Last night, I just returned from a 2,000 mile trip and I wanted to share my excitement with fellow board members on the latest addition to my collection.
The car is the first Baldwin Motion SS 427 Chevelle sold and was a very well known car in the NY/CT area. It is the only 1967 Baldwin Motion SS 427 Chevelle in existence today. Extensive details about the car can be found in April 1968 "Speed and Supercar" magazine as well as the Jan. 1969 "Hi-Perf. CARS" magazine. I will try to post some scans of the magazine articles shortly.
This '67 Chevelle started life as a marina blue/ bright blue SS 396 L-78 car with a black vinyl top and was built in Baltimore. From the factory the Chevelle has an L-78, M-20 four speed, 4.56 posi rear w/metallic brakes, and bucket seats along with a few more options. The shipping date to Baldwin Auto Co. was June 9, 1967.
The car's original owner was Charlie Mason of Stratford, CT although all of the original paperwork is in his mother's name (Anne Mason) as Charlie was a young man when the car was purchased for $5,500 from Baldwin Chev.
Charlie picked up the Chevelle from Baldwin Chevrolet on 8/7/67 after Joel Rosen breathed his magic touch on the car. Prior to purchase by Charlie, Motion replaced the L-78 with a new L-89 427 engine which had 11:1 compression and the aluminum heads. The engine also got the factory L-88 intake, a 950 holley 3-barrel carb, a factory L-88 cam which was temporary and was replaced with a special Motion "J-grind" flat-tappet cam, the full "Super-Bite" traction system and the Motion/Mallory ignition. The factory 4.56's came out and were replaced with 4.88's, the battery went into the trunk, full gauges were installed, as well as a few more Motion goodies and the car was super tuned and set-up on the Motion dyno before returning to Baldwin Chevrolet for delivery to Charlie Mason. This process took six weeks.
Within two weeks of ownership, Charlie motored down to New York National Speedway (100 miles one-way on 4.88 gears!) opened up the headers, put on some small slicks and and set a new B/HR record (11.50 @ 123mph) and then drove 100 miles home to CT. The car became a regular winner at the track but was still used as daily transportation.
All of this is documented in the 1st magazine article (Speed and Supercar Aug. '68) with lots of pictures including a picture at the track and the famous picture of the car parked in front of Baldwin Chevrolet.
By the time of the second magazine article, (Hi-Perf CARS Jan. '69) Charlie had switched to iron heads, bumped the compression to 12:1 and was running a Motion Phase III 605 cam, roller rockers, the first experimental Edelbrock tunnel ram, dual holley 850's and a B&M Clutch-Flite trans. He was now running in the B/MP class in the 10's. The article states the car was still street driven and was equipped with a full stereo tape system with huge speakers on the package shelf for a "boss sound".
Following Charlie Mason's purchase of the car, his brother Joe purchased the 1967 CARS / Motion Supercar Club Camaro which held the AHRA national record. The Mason brothers were close with Motion and regularly test various parts on their cars.
The Chevelle stayed in the Mason family and was a street terror in the CT/NY area for many years until it was sold to a family friend by younger brother Eddie Mason 11-years ago. By then the car was quite tired out and remained in a garage until its journey to GA.
The car was listed on Ebay over two years ago, but did not have adequate pictures or a description and had a super high starting bid and reserve price and did not receive a single bid. While not sure of the authenticity, I flew up to CT shortly after the Ebay ad to see the car. After inspecting the car and the paperwork, there was no question it was the real thing, however, I was not able to make a deal on the car. I kept in touch with the owner and the muscle car market continued to climb and we were eventually able to come to terms. The car was still VERY expensive especially for being a project car, however, with the history and documentation it was too tough to pass up a chance of owning such a historical Baldwin Motion car.
The car still had the original "Car Papers" folder from Baldwin Auto Co., Inc and inside was the original P-O-P booklet made out to Anne Mason of Stratford CT signed by Dave Bean co-owner of Baldwin Chev. It also has the original CT registration and title application with VIN dated 8/28/67 when the car was registered and listed CT plate "EV-8875" These license plates are clearly shown in both of the vintage magazine articles. The car also has the original CT title and the NICB shipping records.
The Chevelle is still sitting in my trailer in the driveway and I'll pull it out later today and try to post some pictures and the paperwork in the next day or so.
Current plans are to restore the car to its as deliverd condition. As some of you know, I am also restoring a 69 Baldwin Motion Camaro, so the Chevelle will have to patiently wait its turn. At last year's Supercar Reunion I spoke to both Joel Rosen and Marty Schorr who was the author of the two magazine articles and they fondly remembered what a beast this Chevelle was when new. Stay tuned for more later. One heck of a good Father's Day present huh??
