I never knew that I needed this car until I saw pictures of it.
I don’t mind wagons at all. Except Chevy Cavalier station wagons, they can all get smashed flat for what I care. But RWD station wagons of the past, I’m good with. They had purpose and utility, but until the later 1970s weren’t these massive oversized things…they were just a car with better cargo capacity, that’s all. Four doors, room for the family, and a great place to put luggage, or to put groceries, or to put the kids you thought would do best in a crash. You know, those kinds of large, cumbersome objects. Then wagons got unpopular for years. They were the image of the days of old, of road trips from hell, siblings who fought while flipping off traffic behind them, and such. The suffered the common problem for an utility style vehicle aimed at families: they got old. Everybody moved on to minivans…then to sport-utility vehicles…then to crossovers. Meanwhile, wagons were demo derby material, the butt of jokes, the sad hulk at the far end of the field nobody wanted to mess with.
Look at this 1965 Dodge Coronet 440. Look at it properly. Fat rubber at all four corners. Two expansive bench seats. A 440 under the hood thumping Ma Mopar’s greatest hits in the proper bass tones. Police-spec wheels with the Fratzog logo embossed in the center, and the one new item we can spot, the one we welcome, a white cue ball attached to the shifter of a five-speed manual transmission. That’s right, kids, dad can turn this car around with a downshift and a clutch-kick and you’ll be back home before you are able to utter a protest.
How descriptive do I need to be? This Coronet is just boss.
I dig it. When I got my license my parents had a ’63 Polaris wagon, white with a red stripe and interior, 318 and typewriter shifter.
This one would be way better . . . well, maybe not for a 16 year old, but the 66 year old me would certainly drive it to town every now and then.
Ive said it before im not a mopar guy at all but id lower it a little and drive the snot out of it
great tow car, but no p/s, p/b or a/c. i’m starting to soften up at 69…..lol
I\’d just have to take it to the local drag strip and give her a good shake down. I\’m sure it would shut a few of these younger kids up once they saw the number it put up. And turn quite a few heads while doing so.
But if truth be told, & money was no object. I\’d love my 69 Superbee again. How did that go again? \”There is no car like a mopar\”
The 70\’s were a lot of fun, & the 80\’s was a blurry, then I had kids and had to grow up. Or at least act like it anyway, lol…
I really enjoyed this article, & the walk down memory lane.
14.70s in the 1/4 isn’t going to shut anyone up. There are plenty of new wagons in the twelves and some are even in 11s and high 10s.
Old cars are cool but they’re slow.
new cars have no style
Yea, what I\’d give to have my 69 Super Bee as well. Those were the days my friend…
I did not know that Polaris made a wagon?
That wagon used to belong to my friend Tony R. He bought it in 1995 from a guy named Ron H. Both lived in Illinois.
The wagon had a 273 with 3 on the tree originally. Mike D built the 440 and he and Tony installed it along with the Keisler 5 speed.
The car had been in a wreck the past and had front frame rail damage. I got the frame squared up before the 440 went in.
I also helped swap in a new 8.75!rear with 3.55:1 gears.
The cop wheels and hub caps were additions made by Tony. Looking at the photos, not much has changed since he owned the car.
Tony sold the car sometime around 2010.