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Greetings and Welcome to The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg
New episodes tend to air over the local KMMR radio station @ 5 minutes past 4PM each M-F. And have been doing so, nearly every week since Sept 2018.
I'm D.J. Rasmussen, O.K.s friend since junior high, possibly your neighbor & this websites maintainer, whom strives to get each episode's show notes written, the transcript proofed and the audio posted to the internet within a few hours of that days KMMR air time. NOTE: recently been publishing most new releases by 4:30PM.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the time we can spend together.
I wanna again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Get ya cup of coffee, glass of iced tea, find a shady spot with a bottle of water, lets see what's happening.
OK Solberg:Spring Wheat, listen, $6.31 a bushel. But the interesting and unusual part is Winter Wheat is almost always lower in price than Spring. Now Winter Wheat is 11ยข higher than Spring at $6.42 a pound. 550lb steer calf, we're gonna find out next week because Northern Video Auction happens this week, and I'll give you some current prices next week. And a 100lb fat lamb in Billings $3.25 a pound on the top end. But, guys, there's more, much more.
OK Solberg:Okay. It's July 20, and that means it's Tim Bruckner's birthday. So happy birthday, Tim. And how appropriate. Tim likes cars, always has. I learned more about cars from Tim than he's probably forgotten. So a great thing his birthday falls on Jay & Joe's Motor Monday, the day we look at horsepower one Monday at a time.
OK Solberg:And today, well, the little car that never asked for applause. In the early 1960's if you stood on Main Street in Glasgow Mt or Mile City or even Malta, Montana, actually any town in small town America, you would have seen them. Not flashy, not fast, not covered with chrome, just quietly going about their business.
OK Solberg:And the name is the Plymouth Valiant. Yep. It arrived for the 1960 model year just as America was discovering that not everyone needed a car the size of a living room. Ford introduced the Falcon. Chevrolet answered with the Corvair.
OK Solberg:Chrysler entered the contest with something entirely new, the Valiant. It featured unit body construction, torsion bar front suspension, and an all new overhead valve engine that leaned 30 degrees to one side forever, earning the nickname, say it out loud, Joe. Say it out loud, Jay. Say it out loud, Tim. The slant six.
OK Solberg:Now leaning an engine over wasn't done to make it look interesting. Uh-uh. Chrysler engineers did it to lower the hood line while leaving room for longer intake runners. It was engineering, not showmanship, and oh, what an engine it became. The Slant six developed a reputation that, well, mechanics still talk about today.
OK Solberg:It wasn't designed to win drag races. Chrysler engineers openly described it as an engine built for economy and reliability. Before long, it powered not only Valiance, but darts, pickups, vans, and countless family cars for more than two decades.
OK Solberg:Yet here's something many people never knew. When NASCAR held a compact car race, compact car race at Daytona in 1960, 7 Plymouth Valiance equipped with Chrysler's hyperpack version of the Slant six entered the event. Guess what happened? All 7 finished and they finished one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, in that order.
OK Solberg:The remarkable showing proves something far more important than speed. It proved durability. For you see out here in Montana, durability matters more than trophies. When the nearest dealership might be 50 or a 100 miles away and winter wasn't merely cold, but it was determined, a car that started every morning, well, that became part of the family.
OK Solberg:The Valiant earned that kind of trust. It carried school teachers to class before daylight. It took young couples to church on Sunday. It hauled groceries, fishing poles, and children. It crossed wheat country, cattle country, and prairie roads where reliability wasn't a luxury. Well, it was a necessity.
OK Solberg:No magazine ever called it glamorous. Teenagers didn't tape valiant posters to their bedroom walls. Songs weren't written about it, but thousands of Americans learned to drive in one. They courted in one and brought new home newborn babies home from the hospital in a Plymouth Valiant.
OK Solberg:Automotive writers have since called the Valiant one of the best all around domestic cars of its era, and it became one of Chrysler's best selling automobiles during the 1960's and 1070's. 17 years. That's how long the Plymouth Valiant remained in production from 1960 through 1976.
OK Solberg:Not because it chased fads, but because it faithfully did what Americans asked it to do. Now history often shines its spotlight on the loudest automobiles, you know, the muscle cars, the convertibles, the dream machines.
OK Solberg:But every parade but every parade has people carrying the banner before the band arrives and the Plymouth Valiant was one of those quiet heroes. It asked for no applause. You simply turned the key, well, and it started every morning and off to work you went. Now isn't that really what it's all about?
OK Solberg:And perhaps that's why all these years later, so many Americans smile when they just simply hear its name. Not because it was the fastest car on the road, but because when life needed to get somewhere, the valiant almost always got you there. The end, and that sizes it up, and let's put a cherry on top with a fitting bible verse.
OK Solberg:Listen now and think of the doer of the deed as a faithful Plymouth valiant. Proverbs 25:13 Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him. He refreshes the soul of his master.
OK Solberg:Proverbs 25 verse 13. Yep. The Plymouth Valiant went through the cold and the snow, and it went through the heat of harvest just like a faithful servant.
OK Solberg:So until next time, as you go out there, remember now it's Tim's birthday. Don't be bitter.