[whitetop]

Hello 69 Motion, I think Joels figure of 300 '67-'69 Camaros are bogus. In my opinion Joel's figure of 500 total cars were never built.
Here are some reasons why, in my opinion, these cars were never made in the quantities claimed:
1. Joel basically sold these cars from 67-73, some in '74.
That comes out to 1.37 cars per week. Really though you should lop off '67 & 73 because that was the begining and ending years so less cars were probably built in those years. That makes the weekly figure even higher. If you take his figure of 300 Camaros in 67-69 that comes out to 2 per week!! Let alone not counting the Chevelles, Novas (supposedly 100 made from a BM Nova owner, where are they Rich?), Biscaynes etc. Was Joel really able to process all these cars through his little 4-6 bay shop with his meager staff? Day in day out for 52 weeks per year? One of my customers has a new car dealership and was customizing brand new trucks(stripes, aero kits etc). He was totally surprised the large crew (paperwork, detail, bodyshop etc) it took just to do some simple customizing, let alone change engines etc. I at one time I had just about every New York based magazine, all years, all issues that featured Motion stuff. Always, always it was the same cars featured over and over. In one issue the car was going to a South American cattle baron and the next year, different magazine, that same car was going to a oil sheak in Tehran, Iran. 2.When pictures were taken of the outside of Joels shop, as many were, how come you did not see these cars that were being processed/transformed in the background? Surely you would see many of these cars sitting in the lot, in the bays etc. But you do not. You do see some race cars and employees cars. 3. Where are these cars today? Most of the really rare cars(Shelby, Zl-1, Yenko) are at least half if not more accounted for, whether restored, wrecked, stolen etc. I have kept track of all the Motion cars featured in magazines or for sale over the last 10 years and have come up with about 25-28 cars of all types. Where is the other 475? How come these prior owners have not come forth? If 10% of the original owners kept these really rare cars where are these 50 cars. 4. When you talk with the people who have these cars they give you a really low production figure for their own particular model. The man who owns the '73 Chevelle I believe said only one was built that year. Mark Timken just bought a '68 BM Camaro, and said it is the only one that is accounted for today. If I'm not mistaked Mark told me only 6-8 were built in '68. Remember the figure above? 5. The price. If GM had a hard time selling 69 ZL-1 Camaros at 7-8K how did Joel sell his cars for 7-10K, which many did sell for. 6. Why does Joel just not come out and give his production numbers if there is not something to hide? he does not have to give serial #'s, just production numbers. Don Yenko did not seem to mind sharing his numbers the best he could. I know this is going to raise a hornets nest. I may be wrong on everthing I've said (and will admit to it) but based upon the info/facts this is what I have come up with. I truly like BM stuff because I come from a street machine background. I would love to have one. I am not taking anything away from these great cars. I do like them better than Yenko's because they are all different. I just think these huge production numbers that are being thrown about need to have some refutiation now and then. One question though: If someone bought in a car off the street and Motion added an intake/exhaust was that considered a BM car? Then it may be 500 cars. Still being able to give an opinion in this country(for now) this is how I feel. I will give what I feel are the actual numbers this weekend. Any comments?