One of my hopes in starting CC was to be able to find the cars of my childhood and youth (yes, I have a strong nostalgic streak), to use the pictures in my Auto-Biography series and really bring it to life. That mostly hasn’t happened. The closest I’ve gotten was the 1962 Fairlane; I found a black 500 model; we had the stripper, natch. And I’ve long given up hope on finding a green Kadett A.
But the first car I ever drove (illicitly), our ’65 Coronet 440 wagon, seemed like a more realistic goal, but no luck yet. So when I came across these images (at chromjuwelen.com) from an expired Craigslist ad, of one the exact same beige color as ours, I had to snatch them. Even better yet, it has something a bit more ambitious under the hood than the lowly 318 ours had; those rear tires are the giveaway. I used to imagine that the “440” stood for a 440 wedge under the hood. In this case, it almost does; Coronet 470, anyone?
Yes, there’s a stroker big wedge under the hood, packing 470 cubic inches and some 600 hp, which replaced the original 318. This car allegedly ran the quarter in 10.98 and 121 mph. Now that would have been just the thing for my fifteen-year old lead foot. Color me gone…
Inside, you’d never know what was under the hood. They even kept the column shift for the Cope Pro Street Torqueflite. Nice. Now I know this isn’t really our old wagon, because this one came with air conditioning (not working), and a radio. Ours didn’t. The only reason my dad bought the 440-trim Coronet is because they didn’t build a nine-passenger version of the stripper Coronet. I eventually persuaded my mom to let me install a used 8-track player in the dash I’d picked up cheap somewhere, which was a bit of a hack job, and the trim panel had to be discarded. In retrospect, I’m amazed she let me do that, but by then the wagon was getting a bit elderly. I only had a handful of 8 tracks, the one I remember most was Led Zeppelin.
It’s probably a good thing there wasn’t a 440 or 470 under the hood of our wagon,as I seriously doubt I’d be here today to reminisce on that subject.
Related reading: Auto-Biography – D Stands for (First Illicit) Drive 1965 Dodge Coronet 500 CC
Nice Wagon there ! .
-Nate
Paul, if you have fond memories of Led Zeppelin, there’s a tribute band that calls themselves ‘Dread Zeppelin’ that plays Zeppelin covers in a reggae style with an Elvis impersonator lead singer. I saw them on Beale Street in Memphis once.
youtu.be/uTVgV4Z6Pm8
(copy & paste)
You know, it’s a good thing (maybe) that the Broham era happened. The cars of the 70’s were large enough to protect us when we wrecked, had mandated safety equipment, were slow enough to not get us into trouble beyond our developing skills and were cheap so that insurance was affordable.
I’m a Mopar guy (my family sold Chrysler-Plymouth from ’38 through ’67) but I’ve never warmed to the rear-end styling of Exner’s 60s B- and C-body wagons. Engel and his team had a much better handle on how to resolve a wagon.
Agreed. I thought they were pretty weird back there, and of course knew that it was a left over artifact of the ’62 design. Wagons were always the last to get redone, styling wise, because most folks didn’t care that much.
This is my idea of a Coronet wagon…
Hi!
I have the same car as you have. I wonder if You can help me with the paint code? I can not find it on any 1965 Chrysler paint sheets! It looks like your car match on the pictures. I do not have the fender tag either. That is why I try to find it on matcing cars. And it is not so many of them!
I live in Norway. It is very rare here. It is also an original big block car.(361 cu.in.) I hope You can help me!
I wonder if that beige color was Chrysler’s default color ?
I see it on many Mopars of that era.
A 63 Plymouth Savoy wagon that I owned in the early 80’s was painted this beige.
Paul I wouldn’t be so quick to call the 318 in your family’s wagon “lowly” At least from the perspective of my 63 Savoy with its Slant Six!
Try chirping a tire with a 318 in a rear-heavy wagon body style. Almost impossible; ask me how I know. But, yes, we were spared the ignominy of a slant six. That was saved for Dad’s Dart.
Agree on the color. It was like if you failed to choose a color on the order form, they would paint the car that beige.
