67 Baldwin/Motion chevelle 427

[oboym]

You can pick up the old "Hi Performance Cars" Magazines on Ebay

[oboym]

There is a Super Car Reunion on August 29 & 30, 2008 I would like to be the fist one to invite your father and you to come and join us. Also i will pay your way and hotel. It would give you and your father the chance to check out some very cool cars and tell us some story's from the past. I believe Kevin Hand owns the car now and is restoring it maybe this would be the push to get it there !

https://www.yenko.net/reunion/2008reunion.htm

[PeteLeathersac]

WW...keep'er coming Ron!!!
And sorry too that you didn't end up w/ the car...yet?.

~ Pete

[COPO]

Hello Ron and welcome to the board. I was the one who purchased this car from Tom in Trumbel, CT about 5 years ago, but sold it about 6 months back to another member on the board as I had way too many cars that needed to be restored. It is currently being restored in VA and should be finished in about a year. This car is certainly one of the most significant Baldwin Motion cars that survived. When I purchased the car, it still had the title in the name of Ann Mason who would be your grandmother signed over to your uncle Eddie and then to Tom.

The car was as you described it, still had the remnants of the blue shag carpet, the rear speakers that looked like pipe organs, and the remnants of side pipes. I also found an empty pint of bacardi rum in the car, which perhaps is related to the story you told about your uncle hitting a parked car. The motor and trans were gone, but the original 12 bolt rear was still intact and matched the original protect-o-plate. The front sheet metal was mostly gone as well. The other thing I found interesting was the car had a tow hitch on the back. I spoke with Joel Rosen several times about the car, and he remembered it very well and it remains one of his favorites.

You may have heard the story of how the car went from the original black vinyl top to the white one that you remember. It happenned sometime around 1968 / 69 at New York National Speedway when Joel Rosen himself was racing the car. Apparently the car got sideways near the starting line and left the track and rolled over and came to rest on the roof with Joel inside hanging upside down with his seatbelt holding him in. He wasn't badly injured, but the car then needed a new roof and the old one was cut off and a new one welded on. That's when the car got the white vinyl top.

Joel also indicated that this car was the one and only '67 BM Chevelle that was sold that year as there were very few '67 Baldwin Motion cars built that year of any model as it was the first year of the new program. The original paperwork showed the car was sold from Baldwin Chev. in August of 1967 so that also makes sense as it was the very end of the model year. To my knowledge, it is the only documented '67 BM car of any model that survives except for the Astoria Chas 67 Corvette.

The other thing that was interesting about the car's history is that it was a test bed for many of the new speed parts that were coming out back in the day. It was the first car to run an experiemental edelbrock tunnel ram intake. When the car had the tunnel ram, and the clutch flite trans, it was running 10 second quarters. All of this is in some of the car magazines from the late 60's.
There are about 4 or 5 vintage magazine articles about the car and one in particular tells all about how the car left Baldwin Chevrolet with all the Motion modifications.

I am sure the new owner will contact you soon, but perhaps you culd see if your dad or uncle still have some old photos of the car and post them.

[GTO_DON]

Maybe you can answer this question I asked about this car before. When did the 427 emblems go on the car?? You can clearly see it has 396 emblems on it in the old pics.
Also Are you sure about it being the only 67 ss Motion car built that year? Back around 1980 There was a burgundy or plum 67 SS427 that used to stree race at the meadows around here and it said Baldwin Motion on the sides of the car!! Wonder if that car was real because I did not think anybody was cloning cars back then.

[JoeC]

I was also trying to find the car for many years and know a few people who remember the car from back in the day.

I was told at one time it had a heavy metal flake blue paint job. When I first saw the car at Tom's house I saw the metal flake blue paint still on the dash and knew it was the right car.

We then found the old CT reg paper with same plate no. as in the 1967 articles.
The the Baldwin POP was still in the car also.

Great Chevelle

[COPO]

Don, both Joel and Marty seemed pretty certain it was the one and only newly built BM Chevelle in 67 and the late delivery date (August 67) bears that out. The original magazine that talks about the car as delivered from Baldwin when it set the track record at NY National states it was the 1st one built.

I would not doubt other 67 chevelles were modified at some point at the Motion shop, but I think this is the only one that came through the new Baldwin Motion program and sold new completely modified with the 427.

As far as clones in 1980, there were quite a few in my area including a ton of cloned Z28's, Hemis, SS's and even a Yenko and a Dana Camaro. This is in the Washington DC area when I was in highschool. I bought a REAL 70 Z-28 that year as my first car, and I remember looking at a number of clones before finding a real car which I still own today almost 30 years later.

Can't wait to see the car completed. It is a special one for sure.