This Baldwin Motion Phase III SS427 Corvette is the
prototypical “ground pounder”. As Kevin drives it through a
parking lot today, it sets off car alarms from the thundering
exhaust of its sidepipes. This is one machine that you can
literally say will blow the doors off other street cars foolhardy
enough to challenge you to a race.
Baldwin Chevrolet in New York teamed up with a local high
performance shop called Motion Performance. Joel Rosen was the man
behind Motion Performance and had already established NHRA records
with cars of his own. It was a natural combination to have a
racer-affiliated high performance shop produce cars for a Chevy
dealership to be destined for the street and strip.
Baldwin Motion cars were built and priced according to the
elapsed time the customer wanted to turn in the 1/4-mile drags.
A full refund was guaranteed if the car ran slower.
If the car didn’t turn the time promised by Motion, they
sent their professional driver out to try it.
Remarkably, all the cars turned the time promised and a
refund was never necessary.
This Vette started life as a tripower L71 427/435HP. The motor
was taken apart, balanced, and blueprinted. Compression was
increased and a new cam installed per Motion’s full Phase III
specifications. It received the full treatment of headers,
high-rise intake, 3 barrel Holley carb, Phase III ignition, duel
electric fuel pumps, quick-fill flip-top gas cap, and GT paint
job.
Although this Vette sports the GT paint, fender flares, and
stinger hood scoop, it did not receive the full GT body
modifications. The extra GT modifications included a fastback
window and a headlight swap (from the concealed factory pop-up
headlights) to a fixed design which encased them with a plastic
cover. Some Vette enthusiasts have termed the full GT body
modification as looking like Chevy’s Opel Kadet on steroids.
Kevin’s personal preference is the style of his Vette as it is
configured here.
