Driving the Dream with Elise Edwards
Elise Edwards shares her infatuation with the Valiant Charger that began on the back of a motorbike during high school.
The day Elise picked up her Charger
We’ve been working on Charger Week stories for a couple of months now, but this one was a little more impromptu.
It all came together at the Mopar Nationals meeting in Heathcote, Victoria last Saturday afternoon. We were hunting around for a few Chargers to photograph in preparation for Charger Week and came across a beautiful example that looked like it was being loaded up for a long trip home.
We got chatting to Elise’s husband, Rod, while he was squeezing the last items into the boot. Rod told us all about the history of the car and mentioned that it belonged to Elise, who was doing one last lap of the event on foot.
A couple of minutes later, Elise arrived and shared a little bit about her passion for the car. We exchanged details and planned to chat all things Chargers the following morning.
And so, we did!
An automotive upbringing
Cars were in Elise’s blood from the get-go, but the Chrysler badge rarely featured in the early days.
“My dad is a Ford man and he had some beautiful cars. He wasn’t a mechanic or anything, but he had a real passion for Fords. The car that stands out to me was a beautiful Ford XB Fairmont. It was light green with a cream interior. It originally belonged to his friend, but he couldn’t afford to pay the mechanical bill for the car. So, my Dad asked, ‘if I pay the mechanics, can I have it?’ He said yes, so Dad paid the bill and got the car. This was in the early eighties.
“The funny thing about that car was the horn hardly ever worked! I remember we got pulled over by the police one day when I was very young. I think it might have been along Bell Street, Preston. They were doing roadworthy checks and of course, dad was a bit nervous because of the horn. However, the police pressed the horn and it worked! Dad must have been thinking, ‘what the hell?’
“It also had an air scoop with pins to keep the bonnet in place. However, a couple of times, Dad was driving down the freeway at 100 kilometres per hour and the bonnet would fly up! Dad’s head would stick out the window and he’d try to navigate to slow down. It was a great car though. I have very fond memories of it. Unfortunately, Dad sold it to his brother and he wrote it off.”
An introduction to Valiants
Elise heard the story of Chrysler Australia and the Charger during her first relationship in high school.
“When I was 16, my first boyfriend had a passion for British motorbikes. He would also talk about Chargers, particularly the E49 VH Charger. I had never heard of Chargers in my life, but when we would go out, he would tell me the Bathurst story and point out whenever a Charger went past. I used to think they looked really different and that appealed to me.
“It was the Bathurst story that fascinated me the most. It was the fact that the Charger almost won but didn’t, how Chrysler no longer made cars in Australia and the shape of them! I loved the way the back sloped down and how different the styling was to a Ford or a Holden. Every man and his dog had a Ford or Holden back in the nineties, but I’ve always liked different things.
“A lot of people didn’t care much for Valiants then, but they really appealed to me. They didn’t get enough recognition at the time.”
The brand that captured Elise’s imagination
The first car
Elise knew what she wanted, but it wasn’t going to come into her life quickly.
“My first car was a Holden Gemini. It was a 1978 model. I had that car for about a year and a half. I’ll have to admit, I wasn’t very nice to that car. I thrashed it to pieces and it ended up having very low compression and it was running on three cylinders. To make it worse, I also smashed it toward the end of my time owning it.
“To get it back on the road, my dad paid a friend to get it back on the road very cheaply. It was red, but it ended up with a white bonnet and a blue side panel. It was a real bomb toward the end! I loved the car though.”
The dream
For almost two decades, Elise never went further than ‘test driving’ a Charger from the passenger’s seat.
“For a long time, I had a love for Valiant Chargers, but I had never driven one in my life, let alone owned one. I had been in a Charger but didn’t have the chance to drive it.
“I was very particular about what I wanted, as it either needed to be a VH or a VJ Charger. It also had to be a 770 model, which just has a few other trimmings to it.”
An unforgettable phone call
Having commenced a serious search that spanned over a year, the path to Charger ownership began with a phone call out of the blue.
“My husband, Rod, has an old American car and he gets it serviced at a mechanic in Bentleigh. They had known that I’d been looking for a Charger, and they rang Rod and said, ‘we’re not ringing for you, we’re actually ringing for your missus. We think we’ve found her a Charger.’
