With a big block stuffed under the hood, the Chevelle was more or less a factory-built racer, but there were still some owners that wanted even more from there Chevelles. To fill that need for speed, Baldwin Motions produced and sold all kinds of go-fast upgrades via their mail order catalogs. This L78 396 SS was upgraded with all the popular upgrades that were found on the Motion built Chevrolets. This car was found in a garage where it’s said to have been parked for 40 years. You can find it here on eBay in Midland, Michigan with a BIN of $70k.
Besides a few cosmetic changes, most of the upgrades are to the drivetrain. It was equipped with a Hone-O-Matic overdrive unit, a 5:13 rear end gear, upgraded rear suspension components and they rolled the rear fender lips for improved wheel clearance.
The L78 396 V8 was rated at 375 horsepower and while the L89 offers higher performance, this was a popular engine for amateur drag racers. There’s no word on if the engine received any Motion parts, but the seller states that the carb isn’t original. The engine is out of the car, rebuilt, and is ready to be installed.
So far, everything looks pretty good, but a closer look at the body reveals some rust issues. The seller claims rust is limited to a spot in the rear quarter panel and a spot below the back window. Repairing the quarter panel shouldn’t be a big issue, but rust around the rear window is a real concern. It isn’t impossible to fix but definitely impacts the value! So, do the Motion parts add any value to you?
Cool Car. Dreamer on crack price. Very deceptive way to try and scam someone by using the “Baldwin Motion” name when there is no proof of any such connection. He himself is only claiming that the parts on the car were ordered from the Baldwin catalog and he doesn’t even have any proof of THAT. The parts could have come from anywhere and THAT doesn’t ad ten cents to the value other than the used value of the parts that accompany the car. Fortunately, most people with $70k to drop on a muscle car should be too smart to fall for the ruse.
Better check for the Joel Rosen autographed glove box – just like the Carroll Shelby autographed Mustang gloveboxes. That alone will make it worth $70K.
You know, you raise an interesting point. I find the Shelby signature on the glovebox lid so annoying.
I’m sure if I were to purchase a Shelby Mustang with that on there, I’d take it off.
Is there ANY value to those autographs? If so, I’d get a new glovebox door and put the signed one on Ebay.
True Jb. I actually have an extremely rare Shelby Mustang that was special ordered with the rare glovebox door Shelby autograpgh delete option. Verified on the Marti Report also.
One of the very rare SS396 Chevelle’s that had a Buick GS interior, good looking interior. That, and the factory it is a rare L-78 375 horse 4 speed make this a pretty valuable machine. Not a Baldwin/Motion car, just a very quick ride with claims of ordering parts from their catalog.
You know, it probably got parked 40 years ago from running out of gas every ten minutes due to that strip only 5.13 gear ratio…regardless of the overdrive unit! That’s just nuts!😂😂😂
one thing that I dispute is the interior was factory installed. may have been there a long time but since day one? I doubt it. nice car but the motion story is BS unless proved otherwise…
I had a “68 convert with the Buick interior. They ran out of Chevelle interiors so GM substituted
.
It is a bit of interesting trivia, and of some definite importance to collectors to know that it did happen for several months, not just SS cars but other Chevelle’s and possibly Nova’s as well. I found out about it ten or so years ago in a muscle car magazine and there’s plenty about this subject on the web these days of Buick interiors being installed, as well as possible Olds and Pontiac interiors also being used. Not sure about that latter two, but Buick interiors were definitely used for a short while. Look great too. Hope you check it out.
There are quite a few 68’s with the Buick interior. We own one. It is verifiable because they have an interior code that shows it is the Buick interior. Different than the stock Chevelle codes. A stock 68 black bucket seat interior is code 766 on the trim tag. A black bucket seat code for Buick seats in a 68 Chevelle is 766-178 B on the trim tag. Period.
70k no way. Owner of car is delusional.
I don’t see that kind of money for some assembly required.
Way to much for a good bit of work to do
I actually just squealed like a stuck pig when I saw that price.