Paul, the next time you’re in Austria try to pass by Michael Mugrauer’s place near Graz (http://www.mopargarage.at/). Or maybe not. Places like this make you start spending money you don’t have. The below was done by him and I saw it when he brought it to Vienna for a meeting – it was very, very clean, the guy knows his stuff. If I ever get to replicate my father’s Dart like I would have had it I know where to go.
@ Robert Swartz: yes, but they were lighter than the competition in Super Stock, and AFAIK the wagons were raced (the Savoy is a sort of a replica) – and won.
Man, even with the fat rubber out back, this is still one hell of a sleeper! This car with a 600HP big-block stroker under the hood is exactly the kind of thing I would have doodled in a notebook and dreamed about when I was in 7th grade, but now I think it’s overkill. Driving a Coronet wagon with the factory-installed 361 down a gently curving road along the coast on a nice sunny day is almost as appealing to my adult brain as doing a massive burnout in the 470-powered version under the artificial light of a strip mall parking lot would’ve been to me as a 13-year old. I’d still light up the back tires on a regular basis if I had one now, though!
I wasn’t even born yet when those pair of Autobiographies took place, but they’re scarily close to my own – just change “drug store” to “Borders Books”, Baltimore suburbs to NYC suburbs, LSD to MDMA, Dodge Coronet to Chevy Astro and 1960s to 1990s. I was the same age when I decided that regular life was bullshit and driving = freedom, and I still feel the same way! I wasn’t nearly as much of a chronic joyrider, though. I only dabbled in it, since I was getting a regular fix. My dad understood my burning need4speed and from the time I was 14 until I got my Learner’s Permit, he would let me chauffeur him to the deli for breakfast each Sunday morning. Bacon, two eggs and American cheese on a sesame seed roll with salt, pepper and ketchup.
My dad is pretty cool, and those couple hours of wheel-time per week mostly kept me going… but on the rare occasions when I’d come home late, or to an empty house, and find the keys left out on the kitchen table, I couldn’t help myself. The worst I ever did was putting a nice-sized kink into the front left fender launching the poor Astro over a Little League pitching mound! I was shitting myself trying to figure out a good excuse – fearing, mostly, that it would put an end to our Sunday drives – and finally decided it could be blamed on someone hitting it in the street while it was parked. Somehow I lucked out and never had to plead my innocence – neither him or my mom ever noticed! Both of them were totally oblivious when it came to cars, and I guess the huge crease and dinged up fender just blended in with the rest of the road rash on the Astro!
You should re-run all of those Autobiographies from the early days of CC. They’re all great and I’m sure at least half of the current readers haven’t seen them!
I will, one of these days. It would be the third time around…they were written back in 2007 at ttac.
Like the looks of my 69 better than the 65. But this is a wagon which trumps everything.
This was also on another good automotive web site: <a href ="http://bringatrailer.com/2013/11/13/600hp-470-stroker-wedge-1965-dodge-coronet-wagon-sleeper/" Bring a Trailer
Oops.
That’s Bring a Trailer
With this sleeper, when the kids ask “are we there yet?” a quick stab on the gas pedal will be followed by “we are now.” Nice find.
Oh, and memories of playing “fireman” while standing on the bumper and hanging on to one of those handles! Today only garbage men do that anymore.
That would have really been fun with 600hp under the hood!
+1!!!
My favourite cars have always been station wagons. I particularly like American station wagons of the mid 60s to about 1970, 71. My favourite station wagons are the 1965-67 Dodge Coronet.
I like these much better now then when I was a kid in the early ’70s and they were still fairly common. Early ’60s Mopars generally weren’t very competitive as far as styling when they were new, and adding a decade didn’t help much.
But, adding 5 decades seems to work wonders! I appreciate these in a whole new way. Almost new in design as they aren’t imprinted in my brain the way that more popular cars are.
Cool wagon.
LOVE it! A hot rod station wagon is just weird enough to really turn heads and drop jaws. There was a time where Id have said ‘WTF’ too. But the Magnum SRT-8 changed all that the first time I saw/heard one in silver with dark tint, blacked out lights, 18″ black torq thrusts and a pair of loud ass flowmasters. Ever since, Ive liked them, and the old school wagons that are hybridized with muscle car guts.
And then there WAS this triple black S6 Avant with the V8 and straight pipes that always bombed down the road in front of my old apartment. Sounded like the gates of hell opening up whenever he would give that thing the gas!