Family Heirloom 1957 Dodge Suburban Is a Half-Hemi Mopar With Cool Features and History

Mrs. Sanders was born six years before the dawn of the 20th century, so in 1957, she had seen plenty in her life. That didn’t prevent her from buying a brand-new car – a Dodge, to be specific. The woman was not at the age when she actually had any practical need for a station wagon. Still, she chose this body style.

What’s interesting is that she preferred the two-door version of the long-roof Dodge over the more practical four-door, and this is where the story of this car starts to get interesting. Out of almost 281,400 automobiles assembled by Dodge in the United States in 1957, she bought one of the rarest - a Suburban station wagon. 7,163 were produced – not necessarily hen-teeth rare, but tell me, how many are still around today?

Even more so, how many of those rare examples have under 38k original miles (61,155 kilometers)? And, to top it off, how many are still with the first buyer’s family? Not that many, as you might imagine, and the descendants of Mrs. Amelia B. Sanders are still having fun with the Dodge. The woman didn’t drive it over long distances. Still, she had the car do routine jobs, like groceries and other mundane activities a grandmother usually does.

In 1982, the lady passed away, and one of her grandsons inherited the wagon. He used it without giving a second thought to its rarity—back then, it was a 25-year-old boat—until the pushbutton transmission failed to shift in reverse in 1985. The man consequently parked it in his garage and never touched it again. In 2021, Mrs. Sanders’ grandson called his cousin, Pat Kapral, asking if she wanted to take custody of the car.

The Kaprals are a Mopar family (they own two Plymouth GTXs and a Challenger convertible), so this special Dodge couldn’t have fallen into better hands. 36 years in a garage leaves some scars on a car, and the Suburban was not a pretty sight. It wasn’t a total disaster, but it just didn’t look the part – and the pushbutton gearbox still provided just forward movement.

Pat Kapral appointed her son, Brian, to put the car back on the road, and the man happily obliged with the help of a skilled friend. The Doge’s Red Ram aircraft-type V8 powerplant still pushes the 4,100-lb (1,860 kg) hunk of Detroit Steel around with a rebuilt transmission and a 3.36 rear axle. The 354 cubic inches (5.8 liters) were good for 245 hp and 320 lb-ft back in the day (248 PS, 434 Nm).

The car now has power steering, front disc brakes, air conditioning, electronic ignition, LED light, side mirrors left and right, radial tires, a rear-view camera, and a USB charging port with a voltage indicator. The car will stay a driver for the Kaprals for as long as possible. They don’t plan to correct the dings and dents on it, as they serve as a reminder of the car’s originality, history, and sentimental value.