Phil Akerman, 71, of Van Wert has owned this 1963 Dodge Polara for six years. He and his wife, Melody, enjoy taking it to car shows around the area, but she says, for her, “only when there’s good food and good weather.”
Jim Krumel | For The Lima News
VAN WERT – Phil Akerman never expected to hear back from the man who owned a 1963 Dodge Polara.
He had attended a cruise-in in Lima six years ago and told the man he’d like to buy his Polara. They had a nice conversation, but the man politely declined, saying it wasn’t for sale.
“I never thought I would hear from him again,” Akerman said. “Then on a Monday after the car show that weekend, I get a call from the guy. He wanted to know if I was still interested in buying his Polara. He had decided to buy a Mustang GT and was now willing to sell.”
It didn’t take long for Akerman to close the deal. The 71-year-old Van Wert man has been driving the Polara ever since to car shows throughout Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.
“The guy I bought the Polara from actually called me back some time later and wanted to buy back the car,” Akerman said.
The Polara was named after the Polaris star, an attempt by Dodge to appeal to the excitement surrounding the space race during the early 1960s. It was part of Dodge’s lineup from 1960 to 1973, when it was replaced by the Dodge Monaco.
Interestingly, at no place on the outside of the car does the word “Polara” appear.
“It says ‘440’ on the outside of the car and some people falsely believe that’s the name of the car – a Dodge 440 – but the 440 is just a body style,” Akerman said.
His Polara has the the original 426 cubic inch max wedge V-8 engine, which makes it one of the first muscle cars ever built.
That engine also powered the Polara Pursuit, one of the most revered police cars of the 1960s. It recorded a speed of 149.6 mile per hour on Chrysler’s test track in Michigan.
“The car has a lot of history to it,” Akerman said.
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• Mail: Real Wheels, Newsroom, The Lima News; 205 W. Market St., Suite #100A; Lima, OH 45801.
• Email: [email protected]
• Include: Photograph of your car; year of car, make and model; how many years you have owned the vehicle; car’s history; best memory of car; your name, address and telephone number (the phone number will not be published).
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