’63 Polara
Big muscle and a face you don’t forget Story and photos by John Gunnell
K
evin Pfaff listed the things his ’63 Dodge Polara two-door hardtop was known for. He wrote of its sound, its dual quad carburetor set up, its racy stance and its glitter-withclass ‘60s Mopar-style vinyl interior. Then, he thought for a minute and added — “Oh, and the front end; you know, this car has a front end ‘face’ that’s very hard to forget.” Kevin bought the Dodge Polara, put a bit of work into it and quickly took trophies and awards at several local car shows. A printer in Ripon, Wis., by trade, Kevin put a lot of energy into detailing the exterior and interior of the car. In addition to the cosmetics, he did a drive train rebuild (with a couple of aftermarket upgrades) and also had the push-button TorqueFlite automatic transmission gone through so it works the way it should. With a 119-inch wheelbase, a 208.1-in. overall length and an almost 4,000-lb. curb weight, the ‘63 Polara hardtop might be hard to think of as a muscle car today. However, road tests recorded back in the era the car was new could easily change your mind. Motor Trend’s technical editor Jim Wright tested a Dodge Polara with the 383-cid 330-hp V8 and he managed do the 0-to-60 mph trip in a mere 7.7 seconds. The quarter mile took him 15.8 seconds, by which time the big, open-top Dodge was moving at 92 mph. “Barring all-out drag-race engines, there aren’t many that can stay with the 330-hp “383” in acceleration,” Wright wrote in his article. Kevin loves hearing that, since his Polara hardtop has a 440-cid engine that’s been tweaked to 485 24 MUSCLE CAR PLUS MAGAZINE APRIL/MAY 2022
