Motion Performance is rightfully known as the wildest of the specialty muscle car builders of the 1960s and early 1970s. With the infamous Phase III Camaros and Corvettes, Joel Rosen and company would hand you the keys to a car they guaranteed could run 11.50 or better at the digs, or your money back. Motion Performance: Tales of a Muscle Car Builder by Martyn Schorr tells the entire story of Motion’s rise and fall.
The driving force behind the business was Joel Rosen, a kid from Brooklyn who had a passion for cars and learned his mechanical fundamentals from Uncle Sam while serving the country in the Air Force. He was the fastest guy with his own stuff, mainly a black Corvette that he and his wife raced at both the drags and the autocrosses that occurred in the area. Slowly but surely he created a name and business for himself and the cars he tuned became known as street killers.
A meeting with the management at Balwin Chevrolet in 1966 regarding the dealership’s interest in having a Camaro modified into a drag race car lit the wick on a performance powder keg that quickly exploded. Baldwin-Motion was born and soon, Baldwin was ordering more 427ci motors from Chevrolet than anyone else in the country. The cars that were turned out from the Motion shop owned the streets, those that were raced on sanctioned race tracks owned the record booked in the Modified Production classes. Hell, Bill Mitchell (yes THAT Bill Mitchell) was the shop manager and a race driver for Rosen.
The story is spell-binding and is woven together by Schorr, a guy who actually worked with Rosen and lived the era first hand. The photos are amazing. One in particular that is worth the cost of the whole book is of Rosen pulling the front wheels of a modified Camaro on a freaking highway as traffic drove by.
If you love muscle cars, especially those of the specialty variety, you need this book. The photos alone are amazing. We’re recommending that this one hits your Christmas/holiday wish list in a hurry. At the SEMA show, the Motorbooks people sold out of this book and reports that it is becoming as rare as a 427 Baldwin Camaro in some parts already. You can order directly from Motorbooks or scan your friendly local book seller.
