For Sale: 1968 Dodge Polara show winner, must see photos / rare classic

1968 Dodge Polara, Vintage Classic, rare and unspoiled vehicle with
318 engine and two 4-barrel carbs!

Check out dubdubdub my dodge polara dot com

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1968 Dodge Polara, Classic Muscle Car -- Street Modified Show Winner!
You will not find a Dodge Polara in better condition! Everything has
been handcrafted in fine detail. The original owner is selling because
he needs room to fit new projects. In fact, he is the only one who has
sat in it since the complete interior was redone!

What is the value of this incredible machine? Who knows? But it is
worth every cent! Cars like this are going for 25, 30, 40 or even
$50,000 on eBay and elsewhere, but you can experience the rush and
excitement of owning your own piece of history for only $19,888. The
countless hours refinishing, restoring and reconditioning alone is
worth more than your price for this rare vehicle. You really need to
see and hear this car!

What's included: take a look at the engine in this baby! It is a
rebuilt 318 with two four-barrel carburetors. Lots of chrome and
polished aluminum! Most everything is new or rebuilt. The brake and
fule lines are polished stainless steel and custom installed. It has
anew steering box, shocks, ball joints, tires, rim with knockoffs, all
new chrome bumpers custom designed and polished. The steering column
was rebuilt and the entire dash redone--everything works! Has tach and
guages under dash. Extra N.O.S. AM Radio available upon request. All
new rear drum brake parts and brand new stainless steel front disc
brakes. The exhaust system is new with 24 glass packs--all ceramic
coated. The exhaust was installed by RPM Mufflers in Hayward, CA. The
interior is completely new and custom designed for this car. You have
to see it! The trunk interior matches the rest of the car!

The dashboard was sent along with the arm rests to to "Just Dashes" in
Los Angeles; all new handles inside and out of the doors; custom
pinstriping throughout the inside and out of the car, even under the
hood--60's style cutout!

Here's the fine print: This car was specifically designed to show,
drive and enjoy! It is not a tire burner! It is a cruiser! Serious
buyers only! No low-ballers, tightwads, etc. If you have the cash and
want an incredible deal on a fantastic show car, well this is it! The
price has already been dropped for a fast sale; no tire kickers! The
vehicle is priced right, this is a final sale, as is, out the door
cash deal! No payments or special arraingements. Shipping will be up
to the buyer and payment in full must happen prior to making any
shipping plans.

Here's the way we're doing this: you send me an email stating your
interest with any questions, and I contact the actual owner when you
have been prequalified as a seriously interested buyer. No phone calls
until after we've established your level of interest and ability to
pay! Sorry for the requirements, but the internet is full of lookiloos
and car-curious lurkers. Thank you for your interest!

my dodge polara "dot" com

Thanks!

Erik

 

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE late 60's Polaras.

But the day a 318-powered anything other than a 'Cuda convertible or an
Andy Granatelli Indy car is worth 20k I'll eat my shorts.

 

have to disagree with you. This is a cruiser, not a drag racer. 90
MPH on freeway uphill, no problem! The fine details of putting
together a rare piece of machinery like this takes a lot of time and
effort. That is worth something. This baby is alltogether hotrod!

Thanks for your input however...

Erik
mydodgepolara.com
See the video --> http://www.mydodgepolara.com

 

why the funky price with 888 on it?

and polaras were cruisers not muscle cars

 

Rob,
I think an asterisk is required here..... post-64 Polaras were cruisers.
There are plenty of 63 & 64 Polaras that qualify as 'Muscle Cars.'
John

 

probably right. I was referring to his web site saying the 68 was a classic
muscle car.....

I'd take a 64 any day. hell ya.

 

My brother used to have a 318-powered '68 Polara back in the early 70's.
'Muscle Car' is not a term I'd use in describing it. On the other hand, my
friend had a '63 Polara with a 496" Hemi (currently living somewhere in
Arizona). That one definitely fits anybody's definition of a 'Muscle Car.'
Several stout Max Wedge '64's still running around the Motor City still as
well.
John

 

John Mielke added these comments in the current discussion du
jour ...

