Nova ID

[Pantera]

The problem with dropping a BB in a SB car is that you have or should change too much to make it work like it should. Shocks, swaybar, front springs, radiator, heater outlets, and more, just make it foolish to start with a SB car when the cost is not that much more for a BB plus you have the old motor to resell.

He might want to look closer at the Hood? Motion hoods are distinctive! Not like anyone else ever used. If that is the correct one then just perhaps, the car could have been a hot SB from Motion and later got a BB transplant?

I agree with Belair, the NICB report will show the original dealer and if it was Baldwin or a close NY dealer to Motion then he just may have a winner there?

It would be great if he could trace the car back to a previous owner for more info. After all this time it is a almost impossible task. That I know for sure from my quest to locate any prior owners of my 69 Motion Vette.

[NovaPwr]

I don't know what a NCIB report is. Was it something located on the car somewhere like the buildsheet was?

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Nope, it's the National Insurance Crime Bureau or something like that. It's a piece of paper that tells you where your car was sold new, maybe more. It's also very hard to obtain, you usually need to know somebody pretty high up in law enforcement.

[smooth]

Joel used alot of small block cars in the 70s. they were cheaper base cars. Motion 1 has severalmotion cars and all but one started as a small block. all after 1970. TIM

[Belair62]

more digging is in order if it was my car !

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I agree with Belair, keep digging. Nobody knows if there was logic to what Motion started with, either a SB or a BB. Switching over to a BB is not that big of a deal if the buyer is getting a lot of speed parts installed anyway. The biggest issue is usually the cooling system, the rad is an easy change, and the heater hoses will still fit. Anything is possible, I've seen SB conversions in some old Chevy Action mag's.

[Yellow 69 z28]

Ditto for me also! My 69 Daytona Yellow B/M started as a Z/28.

[Pantera]

The use of SB cars seems strange to me. His dealer cost on a BB car would not be that much more of a difference over a SB. The main reason is that he could sell the L-78 motor to the boat racers and then his cost of the CE L-88 motor would be very little difference in cost if any at all.

Now you say after '70 he used SB cars? Perhaps after Baldwin Chev. closed in '74 that advantage was lost? Perhaps those SB car's are just Motion conversions done for someone and not a car he bought from a dealer and modified for sale.

After 1974 he was more into the Maco conversions and didn't make any more Phase III GT's unless someone really wanted one.

We just don't have enough data on these cars from Joel. There are very few pic of the "Baldwin GT" cars. Until I showed up with my '70 BM documented car nobody even knew it existed. Joel himself had thought it was totaled shortly after it was built becase the owner had called him and told him he wrecked it.




I know the two cars that I have were both original BB cars?
We can only hope with time that we gain more knowledge about what he did.

[COPO]

In '67 the first BM Camaro was a small block SS 350 car, thereafter, they seemed to all start as BB L-78 cars until the 70's. The '71 BM Camaro I owned started as a Z-28. My '69 BM Camaro and '67 BM Chevelle both started as L-78's.