Brahms Chevrolet, Palisades Park NJ

[jannes_z-28]

We have a 69 SS/RS here in Sweden that is supposed to have a dealer installed 427 by Brahms Chevrolet, Palisades Park in New Jersey. It was ordered for racing by some Carleen and sponsored by Brahms according to the story. It was raced at Englishtown between 69 and 71. The present owner here has some documentation like the service book wer it says:

SERVICE INSTALLED 427 HIGHPERF ENGINE FOR OFF HIGHWAY USE ONLY. VOIDS THIS CONTRACT OF NEW VEHICLE WARRENTY. Then it has the VIN 124379N550532 and a stamp: WARRANTY Brahms Chevrolet Company,inc. date 3/21/69 Void

Anyone knows anything about this dealer and possible the car.




Jan

[COPO_Anders]

Doesn´t anyone have any info about Brahms Chevrolet in Palisades Park,N.J ? Was this a highperformance dealer or just your ordinary local dealer ?

[PeteLeathersac]

Googling shows Brahms Chevrolet was purchased by a large Automotive dealership conglomerate called the Major Automotive Group which itself appears to be part of the Fidelity group...or the other way around?.
If you can find him, James Wallick is or has retired as Ceo of one or both of these companies after working up to this position from Ceo of one of the early dealership acquisitions, Brahms Chevrolet..
Sounds like more of a golfer than an old car guy but if you can track him down perhaps he could remember some names of those who may have been involved in the earlier years at Brahms?.
Long shot no doubt but that's the best Googling seemed to offer also I checked the NCRS database and Brahms didn't appear listed as a dealer of any of the reported Corvettes on file..

Sure sounds like a cool car...please share more pics of the car and docs if you can!.

Good luck!

~ Pete

[DaveC68]

I've had no luck myself finding any info on Brahms....
My 71 SS454 Monte Carlo was sold new there, the build sheet indicates that it was ordered by the the Chevrolet Zone Office out of Englewood New Jersey to be delivered to Brahms.

[resto4u]

That car was bought off ebay, i remember it. I think the seller might have been from iowa. There was a discusion about this car either here or team camaro in the past. Roger

[Schonyenko2]

Check the front pad stamp. I think the 427 belongs to a 68, or 69 Impala if it's the same car I'm thinking of.

[jannes_z-28]

Thanks for the info.

According to the guy who owns it now here in Sweden Brahm installed a L88 that they bought from Yenko. This engine blow up in 1971 and after that the car was stored for many years. It was sold from Brahms as a race car with cage and other stuff. It had the name Carleen and was sponsored by Brahms. They apparently sold a few other Camaros like this one in 1969.

Jan

[COPO_Anders]

How was the term "service installed" used back in 1969. Is it a way of saying that it was installed by the service department, regardless of if the car was new or a few months old, and regardless of if the engine was "healthy" or blown to pieces ?

[COPO_Anders]

I called Joe Spino in Jersey City two days ago, since I was told that he bought most of his Chevrolet parts at Brahms. He said that they were an ordinary dealership not known for sponsoring racecars or swapping engines. He mentioned 4-5 other dealerships who was int this, I reqognized Baldwin-Motion and Burns Chevrolet among them. He could not remember one single car sponsored by Brahms even though he spent a lot of time at the tracks. He also told me, as a sidenote, that he was the second guy to drive into Raceway Park in July 1966 when they opened up at 4 am.
They had a partsdepartement with good connections into Chevrolet. He ordered a 425 hp 396 back in 1964 before there were any 396 cars in the streets. They delivered the engine but could not supply him with tune-up instructions, so a friend of his who knew Smokey called him to get the info. Joe also bought several L-88´s from Brahms.

What a supernice guy !

[dtook]

Hello Jan , I started at Brahms Chevrolet as a parts delivery person and worked my way up to assistant manager & parts manager after the sudden death of the manager . We had a massive inventory of collision parts and an even more impressive high performance parts department . We were known as a high performance dealer in the tri state region. Guys would blow up cars at the track on the weekend and buy out our inventory on Monday morning . We always had bare blocks, partial blocks, ring & pinions, cams, cranks, etc. I could go on and on . We supplied parts to powerboat builders using Chevy big block engines and famous area engine builders. I do not recall our dealership ever sponsoring a race car of any kind .However , i do recall the area factory rep getting involved in our service department doing some engine swaps including on my cousin's 1967 Impala big block.