One Of None

Scott Kelly has built the hardtop muscle car that valiant never did – but should have.

- Boris Viskovic

ONE of the things I find most amusing about the whole muscle car scene is how some owners always find a way to make their car ‘one of one’. You know how it goes – this colour paint with that colour trim; those wheels; painted on a Wednesday by a left-handed genius with an upside-down spray gun. Well, Scott Kelly has gone one better and built himself a ‘one of zero’ Aussie muscle car classic. Huh?

Yep, for some reason, Chrysler Australia Limited (CAL) never built a hot version of the two-door hardtop Valiants in the VH-VJ model series. Most likely it’s because they didn’t want to take the focus – and perhaps sales – away from the locally developed R/T Chargers. Instead, they put the 265 Hemi and go-fast stripes on the four-door Pacers. But what if CAL took a leaf out of the US designers’ handbook and built a properly hot two-door version of a Pacer? They almost got there with the E55 Charger, but that got watered down into more of a luxo-cruiser than an all-out race machine. 

Well, wonder no more. Scott has been a Mopar tragic since 1979, when his dad rocked up with a ’72 Charger for his mum to drive, and by the time he was old enough to get behind the wheel, there was a VJ Regal in the driveway.