[55chevy]

Bill.. the rear window IS what made the car the Phase III GT.. Any other Motion Vette without that window is just a Motion Vette with custom body work. I don't know how many guys think the Ferrari style headlights make it a GT.. It does not. The rear window does. Joel said he made 10 Phase III GT Vettes. All of them except the Prototype had the Full GT treatment, the centerpiece being that GT rear window. Larry Clain had a lengthy in-depth converstation with Joel about the GTs at the SCR6 I believe. Next to Joel, Larry probably knew more about the GTs than anyone else. He owned 2 of the 10. He was in communication with several other GT owners and past owners and had been constantly researching them for years.. Even so far as speaking at length with Joel about them back in 1974 when he first bought the Prototype GT and Joel was still building these cars. And for a few years before Larry died, I was helping research them as well.. And during the few years I knew Larry he shared all the knowlege he had about them with me. I certianly don't claim to be a know-it-all.. but on the subject of the Baldwin/Motion Phase III GT Corvettes.. I know a lot more than most.. So to answer your question, No Joel wouldn't have ushered a buyer away.. But the buyer would not have gotten a GT.. just a Motion Vette with some of the body goodies. (Phase III? ..SS427?.. Take your pick).. Don't forget other companies back then offered these same fiberglass parts that Joel put on the GTs. I've seen several of those Ferrari style front ends on Vettes that weren't even Motion cars. Take Jamie Jarvis's beautiful '68 Vette for instance. It' got the GT front end and hood on it and other Motion mods. But it has the stock rear window.. It's not a Phase III GT and it was an owner built car using genuine Motion parts.

When a car shows up in this kind of shape a lot of homework needs to be done. Ask Jamie about that. He found out what his car actually was, and restored it as such. And he doesn't try and portray it as something else. I think that's what needs to be done with this car. Figure out what it actually IS.. before you start calling it something it isn't..