Baldwin-Motion was the first Corvette tuner and the machines that company created were legendary. Baldwin Chevrolet, a dealer in Baldwin, NY would deliver new Corvettes to Joel Rosen’s Motion Performance speed shop down the road for modifications. Motion would build these serial production specialty Corvettes to order. It was Rosen’s dream in late-1968 to build a new, fast and functional all-American GT sports car.
The sensuously styled Phase III GT was a stunner. It had a unique fastback rear window, a performance suspension and as much as 600 dyno-tuned horsepower from either a 427 cid or 454 cid big-block V8s. Although one Motion Vette did receive a smaller LT1-spec 350 cid V8.
Little Known Fact: When the father of the Corvette, chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov caught wind of their operation—it could have been bad news for Motion. Instead, when Duntov first saw the GT at its launch at the 1969 New York International Auto Show, he gave the machine his blessing. According to Marty Schorr who worked closely with Rosen on the cars, Duntov said, “I really like your Corvette, Joel. Unfortunately, we cannot do what you do.”
Only 12 were built between 1969-1971.
