1970 Chevrolet Camaro - Once An Addict

Making the Rounds, Quickly, in a Baldwin-Motion Camaro

Joel Rosen is an addict. There's no other plausible explanation for his proclivity to build terrifyingly fast automobiles that could be driven on the street. Velocity and brutish acceleration are harsh mistresses, and no 12-step program has ever cured the afflicted. Thank heaven.

Rosen got his start in Brooklyn in the late '50s, after serving in the Air Force as a reciprocating engine mechanic. He went in as a co-owner of a Sunoco gas station, Neclan Service Station, on the corner of Albany and Atlantic Avenues, twisting wrenches. In his spare time he raced first-generation Corvettes in a straight line as well as on road courses and hillclimbs, with considerable success.

Early on, it was clear that Rosen could extract maximum power from internal combustion engines. In 1963 he changed the name of the service station to Motion Performance, "borrowing" the Motion name from the company that built the Motion EI-4 CD ignition system that he used to boost horsepower. Rosen convinced his business partner that the shop needed a Clayton chassis dynamometer and an oscilloscope. There were only a couple of dynamometers in the entire Northeast. Using it in conjunction with a Sun diagnosis oscilloscope allowed Rosen to fine-tune an engine under load. Word got out that this guy really had the touch with engines, and business was good. But the neighborhood wasn't. Rosen says that "when they started shooting back instead of talking back" it was time to find new digs. In 1966 he headed out to Long Island's Sunrise Highway in Baldwin, New York.
Rosen and partner Jack Geiselman opened the new facility, and Motion Performance grew. Within six months, Geiselman didn't want to do the performance thing anymore, so Rosen bought him out. Rosen continued to work on customer's cars, using nearby Baldwin Chevrolet as a source of factory parts, and he became friends with the parts manager, John Mahler. Together with PR guru Marty Schorr, the three put together a presentation for a program that Rosen was kicking around. He proposed to Baldwin Chevrolet's owner that customers would buy a new car at the dealership then have it sent down the street to Motion Performance, where it would be outfitted with the exact speed equipment the buyer wanted, while still being a new car with a warranty.

2/6 “Subtle” is not what you would call this Baldwin-Motion Phase III Camaro. If ever there was a muscle car that looked fast standing still, this is it.

Strictly a mom-and-pop dealership, Baldwin Chevrolet was run by Ed Simonin, son of the founder August "Gus" Simonin, and David Bean. Baldwin was the kind of dealership that catered to the sale of mainstream vehicles such as the Impala and Chevelle. They wouldn't know a high-performance muscle car if it ran them over. But Rosen convinced them that if they would supply the cars, he would then set them up for performance, and Baldwin Chevrolet would become famous. And that's pretty much what happened.

Ironically, Motion Performance is well known for the Chevrolet muscle cars that ruled the road, but Joel Rosen got Motion's name national exposure in the early days by campaigning a Cobra. The famed King Cobra was massaged and driven by Rosen to good effect, crossing the lights at the end of the quarter-mile in 10.64 seconds at 131 mph. Pretty good for a street-legal vehicle.
As the '60s wore on, Motion Performance created a sizable number of four-wheeled missiles for customers. Rosen had a money-back guarantee on his top-of-the-line Phase III package. He recalls, "We thought so much of our Phase III supercars that we guaranteed they would turn at least 120 mph in 11.50 seconds or better with an M/P-approved driver on an AHRA or HNRA-sanctioned drag strip." In all of his years doing business, Rosen never paid out a dime.

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3/6 Rosen designed new chromed side pipes for the second-gen Camaro to look like the exhaust used on road-race Corvettes.

Speaking of Phase III, Baldwin-Motion cars came in two flavors: SS and Phase III. The SS cars were given upgrades according to the buyer's needs and budget, such as installing a 454ci big-block engine in a Z28 Camaro. The Phase III cars, while (sort of) street legal, were little more than pure race cars with a license plate frame. So when a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier from the Bronx came into Motion Performance to buy a straight-line stormer, the only questions were, "How fast do you want to go, and how much money do you want to spend?" The deal was done, and in August 1970 this car was terrorizing stoplights throughout the New York Metro area, its LS6 hurling the $6,000 Camaro down the road like it was shot out of a cannon.

The Forest Green car ended up back in Rosen's hands, and he turned it over to his son to drive for a summer. The lad handled it like it muscle cars are supposed to be handled. He drove it like he stole it. At the end of the summer it was a bit frayed around the edges, but the drivetrain was still stout. It languished for a number of years and was eventually disassembled.

4/6 Rosen and his crew at Baldwin-Motion pretty much left the Camaro’s interior alone.

Dr. Mark Timken bought it from Rosen in the late '80s in pieces. The pieces were shipped Scott Tiemann's shop, Supercar Specialties in Portland, Michigan, for a full restoration. Tiemann worked closely with Rosen to ensure that the restoration was as accurate as possible. The engine was rebuilt, and on the dyno it generated 525 hp, more than enough to effortlessly merge into freeway traffic.

Timken sold the car to Les Quam in 2008, and it's one of the jewels in Quam's collection of muscle cars. What is it like to drive? I had the privilege of piloting it during the photo session, and I'm still trying to catch my breath. Firing up the huge engine results in a scramble for hearing protection. The side pipes are big enough to hide small animals, and when the blueprinted and balanced mill churns to life, there's no denying that a lot of large explosions are occurring a couple of feet away.
The clutch is pure 1970: It feels like I am pushing against a part of the frame. Goosing the throttle immediately swings the tach needle north with a corresponding increase of decibels. Side-step the clutch and mash the gas, and it sounds like the car has blown up. Wait, no, that's just the side exhaust trying to finish the deafening process. The rear tires are not as successful at their job; they've been transformed into smoke generators. The Mickey Thompsons don't stand a chance. The rear end weaves as the car lays down an impressive coat of rubber, and I saw at the steering wheel in hopes of keeping the car pointed in the (generally) right direction. The steering ratio is surprisingly slow, requiring a lot of turns to get the front wheels to change direction.

5/6 The balanced and blueprinted LS6 under the hood puts out 525 hp, 25 more than when the car was new.

It's soon clear that I'm just not going to get the rear end to hook up on street tires, so I lift off the gas and shut it down. The silence is deafening. But I'm still vibrating. On slicks, on a track, this car has pulled an 11.01-second run at 131 mph. Oh, that lucky better carrier! He must have been an addict too. MCR

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At a Glance
1970 Baldwin-Motion Phase III 454 Camaro
Owned by: Les Quam, Las Vegas, NV
Restored by: Scott Tiemann, Supercar Specialties, Portland, MI
Engine: 454ci/525hp V-8
Transmission: 4-speed manual
Rearend: 4.88
Interior: Green vinyl bucket seat
Wheels: Cragar S/S
Tires: Firestone Wide Oval front, Mickey Thompson S/S Indy Profile rear
Special parts: Headers, high-rise intake manifold, electronic ignition, balanced, blueprinted

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