Another car that turns 50 this year is the 1961 Dodge Polara, but it was opposite in size and in production run to the Renault 4 - only 1,862 were made of the 2-door coupe (hardtop) variant shown at the top and total full Dodges produced for 1961 were only 14,032. Examples in prime condition are thus probably valuable now. The other versions were a 2-door convertible, a 4-door sedan (second photo) and a 4-door station wagon.
The fins of the 1960 model were made "taller as they flowed toward the rear window. As the fins sloped towards the rear of the car, they cut slightly towards the center (to allow the single tail light housing on each side) of the rear of the vehicle, wrapping downward and then back along the side fender to form a C-shaped line accentuated in chrome." A detail of the fin is shown below.
What a surprise to see my (uncredited) photo of my best friend's '61 Polara 2drht in your blog. I would think as a publisher you would give photo credits, even if you stumbled across them on the Web. The pillarless car pictured below it is 4 door hardtop, a model offered in addition to the 4 door sedan, and the gold car at the bottom wears a non-stock chrome projectile on its taillight among its many modifications.
ReplyDeleteIn paragraph 2 you refer to the 1960 model, you mean 1961? Surviving '61 Polaras are very few and rarely come up for sale, but the cars' popularity is growing in spite of (or perhaps beacuse of) their funky, end-of-the-Exner-Era design.
Tom Gibson
Anderson, SC, USA
We try to give photo credits, but often pics are spread over the web and finding the original can involve some research - and even then contact details are often not there.
ReplyDeleteActually in paragraph 2 we are talking about the 1960 models' fins which were reduced in magnitude on the 1961 models, see the later post.
A friend of my parents was a salesman at a Dodge dealership. He almost went broke during the 1961 model year - apparently the public didn't cotton on to those fins.
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