As well intended as the Can Am
Spyder was, the timing was not good,
thanks to a deep recession and ever-
rising gas prices. Corvettes already
cost almost twice as much as a regular
Chevy and Rosen’s latest GT machine
cost almost twice as much as a regu-
lar Corvette. Consequently, only
four Can Am Spyders were built and
sold. Baldwin-Motion collector Dan
McMichaels owns the red Can Am
Spyder with white stripes prototype
and the hulk of a yellow with red strip-
ing Can Am Spyder. The other two are
unaccounted for.
When I interviewed Marty Schorr
and Joel Rosen in 2013, the guys told
me that never in their wildest dreams
did they think that all these years later
people would still be talking about
their little specialty car enterprise with
a local mom-and-pop Chevy dealer.
The Baldwin Chevrolet dealership is
long gone, replaced by a Walgreens. The
Motion Performance building is still at
598 Sunrise Highway, Baldwin, Long
Island, New York. There’s an auto repair
shop and a Speed World Speed Shop
now occupying the building. Parked out
front are regular cars waiting to be fixed.
The days of ground-pounding supercars
and race cars are long gone. What was
once a mecca for young performance
hounds is now a totally forgettable
storefront. What is not forgotten are the
Baldwin-Motion supercars. VETTEMotion Moray Eel
The Motion Moray Eel was the last of
Joel Rosen’s shark-obsession Corvettes.
Built on a 1972 Corvette, it was part
Maco Shark and part Manta Ray. The
Maco flip front end had provisions for
the Mako Shark-style hood grilles. This
detail was glassed over for a smooth
look and the headlights were placed in
the front grille. Something went wrong
with the original paint and what was
supposed to be pearl yellow turned out
lime green. The paint was corrected
when the car was restored in 2006. Only
one Moray Eel was produced.
Motion Can Am Spyder
Rosen is on record stating that this
was one of his favorite Corvettes and
arguably the wildest-looking car he
ever created. When John Greenwood
debuted the Randy Wittine-designed
widebody kit for IMSA racers, the look
took the Corvette community by storm.
Nicknamed The Batmobile, the shape is
1970s excess that still has a sinister look
over 40 years later.
Rosen’s Can Am Corvette would
take advantage of the widebody’s abil-
ity to cover the widest wheel/tire combo
available for street cars of the day. The
engine, drivetrain and suspension were
standard Motion Performance gear.
While the Phase III GT fastback rear
window opened up the rear storage
area, the Can Am Spyder was a full rear
hatchback, something that Chevrolet
wouldn’t do until ’82 on the Collector
Edition. All of the body parts, except
for the windshield and roof panels were
fabricated by Motion Performance.
The plan was to offer the Spyder
like any regular Motion Corvette, any
way the customer wanted. Since Rosen
was precluded by the Department of
Transportation from making Motion-
modified “new” vehicles, customers had
to supply their own Corvette for conver-
sion. Rosen also sourced used Corvettes
for conversions. Custom features, inte-
rior work, special badges, graphics,
show car-like wheels and chrome side
exhausts made the Can Am Spyder
something beyond a regular Motion
Corvette. Like Ferraris, this Corvette
had a direct link to racing Corvettes, yet
was designed for long trips with room
for overnight necessities.
Here’s the rear storage area of a Phase
III GT Corvette. Enough space for lug-
gage, groceries, a doctor’s bag, golf clubs
or a big dog! (Photo: Martyn L. Schorr
Archive)