australian rivals like the Holden Monaro GTS.

Chrysler’s first VF-series Valiant Pacer sedan was powered by the company’s 225 cubic-inch (3.7-litre) ‘slant six’, before three different tunes of an all-new HEMI 245ci (4.0-litre) straight six were offered in the facelifted VG-series Valiant Pacer of 1970 – the first and last Pacer to be offered in two-door Hardtop body style.

When the first fully Australian-designed Chrysler Valiant appeared in June 1971, the VH-series Pacer packed a 265ci (4.3-litre) six that accelerated it to 100km/h in 7.6 seconds on its way to the quarter-mile in 15.9sec and a 185km/h top speed – making it the fastest Australian-made six-cylinder sedan for the next 17 years.

However, just 1647 VH Valiant Pacers were produced before production ceased in May 1973 with the arrival of the VJ series, by which time the new 1971 VH Charger had become Chrysler’s best recognised model.

Following Mitsubishi’s purchase of Chrysler’s Australian operations in Adelaide, which went on to produce the Sigma, Magna and 380, local production of the Chrysler Valiant ceased in August 1981 after 565,338 sales. It took the US brand almost 25 years to offer another large car in Australia.

Produced in Canada, the current Chrysler 300 remains the only Chrysler model still available in Australia, where about 100 examples have been sold to April this year – down 11 per cent year on year.

It was released in 2011 and last facelifted in 2015, but employs the same Mercedes-based rear-drive LX platform as the large sedan that revived the historic Chrysler model name in 2005 (and the latest Dodge Charger sedan and Challenger coupe).

The Chrysler 300 is available in Australia with 3.6-litre V6 and 6.4-litre V8 petrol engines, but is no longer offered in diesel or wagon form.