Hello Everyone,

I've been a me








mber for a while, but I am still New to C3s. I have a 73 that has been a great, fun running driving project. But I just bought a 74 with a what I am guessing is a "Baldwin Motion Stage III Rear body kit" installed. Has a Le Mans Gas Cap and the Rear Body that matches the Stage III mods. The front has wheel flares, but front is 75-79, even though its a 74. I'm again guessing is 75-79 front end grafted to the 74. Does anyone know if you could buy the rear body kit from Motion or Baldwin and install it back in the 70s or 80s? The WWW isn't much help. I see Mr. Rosen had passed. But I don't think this is a Baldwin Motion car, just a body kit added later.

Thanks,
Bill

 

Everything Motion made, especially there body panels were available individually from them. A lot of the body parts they made were also copied and made by other companies.

 

Have you considered joining the NCRS for one year inorder to obtain the dealer shipping information?

 

Corvettes that were built with over the counter Motion parts were called "catalog" cars.
This is the last Motion Corvette a '74. As you can see the body is basically stock.

There was another thread on the forum about a mid to late 70s Corvette with flares trying to find more information on Motion ties.

 

Here's that thread.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...rformance.html

 

That’s not the last Motion vette, but I think the last PHASE III Corvette and possibly the last one put through the Baldwin dealership. He made lots of Motion shop vettes not invoiced thru Baldwin Chevrolet into the late 70’s including the somewhat famous red with white stripe wide body (looked like a Greenwood or Eckler body) car. I think he called it the Spyder.

As to the OP’s question, many cars have had bodywork added to them from the Motion catalogs that have been available for decades. Now the parts are being copied and pretty much everything is still available.

 

The blue '74 is the last new Motion Corvette. Everything after that was done on customer supplied cars. The DOT had prevented him from making any Motion-modified “new” vehicles.

 

It wasn't a DOT that brought an end to Rosen and Motion building cars, it was the US Department of Justice and the Federal EPA. And it wasn't the 74 Motion Corvette that caused the issue or brought Motion built muscle cars to an end. If I remember right it was the Motion Super Vega's with LT-1's and even 454's they were building that caught the attention of the EPA.

The ever tightening Federal emission regulations by 1970 required new cars to be Federally certified to meet certain emissions standards and levels. By removing emission certified OEM power trains and replacing them with non-certified/non-compliant engines Rosen and Motion where circumventing Federal emission laws. Rosen's Motion Corvette's clearly violated Federal law, but still managed to fly under the Feds radar for a while. It was the completely over the top, sub 10 second quarter mile, LS-6 454 powered Motion "King Kong" Super Vega that was just so over the top that I think the Feds finally decided enough was enough, and had the DoJ bring a Federal action against Rosen. In the end, Rosen paid a nominal fine ($500 or $1000) and promised the only conversions he would continue to build were for export to countries not bound by US emission regulations (I think this meant mainly Saudi Arabia).

Rosen wasn't the only muscle car builder who ran afoul of the Federal emission regs either, and felt the wrath of the Feds. Yenko and others were also targeted with legal action by the DoJ.

 

Correct. That would be last Baldwin Motion car but not last Motion car.

Just for everyone else following along and this has been covered a million times but still causes confusion:

A “new” Motion car would be one invoiced thru Baldwin Chevrolet defining it as a Baldwin Motion car. The difference is Baldwin-Motion car, versus, Motion car which would be all supplied by customers. All “Motion” shop cars are supplied by customers and not invoiced thru Baldwin Chevrolet with GM warranties, but built by Motion. Those should be referred to as Motion cars versus Baldwin Motion cars. “Baldwin-Motion” cars are new cars the Govt stopped allowing him to make.

Then finally it’s cars that people just put parts on from somewhere…maybe the Motion catalog, maybe other parts, but they are “catalog” cars.

I know it sounds like splitting hairs, but when the difference in value between a Baldwin Motion car and a customer supplied Motion car and then a Motion Catalog customer home built car comes into play, it becomes a very big difference.

Seen lots of these growing up in my neighborhood on Long Island. Joel used to live in Massapequa. Been to his shop and used to talk to him occasionally long before anyone ever cared about these cars. Always liked them.

 

Tempting as I can help this history greatly, but just typed some Greenwood history and the day is wasting away! Going to get some outside time. Hey post some darn pictures if you want help!

 

Thanks for all the info. I don't think it's a "Real" Motion car. With a web search, I didn't see any old ads for the body kit or body parts. It has front flares and the rear clip from somewhere. I will add pictures later. It's been off the road for a while, 10-15 years. It'll be my winter project.

 

Interesting topic.

Years ago I posted a thread about my friend restoring a Motion-style 68. We had a great discussion here on the forum. We pulled this car out of an old garage about 12 years ago. The mods were OLD.
We did end up contacting Rosen and paid the fee for his opinion. He read the thread here apparently and what he determined was that the car definitely had “his” parts from his inventory. He did not recall actually doing the work, which made sense.
In the end we learned a little and agree with the above. There were Baldwin Motion cars, Motion cars, and Motion parts cars. I guess we could make another category and call them Motion parts cars but not “his”.

My friend (88 years old now) is finally hanging it up and selling everything including the 68. I’m trying to get him to list it here!