Unless you were there you can't imagine the impact the Chrysler Valiant had on those of us who cared about cars when it was first introduced in 1960. Influenced by Volkswagen and a few moderately successful British and French brands, GM and Ford jumped on the economy bandwagon by launching what marketing people dubbed "compacts." Not surprisingly they resembled scaled-down full-size sedans. Chrysler, never one to follow the herd, went them one better with a Virgil Exner-designed compact that had Europe written all over it. Note the Mercedes/Jaguar/Rolls grille, the dominant fender lines. Admire how the 6-cylinder engine was slanted for a lower hoodline. Check the front suspension and find, not squishy coil springs, but firm torsion bars, a/la VW and Porsche. (The pushbutton automatic gear selector, however, was very 60's American.)

Fast forward to 2007 and you now have a Swiss rock band, led by Sylvain Fritsch, touring in the 1962 Chrysler Valiant V-200 seen here. (The band's equipment follows in a van.) This Valiant even includes a period Blaupunkt-Koln FM tube radio that, as aficionados know, still sounds better than any satellite feed. Our story owes its origins to an article in an Autoweek article by Eric Tegler, wherein he describes this particular Valiant's Revival as it "rides softly over Basel's tram-tracked streets, its body rolling gently around corners, its narrow tires on 13-inch wheels encouraging a slow and easy driving style." I remember Basel. That's where my young family and I changed trains from London at 4AM en route from London to a Swiss ski vacation; two little boys, half awake, standing on the platform in the frigid air...