I am 2nd generation Chrysler, now retired myself. I spent 33
years in a wide variety of engineering and IT positions at all
grade levels in Chrysler engineering. So, besides a large number
of cars I've either bought or leased on the company car program,
plus many cars with all sorts of engines in them while on the
job, I can categorically say - my opinion, YMMV - that a 318 in
ANY C-Body car is so anemic as to be almost dangerous, almost as
bad as the 1st 2.2L K-Cars. You're trying to push around a 4200+
pound car with only 230 bhp, which might be around 150-160 net
hp. The power-to-weight for even the bhp was only around 18:1.

I had a number of 318s in smaller vehicles, sometimes because
there was no choice, e.g. 1981 Cordoba, 1976 Volare, 1978
LeBaron, etc. I DID buy a 1975 Plymouth Gran Fury Brougham with a
360 in it, but I ordered a 3.23 axle for it. I'd driven similar
cars at work and test-drove a car at the dealer with a 2.76.

So, personally, I wouldn't much want a 318 Polara, preferring a
383 2-barrel at least. But, as I said, that's my opinion and
your's obviously does vary.

Now, I've also driven EVERY performance car Chrysler made 1969-
1970, then Army, then 1972-1975 when I switched to IT. But, by
then, the muscle car era had ended. And, living here, I did the
so-called Woodward Avenue Grand Prix loop from the Totem Pole
drive-in in Royal Oak to Ted's Drive-In at Square Lake road and
watched these cars in action against the best from GM and Ford.
My personal observations were that a 383 Magnum was flatly non-
competitive on the street, I know, I had one in my 1970
Challenger R/T. Even the 440 Magnum was barely adequate against
an SS-396 or GTO 389, and no where near an SS-454 or a 455 Goat.
Again, in my opinion, it took a 440 Six Pack to beat these guys.

And, no, the 426 Street Hemi was NOT the car to beat on the
street. Drags, yes, street, no. Several reasons: most people
bought them with 3.23 gears because they needed to drive to work,
which is not a good ratio for the torque curve of the Hemi. More
important, though was that if the car had PB, it was almost a
day's work to get the booster off so you could pull the valve
covers and set the lash as well as replace the left rear plug.
Lots of guys didn't have the time or energy so they drove around
with with 4 anemic cylinders because of loose lash and one dead
cylinder with a fouled plug. But, 60-punch on I-75 with a
TorqueFlite was OWNED by the Hemi. That's not a good speed for
the 4-speed GM and Ford cars, but right at the torque peak of the
Hemi.

Unfortunately, I never drove a Max Wedge anything, was in H.S.
then. And, they didn't pass out drag race dual-quad short ram 426
Hemis for any yahoo to test spin.

 

I agree with you 100% on all of the above statements (I own a '66
Polara, 440 2.93 highway gears, would run triple digits for 8 hours
without breaking a sweat and the AC blowing frost). And I'm sure its a
great car.

But a 318 C-body still doesn't command that kind of $$ in the market.
Sorry. Neither does my Polara, and its a 383 car originally. Now if it
were a pre-66 300 Letter car, or a Monaco 500 convertible.... different
story.

 

Steve added these comments in the current discussion du jour ...

Isn't it just a tad dangerous to run 8 hours over 100 mph, not to
mention highly illegal? If you ever get busted by the State
Police, you won't get a ticket, you'll be cuffed and arrested. 20
or 25 over is considered reckless driving. That, possibly
combined with weaving lanes to get around the people who think
that 80 is fast will add to your problems, etc. Don't know where
you live, but it ain't the Autobahn!

This part I agree with. The only people who would want such a car
is someone who just wants a "classic" car at a reasonable price
that won't keep them repairing it all the time. I was cruising
again last night on Woodward Avenue (pre-cruise on Saturday
crusing) and saw a number of cars like the OP described. Nothing
wrong with it at all, just not an especially exciting car to
cruise in.

 

Depends on what the limit is. "20 over" is usually the threshold for
getting "busted" instead of ticketed around here, and there are freeways
with an 80 mph limit (I 10, for example). But I'm too old to risk it, I
never run more than about 8 mph over any given limit. But the
bedwetters are, I think, pushing for busting you for anthing over 90
regardless of the limit now, since the new 80 limit puts "20 over" at
100 and they just can't stand the idea of someone running triple digits
and not being a criminal.

