Baldwin Motion Novas

[Alan Munro]

Can anyone provide me with some history on these cars?

What years were these offered?
What engines were available?
Any details on available colours/stripes/wheels?
Production numbers by year?

My interest lies in an upcoming release of Ertl 1:18 B/M Novas and I am curious about the accuracy of these.

Thanks for any help.
Alan

[rbernat]

alan,
i believe 1968 was the first year b/m started advertising the nova line.this continued until the early seventies.depending upon which year car your were ordering you could have had anything from the lt-1 350 to the 454 phase three engine (70-72).i had been contacted by the ertl company thru joel rosen to help them produce a car using my phase 3 nova as a starting point.they had talked about using my cars details along with information from old car test to produce a car.

[Alan Munro]

Do you have a picture of your car anywhere I can look at it?

Have you seen the 5 Baldwin Motion Nova's that Ertl is releasing? I'm just wondering how correct they are?

Thanks for replying,
Alan

[rbernat]

alan,
ever since ertl had been aquired by racing champions i have not had much contact with them.i do know that they are supposed to have the stinger type hood .many details of the hood were sent to them.i hope that they produce one like mine in black .they seemed to be favoring producing one in green with american type mags like on the camaro.i wish i could tell you more.the only picture of my car to appear in any magazine was a old musclecars magazine mid 80's feature the musclecar show and go in englishtown nj. where i was one of the participants.

[Alan Munro]

If you have time check out the pictures of the upcoming Baldwin Motion novas on this site.
http://www.nationaldiecasters.com/page3.htm

Do any of them look like your Nova?

Any idea on the production figures on the B/M Novas?
Thanks, Alan

[COPO]

I have a 7 page road test of a '69 BM Phase III SS-427 Nova from a 1969 issue of CARS Magazine. The Nova was outfitted w/a 4.10 rear, headers and corvette side exhaust, phase III hood, 4 speed, 950 holley 3-barrel, dual electric fuel pumps, Super-Bite traction bars, and slicks. Car listed for $5,200. The article said the ZL-1 engine was also available as an option.

Drag results were 0-60 in 5.2 sec and 1/4 11.88 @ 115 mph. With 4.56 gears and the optional cam, it was good for mid 11's @ 120 mph.

[Edited by COPO (05-12-2000 at 08:31 PM).]

[JoeC]

I have some magazine articles on the Motion cars and one shows a 1968 Nova like COPO discribed. Stinger hood, 67 Corvette side pipes, and what looks like 7in wide Torq-thruster mags. The pictures are black and white and were taked on the street but you can see a haze of white smoke coming off the rear tires as the car was being "tested".

[rbernat]

alan,
i have seen the cars you mentioned.none are a duplicate to mine.my car is black w/o any stripe,vinyl top or side exhaust.my car does have cragar wheels.it would have been nice if ertl produced one like mine.i do not know of any other confirmed motion novas.my car has been registed with joel since the early 80's.i had talk to him approx.1 year ago and he had metioned that my car so far has been the only documented phase three.the car mentioned in the test was to be exported out of the states to puerto rico i believe.not many have been made but they have to be out there.joel has done a great job weeding out the bogus cars so i guess that accounts for the rarity.

[COPO]

The road test mentions "the car was sold 4 days later to a man who traded in his Camaro because it was too small for the family." Talk about a grocery getter!