Rare 1965 Dodge Coronet 500 Convertible With 426 Street Wedge Sets New Auction Record

Mecum's 2026 Tulsa auction may not have produced the headline-grabbing million-dollar sales seen at Kissimmee or Indy, but one classic Mopar quietly made history. A beautifully restored 1965 Dodge Coronet 500 convertible crossed the block for a record-setting price, proving that rarity and originality still command serious money.

At first glance, the fifth-generation Coronet doesn't seem particularly exotic. Dodge built more than one million examples during the model's production run, with over 200,000 units sold in 1965 alone. Roughly 33,000 buyers opted for the upscale Coronet 500 trim package.

What separates this car from the crowd is a pair of factory options that are rarely seen together.

The first is the body style. Convertibles were already falling out of favor by the mid-1960s, and Dodge built fewer than 6,000 drop-top Coronets for 1965. Of those, just 3,168 carried the 500 designation.

The second ingredient is hiding under the hood.

Before the arrival of the legendary 426 Hemi and 440 Magnum in 1966, Dodge offered several engine choices for the Coronet. Buyers could choose everything from the dependable 225-cubic-inch Slant Six to a trio of big-block V8s. The top performer was the 426-cubic-inch Street Wedge, which shouldn't be confused with the later Hemi. Rated at 365 horsepower, it was the most powerful engine available that year.

The original buyer selected the high-performance Street Wedge and paired it with a four-speed manual transmission, creating one of the most desirable combinations available in 1965.

Production figures indicate that Dodge built around 2,100 Coronets equipped with the Street Wedge engine, and fewer than 1,000 of them received the four-speed gearbox. Add in the convertible body style, and this particular configuration narrows to just 155 examples.

That kind of rarity, combined with a numbers-matching drivetrain and a meticulous restoration, caught the attention of collectors in Tulsa. When the bidding ended, the hammer dropped at $73,700.

While that number may seem modest compared to 426 Hemi Coronets from later years, which often bring six figures, it's remarkable for a non-A990 car.

The lightweight A990 drag racers remain the holy grail of the 1965 Coronet lineup and are generally the only examples to consistently sell for more than $100,000. Until now, the highest auction price for a non-A990 model had been $56,100, a record established by another convertible back in 2014.

This Street Wedge ragtop has now taken over the top spot, becoming the most expensive non-A990 1965 Coronet ever sold at public auction.

Even more impressive is how quickly the market moved. The same car changed hands just four months earlier, in February 2026, for only $40,500. Its latest sale represents an increase of roughly 81% in value.

Considering the car's rarity, factory performance credentials, and exceptional presentation, many Mopar enthusiasts would argue the new record was well deserved.