A Dragster At Heart

            Some animals are born to run, to race, to feel the wind rush by as they move faster than all the others. This is Ed Finke’s 1963 Dodge Polara 426 Max Wedge.

            Ed bought this piece of American muscle about a year and a half ago when a friend of his who runs a classic car dealership in Pittsburgh gave him a call. “He told me to come look at it,” Ed said, adding that his friend knew he would like it.  He did.

            “It had a complete body off restoration five years ago,” said Ed so there wasn’t a whole lot to do when he bought it. But there was work that had to be done. “Since it was a drag racer I did some substantial mechanical work to get it ready for the street,” he explained. “I replaced the racing clutch, had the transmission rebuilt, put in the correct headers,” he said, listing off some of the those mechanical changes he made.

            A drag racer? Indeed. According the Ed the car has a substantial history of running on drag strips and being successful.

            When the Polara was introduced in 1960 it was Dodge’s top-of-the-line full sized car. Big and powerful and carrying the touches of luxury that was expected of a “land yacht” of the day, the Polara saw its status as Dodge’s top big car drop after only two years.

            In 1962 the Dodge Custom 880 was introduced and the Polara was essentially downsized to an intermediate model, competing against the Chevy Impala and Ford Galaxy. This was actually a result of the brand’s streamlining of all of its models across the board.  In 1963 the wheelbase on the Polara grew a little but the intermediate status remained.

            What Dodge found themselves with was a mid-sized machine with a large power plant: the perfect combination for speed.

            “This is a dragster at heart,” said Ed with a wry grin. “It runs like a scalded dog. It should. It has a 411 rear end. It can go to 120 in 10 to 12 seconds.”

            While he admits that he hasn’t pushed the 426 cubic inch “race only” dual quad cam Air Max Wedge V 8 that fast, he does admit to getting it up to 80 in a hurry.

            “I drive it more often than I should,” he said. “It’s more fun than leaving it in a barn.” In fact that is why he doesn’t show the car all that often. “It’s more fun to drive than to stand around looking at it,” he said.

            But since it is a dragster at heart, with the desire to chew up the road and swallow it through the windshield and spit it out the rear view mirror, it is a short burst kind of car.

            “It likes to run fast for short bits and then go back into the barn,” Ed said. Ah, but those short bursts make it all worthwhile.