1964 Plymouth valiant convertible
VIN: 1442510585
Engine: Slant Six (6-cylinder)
Exterior Color: Royal Signet Red
Interior Color: Black
Assembly Plant: Detroit, Michigan
Assembly Date: November 1963
Dealership: Ely Motor Co., Redwood City, California
Original Purchase Date: December 20, 1963
Backstory
Redwood City, California, prides itself on its temperate quality of life: visitors are welcomed by a sign proclaiming “Climate Best by Government Test.” In late 1963, a Redwood City high school senior needed transportation for his school’s prom the following spring. Fortunately, he lived just down the street from a car dealership: Ely Motors, a Chrysler-Plymouth-Valiant-Imperial dealer. Perhaps even more important, he had parents willing to purchase a new car, especially a Plymouth, his father’s preferred make. (In a coincidence that reminds me it is in fact a small world after all, the father had previously been a Chrysler-Plymouth salesman, first at James A. McAlister in San Francisco, and then in Palo Alto, around the time my 1932 Plymouth PB Convertible was shipped to McAlister and sold in Palo Alto.) On the day he and his mother visited Ely Motors, the dealership had two Valiant convertibles in stock, in different shades of red—he chose the darker color car (Royal Signet Red, available only in the 1964 model year) with a power top and crank windows over the lighter color option with a manual top and power windows. His mother bought the Valiant, but the title was placed in his father’s name to correspond with the family’s auto insurance policy.
The young man’s ownership had an inauspicious start. After the prom ball, he and his date and their friends piled into the convertible and drove up California Street in San Francisco’s Nob Hill neighborhood to the Top of the Mark bar at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. The car promptly got stuck on cable car tracks. Fortunately, other than a serious accident in 1971, the memories created by the convertible improved dramatically in the following years; the car even acquired a nickname—“Prince Valiant, ” after the eponymous hero of a comic strip. His family moved to nearby Atherton in 1967. The young driver commuted five days a week to San Jose State College and recalls driving with the top down in the summertime along Alameda del Prado. The car was always garaged and well-maintained. In 1989, the no-longer-young man spent $13,000 on restoration, and in 1998 ultimately sold the convertible because it was no longer practical as he grew older.
Ownership of the Valiant passed first to a couple in San Jose, and then to a musician in Oakland (during his ownership, the musician released a CD entitled Valiant Transaudio, with cover art photos of the car and the car’s dashboard radio). Finally, it wound up with a family in Marin County, north of San Francisco, who babied the vehicle for a number of years. This family happened to be among my neighbors, residing halfway between my house and the nearest downtown coffee shop. For several years, I admired the red convertible each morning on my daily java-jolt run. One evening, I was surprised to discover the vehicle listed for sale online. A few days later, after an online transaction between parties separated by 800 feet of sidewalk, this little car was mine.
My ownership of Prince Valiant was brief, as space and financial constraints necessitated some culling of the fleet. But I enjoyed my rides along the back roads of Marin County, the indefatigable slant-six engine powering me along paths mercifully devoid of cable car tracks.
A World War II veteran, grandson of Stanford University’s third president, and a graduate of both Stanford University and Stanford Business School, Leonard Ely started selling Chryslers and Plymouths in Palo Alto, California, in 1954, and two years later built a dealership on El Camino Real in Redwood City. He later added a Chevrolet dealership, became a real estate developer, and remained active in philanthropic and civic affairs. Mr. Ely eventually sold his auto dealerships after three decades, and died in 2011, at age 87.
