Motion 69 GTO

[427shark]

Hmmm I'm really not sure where or how to begin this story/ history of this car so I guess I'll start from the very beginning. Sorry if it gets a little confusing. 1st off a little background history, my father grew up in Oceanside Long Island (10min away from M.P.) & always has been a crazy gear head.I got bit by the muscle car bug a few months ago and sold my c6z to take this car & a 68 vette project off my dads hands.. Now on to the car from the very beginning of its life.

The car was purchased new as a silver/ black vinyl top 4 speed gto. The original owner was an older / very serious street racer who was well known all over queens. I'm not sure if it was 2 or 3 yrs after purchasing the car that he decided to go all out for the time and build a monster street car. He dropped it off to motion where they did an extensive over haul on it. Motion installed one of the more radical zlx engines they offered along with doing an auto swap and extensive suspension work. The engine is their zlx 454, 5140 crank, pink rods, trw 12.1 pistons, Chevy zl1 cam, tarantula intake manifold, & Holley 850 double pumper. The original owner also had the heads heavily worked ( for the time) by island porting. Moving to the trans they dropped in a turbo 400 with a 4k stall, reverse manual valve body, topped off by a b&m quick click. They also installed a narrowed 12 bolt with strange axles, 4:88s, & a moroso brute strength posi unit. They then put in 90/10 shocks, welded in a 6 point roll bar, and a pretty wild looking latter bar suspension set up. The car has the original centerline drag lite wheels on it ( MH street slicks and skinnies in the front). The car also has like a plate welded under the front cross member because the original owner said that the car would pull the front tires off the ground and he was afraid of smashing the oil pan.

Now that all took place in the early 70s and the car became known as being basically an unbeatable street car. He said he never lost a race and everyone knew it was heavily worked but they didn't know exactly what he had done. Now fast forward to mid 80s, the original owner being out of street racing and older ( about 10-12 yrs older than my father who's 56 now) decided to put the car up for sale. This guy that grew up in oceanside with my dad ( he was actually younger than my dad) remembered the car from when he was a kid and how it was basically legendary and wound up buying it.

Long story short he took the car out 1 time and it scared the life out of him! He then would just take it for the occasional ride every so often and store it at his parents house back in Brooklyn. He wound up selling the car to my dad in the early 90s and putting my dad back in contact with the original owner. My father had the car ever since and started to restore it but shifted focus to some other cars he has. ( he has a real 67 phase 3 gt corvette that he bought in the early 80s. Going to begin restoration.) my dad wound up taking the vinyl top of and doing a show paint job on it ( hugger orange/ judge stripes) but then stopped.

Besides the paint everything is as it was from motion from the early 70s. The original owner said he took motion out of the center of the valve covers on the car in case any one saw under the hood. I'm excited to start restoring it but I want to keep it as motion correct as possible. Like I said all the original components are their but they are very old and some need to be replaced. It also needs a full stock interior, I'm leaving the roll bar & shifter.

I just thought this is a cool story of a very unique car that some would appreciate. Sorry for being so long winded also..... I will say even needing to have the carb tuned and a host of other things the car still is a monster !... Any insight and direction with this project would be much appreciated

[427shark]

Also if anyone knows of this car or has any info on it please share

[Charley Lillard]

Great story and welcome to the site. We would love to see pics..

[Atuckman]

recommend you contact joel rosen (motionmodels.com) and marty schorr (member on this site) to see what they remember about the car/owner. pics would be great if youre comfortable sharing. sounds like a beast!
adam

[Martyn L. Schorr]

Joel may remember something about that GTO, but does not register at all. I usually knew all the cars that received such extensive work and had a reputation. Who knows, could be a real Motion performance-modified car? About that '67 Corvette Phase III GT: Never built any mid-series Corvettes with Baldwin-Motion badging and Phase III GTs were built only on next generation Corvettes.
Documentation, paper trail is the only way to back up claims and the only person who can document a Motion or Baldwin-Motion car is Joel Rosen.
Marty

[427shark]

I'm going to get pictures of both up as soon as I can, they are both in the shop being worked on. The gto came from queens and the 67 came from Babylon Long Island. When my father bought the car in 1990 it needed 1 rear fendeder well that was cracked. The only way my dad was able to get the replacement part was by going to the motion building in 90 and showing pictures of the car to show it was motion. They said ok and sold him the rear fender wells.
This is a great forum and very enjoyable btw. Thanks for all the info.

Btw is was in the glove box of my gto

[427shark]

Until I can make it down to the shop here's a picture of a picture lol. This picture is from when my dad got the car in 90. It has the wells, shark nose, dove tail, lights in the grill, firebird style tail lights, & the door handles are shaved. You turn the key in the well in front of the rear tire and the driver window goes down to open the door. It also has a chrome roll bar, traction bar, and comp plus shifter

[427shark]

Sorry I don't know why the pictures keep posting side ways

[427shark]

I just saw in some other pictures that the same tach in my gto ( gold bracket moroso) was used in other motion cars

[Martyn L. Schorr]

Not sure why you call it a Phase III GT Corvette? As far as I can see it's a customized mid-series Corvette and may have custom parts from Motion Performance. Motion sold a lot of fiberglass Corvette customizing components, some installed, some in boxes via mail order or over-the-counter. Motion did not have its own body shop.In addition to its own branded customizing body parts, Motion Performance sold fiberglass parts from many manufacturers. Mods shown here were pretty popular back in the day,
Marty