Besides I said the car "would" do it. And it would, but I've never
sustained anything above 85. I took my family on vacation in that car
last year, and 80 mph is the posted speed limit on I-10 in west Texas
(and people run 85-88 all the time). It purred at that speed for hours,
that is 100% in its element and what those cars were made to do. Had to
slow down to the mid-70s heading north across New Mexico after that, and
it felt like walking

The reason I keep my '66 is precisely because its not worth a mint. It
allows me to enjoy driving a 440-powered Mopar every day without
worrying about it any more than I'd worry about a modern car. Can't do
that with its sister- my '69 Coronet R/T. But I do keep it
well-maintained. I'd rather keep an old car looking and running good
than a new one, and I can't for the life of me figure out why Toyota
owners even bother washing the little sh*tboxes

 

I apologise for using the "muscle car" term loosely.

You are right of course.

Erik

 

Yes, I know. The 318 C-body Polara is still unique in car shows and
such.
Somebody wants this one. Lots of interest. I'd like a Monaco 500
myself

 

The combination of the 318 and the excellent torqueflight trans is pretty
amazing. A buddy of mine had a '68 Fury III with the 318 2bbl. It would
beat my '71 Galaxie 351W or a '74 Monte Carlo 350 from 0 - 60 with no
problem.

When the car is heavy, look at the torque, not the horsepower.

Ken D.

 

Ken Doyle added these comments in the current discussion du jour
....

No matter what the weight of the car, torque is what accelerates
it, while hp is what gives it speed, especially top speed. It is
the combination of torque and hp and their relative curve shape
and peak rpms, as well as their rise and fall characteristics
that are tuned to produce desired performance from docile street
to muscle car to street drag racer to a full-blown drag-only car.
In my freshman year in Engineering School, we had an interesting
lecture and exercise that shows how the hp and torque curves,
combined with what is called "road hp" can be used to predict
mathematically the top speed of any vehicle with any engine.

Basically, when aerodynamic forces, drag, tire and other kinds of
friction, etc. combine to create an amount of hp to go faster,
and the engine cannot exceed that, that is the top speed. In the
1960s, Richard Petty was asked why he didn't go faster in some
race and pass what turned out to be the winning car. He said that
his engine and car builder had told him that at the speeds they
were running, close to 200 but before the Winged Warrier days, it
wouldn't taken 50 hp to go just 1-2 mph faster. He didn't have
it. In fact, the Hemi no matter its great reputation, did not
have all that great a hp advantage over the 427 Chevy and Fords,
thus Dodge went to aerodynamics to try to get more speed by
lowering drag, thus lowering road hp as described above.

Still, I stand by my previous statement. Having personally driven
318-equipped cars from A- to B- to C-Body and weights from 3200-
4400 pounds, I can safely say that the heavy cars were just too
much for it. Could it accelerate without being unsafe? Certainly?
But, go back to the reprints of Hot Rod Magazine and other car
rags of the 60s and see the times. It wasn't at all unusual for
318-360-383 2-barrel C-Bodies to take more than 10 seconds to
sprint to 60, sometimes 12. And, I've got reprints of B-Body cars
with 440 4-barrel, Six Packs, and 426 Street Hemi cars with gears
from 3.23 to 4.11 that gave WILDLY differing 0-60 and standing
1320 ETs. The main reason, of course, was temperature, humidity,
and track conditions. In car mag testing, you could rule out
driver error and you could depend on a good tune. e.g., I have a
test of a 426 Road Runner 4-speed with 4.11 gears that had the
attrocious 0-60 time of 7.1 seconds and the 1/4 in OVER 15! Can't
be so, you say? Well, I've got it in print.

Now, if the moon, planets and stars aligned right, small engines
could and did best far more powerful engines. e.g., in 1966, I
had a Dodge Dart GT with a 273 4-barrel, just 235 hp, 4-speed and
3.23 gears. A friend had a similar car, a 1966 Chevy II Nova SS
327/350. I could stay with him to about 50 from a standing start
before he started to pull away - using his vastly superior
torque. Used to majorly piss him off. The reason was, I believe,
NOT that one of us was a better driver but the two engines were
at opposite ends of a BIG set of tolerances that affect
performance.

 

HEMI-Powered wrote:

He didn't have

Not "much" of a HP advantage, but then you just proved that it didn't
TAKE much.

However, the Hemi had at least one HUGE advantage over the big-block
Chevy: The Hemi's moving parts usually stayed *inside* the engine for
the duration of a race

The Ford was good competition, though.