.....1969 Baldwin-Motion Phase III Camaro

 

If you look close enough you will notice the absence of the familiar blue bowtie. That's because this isn't a Chevrolet Camaro per-say - it's a Motion Performance prepared Camaro, and yes there is a difference, a very big difference.

This is a car that General Motors could never build, not that they didn't want to, the EPA would never allow it.  

 The history

First off you need to know what and who is Motion Performance and where the Baldwin name came from. It all started with Joel Rosen, who in the 1960s and early 1970s built the now legendary Motion Camaros, Chevelles and Corvettes.

Joel Rosen had so much faith in his products that he offered an unconditional warranty for is performance cars. His cars carried this message: "We think so much of our Phase III super-cars that we guarantee they will turn at least 120 mph in 11.50 seconds or better with an M/P-approved driver. Phase III cars are completely street-able, reliable machines that will run these times off the street." 

 

 

 If these cars failed to perform, Rosen would take the car back and refund the customer. To this day he never had to refund a customer. 

Rosen graduated from the street racing scene and became quite well known at area drag strips with his  289 Cobra. He spent most of his time racing a1963 Corvette at Roosevelt Raceway in Islip & New York National and at  Moriches, Long Island. 

In the late 1950s at a service station in Brooklyn, he installed a Clayton Dyno in 1963, Joel got his cool company name from the Motion ignition company. They pioneered the captive discharge ignition system. When Rosen moved to Baldwin, Long Island in 1966, just a few miles from Baldwin Chevrolet. Motion Performance was born at the corner of Atlantic and Albany avenues in Brooklyn. And the rest is history!

 

Joel became friends with Baldwin Chevrolet's parts manager who arranged a meeting with the owners, and they loved what he had to offer. Soon after they were building some of the hottest and well known cars of the 1960s and early 1970s. Cars could be bought through the dealership and sent to Motion for their conversions and then sent back to the dealer for  delivery.

 

Now on to this specially built one-of-one, 1969 Motion Phase III Camaro.

This Camaro was born a real Z/28 in 1969, it's owner sent it to Motion Performance in 74' for Joel and his team to work their magic on it. This was one of their rare independent projects that had nothing to do with the dealership. Joel stated that it featured just about everything Motion had to offer under its fiberglass hood. After he made the initial shakedown runs, Joel went on to say that this was their most extreme build-up at that time.

Since it was built 45 years ago it only has had 750 miles put on the chassis, with almost all of  them a quarter-mile at a time. This car is practically brand new !

The Camaro features the best parts that were available at the time, including a Phase III 427 ZLX engine, a Ford Top-Loader transmission filled with Liberty Gears controlled by a Hurst Ram Rod inline shifter, suspension and axle upgrades, including a 4.88 gear set in the 12-bolt rear end and a set of Lakewood traction bars. 

For weight savings, a complete fiberglass front end. The final cost for the conversion was close to $12,000. That's more than $65,000 today adjusted for inflation.

The engine sports a pair of Holley Dominator carbs., they only just made there debut for the 1970 Pro-Stock season, this was state-of-the-art back then. They're mounted atop a Weiand tunnel ram. In Motion's literature, the engine was described as having 12:1 compression with a .600-plus-lift camshaft, and was completely blueprinted and set up for Modified Production or Pro Stock. 

 

It was rated at 600 horsepower and listed for the hefty sum of $2,995 or about $15,000 in today's dollars.

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Every element is built for drag racing, from the Hurst inline shifter, with its separate reverse stick, to the line-lock switch on the shifter handle.

The construction of the car was also detailed in the 1975 edition of Hi-Performance Cars Magazine special "Chevrolet Performance Annual."

PERFORMANCE DATA WAS LISTED AS:

0-60 MPH...................... 2.5 sec (est.)

1/4-mile ET................... 11.50 @ 120 mph (est.)

Top speed.......................125 mph (est.)

 In the late 1970's the performance era of upgrading cars was shut down due to an article that was titled- KING KONG LIVES ON LONG ISLAND. This was a story about Motion Performance in Car Craft magazine in 1974, it was about Rosen’s 454 Super Vega. The article came to the EPA’s attention and Motion Performance couldn’t escape their radar. The Department of Justice sent Rosen a cease and desist, directing him to no longer build modified street cars, stating factory emissions devices couldn't be removed or he will will be fined $1000.00 for each emissions device removed.

 
 

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