“The car was in the workshop, and they had told the family not to put it on Carsales because they potentially had a buyer. Then, they asked us to come around. On the following Saturday, we drove up to Bentleigh, I got out of the car and caught a glimpse of the rear corner. I couldn’t see anything else, but I had already fallen in love with it.
“I hadn’t even seen the rest. The front end could have been smashed for all I knew, but the sun was glistening on the duco and I was in love. I never thought I would own a yellow car, but this shade of yellow is lovely and there aren’t too many yellow Chargers out there, so it checks the different box too!”
Elise and family leaving the Mopar Nationals on Saturday afternoon
The test drive
The butterflies arrived when Elise finally had the chance to get behind the wheel.
“The mechanic said ‘here’s the keys, have a test drive!’ It was very casual, nothing like a car dealership. They’ve known us for a long time.
“The mechanic drove it first, and once I had mustered up enough courage, I drove it! It had no power steering, and that was the first time I had driven a big car with no power steering before. From memory, it was idling low and running a bit rough.
“Once we got back, I couldn’t get the smile off my face. I remember having white knuckles on the steering wheel, that’s how nervous I was! I only drove it for about five minutes around Bentleigh, and I don’t know the area very well, but it was enough to know that I desperately wanted the car.”
Decisions, decisions
If there was a problem, it was the price. Elise looked to her Dad for guidance.
“I remember ringing up my Dad because it was three or four thousand dollars more than I expected to pay. However, he said ‘Elise, buy it. These Chargers don’t come around very often. You’ll kick yourself if you don’t get it.’
“Once we made the decision to buy it, I wanted to take it home that day. However, I had to wait another week. I was like a kid on Christmas Eve!”
Due diligence
For peace of mind, Elise made some calls to check the history of the car which returned some amazing results.
“I rang VicRoads to check that it hadn’t been stolen. The person from VicRoads said, ‘I haven’t seen this before’. And I said, ‘oh no, what’s happened?’. They said, ‘it’s been registered since 1974, never cancelled and never suspended.’ I just couldn’t believe it.
“It turns out it was a one-owner car. The original owner had died and his partner, a petite Chinese lady, kept it for a few years. All she did was reverse it out of the garage and then put it back in. Her son had told her to sell it, thinking it was not fair on the car.
“It’s also the original dealership sticker on the back of the car. We were told that at one point, somebody was going to peel off the sticker, but she had said ‘no!’ We also still have the original service book, and the son very sincerely asked me to promise to keep it original. I have it tucked away now.
The original Collins Chrysler dealership sticker
“There is a dint underneath the bumper at the back of the car. Apparently, he reversed it into a fire hydrant and was very upset about that. I’m leaving it, because it’s all part of the car’s story.”
The joy of ownership
We asked Elise if owning a Charger is all it’s cracked up to be.
“It sure is. In fact, it’s even better than I had dreamed of! I really enjoy driving it, and it’s become part of the family. It’s just so reliable, and it’s only ever broken down on me once which was just a month ago. Both Rod and I feel fantastic driving it.
“And yes, we still get the ‘Hey Charger’. I have shown my four-year-old son that video, so now he knows what people mean when they say ‘Hey Charger’! That advertisement is over 40 years old, but people still do it out on the road and on the footpath. It’s amazing.”
What’s next
Elise reveals her plans for the car.
“I’m going to get the wheels done next. They are the original wheels on the car, and I’m going to get them sandblasted and restored to how they were originally. I will have to get a new engine down the track, but the mechanic has told me that it’s okay to drive for now. It’s noisy, but that’s a Hemi!
“We’re going to Albury in March for a huge Chrysler meeting on the Murray River, so the wheels will be ready for that.”
What the Charger means
We finished off with by asking Elise what the Charger means to her.
“It’s a piece of Australian motoring history. The VH could have possibly won Bathurst, which could have changed things for Chrysler and the Valiant Charger. The fact that it has its own original style that’s different to a Holden or Ford means a lot to me as well.
“I love the name, too. Charger is such an iconic name. These days, when people say ‘Charger’, people think of their phone charger! At work, I talk about my Charger and somebody thought I was talking about a phone charger. The car came before the bloody phone chargers!”
Hey Charger! Elise and Rod on the move.