Vette – September 2019

The ad on the left is the very first Baldwin-Motion

supercar ad. The 1967 Camaro in the ad is not yet

up to speed with the Baldwin-Motion look. The

black 1968 Baldwin-Motion Camaro is something

else. (Photo: K. Scott Teeters’ Cars Archive)

Baldwin-Motion

ads were “In Your Face”

unique. The “WANTED” ad was a clas-

sic. The Phase III GT Corvette laid out the facts.

(Photo: K. Scott Teeters’ Cars Archive)

Phase I

A

s a young car guy in

junior high school

growing up in the

greater Philadelphia

area, Hi-Performance

Cars was my favorite

car magazine. Hot Rod and Car Craft

were cool, but Cars featured realistic

performance cars. By the spring of

1968, the new Corvette had been

all over the car magazines and looked

like the performance car from

another planet.

Martyn L. Schorr was the editor of

50th Anniversary of the

BALDWIN-MOTION SS-427

Phase III Supercars

BY SCOTT TEETERS

[FEATURE]

Joel “Mr. Motion” Rosen & Martyn L. Schorr, Founder of Vette,

Created Bad-Boy Level Chevy SS-427 Phase III Supercars

Cars and had a staff of writers that were

diverse and colorful. Each issue was a

monthly visit with car pals. One day my

local pharmacy had the latest issue of

Cars that blew my mind. The cover shot

was the 1968 Baldwin-Motion SS-427

Phase III Corvette. Atop the big-block

hood dome was a ’67 Stinger hoodscoop

and a hood-mounted tach. The wheel-

wells were flared out because the 15x8

Cragar mags were shod with the biggest

tires of the day. Finishing off the pack-

age were 1965-’67 Corvette side pipes.

I learned that the SS-427 Phase III

Corvette was one of the line of Baldwin-

Motion “Fantastic Five” custom-built

supercars. Baldwin-Motion was a col-

laboration between Baldwin Chevrolet

and Motion Performance, located a few

blocks apart in Long Island, New York.

Before the Baldwin-Motion experi-

ence, Baldwin Chevrolet was a “mom

and pop” Chevy dealership that mostly

sold grocery-getter Chevys. Motion

Performance was a repair/performance

shop and had recently relocated from

Brooklyn. As Joel Rosen explained,

“People were beginning to shoot back,

44 VETTE 19.09