Motion Phase III '75 Trans Am!

[mahoy78spyder]

Yep... no kidding. I didn't believe it either until I read about it. I was browsing through an old Nov. 75 issue of CARS magazine and found a 5-page article on this car. It seams a NY Pontiac dealership called Mr. Rosen, telling him that an order just came through for a 455 HO Trans Am. A NY lawyer, ordered the car for a client of his who worked and lived in Tehran, Iran. But wait!... it gets more bizarre... This oddball conversion broke the mould of what a typical Motion Phase III car would have been. For starters, the owner did not want it BB Chevy-powered, but rather wanted to keep the HO 455 and have Joel hop it up in the same manor as the BB's. Also, the owner wanted to retain the factory A/C, automatic transmission, and also have full power accessories, but still have a car that would run in the 12's. The other "familiar" mods, appearance-wise, to this car I can see are the Permacast Turbine wheels on all four corners, side pipes, L88 hood, motion decal on the chrome valve cover, and of course, the Motion "arrow" paint scheme down the side of the car, originating from a center point on the tail section, much like the "SS" Camaros did. (not the split stripes of the Z28 models) This particular car appears to be either white, or yellow, with a darker-colored (but not black) Motion stripe painted down the side and through the center of the car, to include through the L88 hood.

The real beauty in this car, though, comes from the engine and drivetrain mods Joel made to it. Much "new" development went into making the "Pontiac-specific" mods for this car, to include a custom-ground cam. The heads were milled, special-tuned headers were built to work with the A/C, 10" converter, shift kit, 4.10 posi added, traction bars, trans-cool pan, Torker intake w/ Holley 850cfm vac sec (mainly because was auto)... the list goes on....

Anyway, I thought this was a pretty interesting find considering I thought the last "super car" he built (no offense to the Stinger Vegas or the Turbo Z) was the Silver 73 or 74 (can't remember) BB Phase III Chevelle that was for sale recently. I thought the govt. had long since shut his factory-offered operation down by 1975, but I guess in Iran you didn't have to be concerned about US smog laws!... *smile*

Hope you found this as interesting as I did... has anyone ever heard of this car or know any more about it?

Ken

[bowtie3168]

Ken,
Did you see Mike Guarise's September 2000 Feature car? Check out "Past Feature Cars". I agree, I find the Motion Trans-Ams very interesting. On to the topic of Tom Cahill's 73 Silver "Phase III" Chevelle, I love that car! Tom usually brings it to Raceway Park for the swap meet shows. It is sad but most people appreciate it. I think that the car is GREAT! Most muscle car folks don't like the 73-77 body style, but, growing up in the 70s, I have always liked them.
Andrew

[71LS5]

I have always been partial to 68-72 body style Chevelles. Never cared too much for the Laguna body style Chevelles starting in '73.

After seeing some pictures on the internet of this car I may have to eat my words.

Pass the salt, please.....

[71LS5]

A "jet black" or gold colored '67 big block car are the only ones from that era that are very attractive to me.

My first car was a '68 Firebird 400. Even the 396 Chevelles, as long as they were stock, could not handle me. Oh that Pontiac passing gear!!!

IMHO, '69 was really the first year for the eye catcher colors and style. A Hugger Orange Chevelle SS or Daytona Yellow Camaro was the best looking and best running cars on the street. Z/28's decked out with those runway stripes on the hood that year were awesome.

Then Chrysler had to do one better and go completely crazy on their colors. I must admit, the price/performance for the old Mopars was better than GM or Ford at that time. Duster and Demon 340's in the early '70s were a great buy as were Roadrunners and Cudas. Buddy of mine had a '70 Plum Crazy Roadrunner. Bone stock 383. The only options were pistol grip Hurst four speed, and my personal favorite, the ram air hood. Looked meaner than the flapper stuff on the Chevelles. And could that thing ever fly!!!

One of the wilder looking cars I saw was a lime green Hemi SuperBird over at Frank Scott Chrysler in Joplin, MO. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[bowtie3168]

Thanks for being cool about 73-77s. I thought that the Laguna was cool because like the Torino Talladega, and the Charger 500, Superbird etc. the option was made so that Chevy would be more competitive in Nascar Grand National Class. Now another Chevelle question, you said 68-72 Chevelle,what about 64-67s? The 65 Z-16 was one of the coolest cars EVER made.
Andrew

[JoeC]

Motion also built some cars in the mid 80Ãs. One was an IMSA style Trans Am that was built for the Kenwood Stereo co. another was a Magnacharger Camaro and a third was a four seat Corvette. I do not have much info on them but I believe they were done to compete on the show car circuit. Motion also built some mid 80Ãs street Camaros and Monte Carlos that had mostly fiber glass add-on and paint modifications.

[mahoy78spyder]

Andrew, I did go back an check out Mike Guarise's Trans Am that was the September 2000 Feature car. I don't know how I missed that one. I thought I had checked them "all" out, but that appears to be the only one I missed. I was shocked to find it, because I thought finding the '75 T/A was pretty interesting, knowing that his supercars days were almost behind him at that point in history, but to find a '78 (even newer) was all the more fascinating. Yes, I understand that Joel did some mid-80's projects that seemed to be mostly body & paint mods and I think I've even seen one or two of them when they were on the show car circuit. (your description of them sounded familiar Joe... I'll have to dig back through some old "500 World of Wheels" photos I have from various Indy shows) But the true supercars that had the large displacement, heavily modified motors, were the ones that I thought were extinct by the mids 70's, so that would make these unique T/A's all the more special.

But anyway you look at it, all of Joel's projects were fascinating in their own unique way.

Does anyone know if Mr. Rosen ever modified a Chevy Monza? (since it seems apparent that he was open to modifying anything the customer desired)

Ken