I owned a 1971 Motion Camaro that had the Hone Overdrive and the unit is incredibly weak. It is nothing more than a conversation piece. Mine blew to bits the first time I put Drag 500’s on the back. I rebuilt the unit and just kept it on the shelf from that point on until I sold the car 20 years later.
I have to ask, was that by chance a 454 phase 1 Camaro you owned? Those are super rare, understandably so.
thanks for answering my question regarding the OD, i wondered if it was up to the task…
No it was a Phase III. Cranberry red, black stripes black comfort weave interior. It’s in a private collection in the Seattle area. Only 3 1971’s known to exist.
If purchasing just what’s provable here, that is a 68 L78 4spd in very original condition. It’s a toss up to reassemble the drivetrain and set it up as a survivor or a complete frame off first class restoration? That would be determined upon closer inspection, of course. The Baldwin Motion claim is meaningless as there’s no receipts or docs to support that connection. A local professional shop, no matter how good, is not B.M.. With that said my offer is $30-35k. Great car all the same.
There have been a couple of threads about the car within the last week, one on the Super Car Registry, another on Team Chevelle. Someone that has seen the car in person says its scaly underneath, which doesn’t show up in the pictures, and that it would need a body off restoration.
Steve R
That BIN price!
Dang. I was on my way to the bank to get a cashier check for $70k & arrange for delivery on this beauty but all these negative comments on the price have made for a change of heart. Thanks for nothing.
Well, thanks to the hype our 68 & 69 Chevelles are a bargain, Delusional on price, but enough crazy ads might drive up the base prices for more reasonable priced machines.
Although this is a L78 396 ci 375 hp engine it can’t command $70,000 in the condition it is in. My offer is $38,000 knowing that I have to put $20,000 into it.
WOW!!, seams to be a lot of backbiting haters posting with too much time on their hands. Could use some of that “down time” to either read/view true “Motion” built/supplied Detroit Steel or even pop out to JFK, grab the LIRR and visit the original shop. I hear a few of the original squad still lingers and I personally can guarantee you that if you roll up to the Bellmore LIRR Train Station after 7pm on any May-Oct Friday evening you can rub against a true “LEFT FRONT TIRE LIFTING Motion” car, maybe even a 6th Gen Baldwin Motion Camaro, yes they still offer the package. Or find an old school Yenko or Lingenfelter, either requiring the need to auction off your kidney, first born son and daughters virginity to buy it?? Having been blessed with growing up less than 10 miles from the Motion shop and seeing the Muscle lined up along Rt 27 and tearing up the local asphalt weekly on Deer Park Ave and the GCP have caused me an an ailment for protecting the name, sorry for the rant.
Super Stock AMX’s would stand the body on the rear bumper…….not just lift one wheel. Many pics of a woman (Shirley Shahan) doing just that and many others back in the day and in 2018.
A little shop called Hurst built 52 of the SS cars. The build is straight forward and can be replicated with any 390 or 401. Nothing exotic by today’s standards plus now there is the availability of both aluminum blocks and heads for American Motors. .
So lets see…. $70K for a “maybe” Motion Chevelle? or I can have a “maybe” Hurst AMX for less then half and pulling two wheels? No brainer! BTW I had one of the fastest street Javelins in the 1980’s and it would pull both front wheels only I had a 360 AMC under the hood. People still talk about it.
Nobody here is “backbiting” anything. We’re all more than aware of the great things going on at the Baldwin Motion shop and the legendary contributions they made to GM vehicles. If you read a little closer to the comments the collective observation has been this particular car comes with no substantiated documentation to support the motion connection in the seller’s ad. In fact he admits it wasnt, saying it was built using B.M. techniques by a local professional shop. Thus all but negating any implied value to this already great Chevelle. So we get it Joe. And good for you for having been able to loaf down at the motion shop and see things first hand.
With that said, with all of my “down time” I may raise attention to your total lack of regard to proper grammar and basic punctuation. <– that may be backbiting?
Well said Chris
Worked at a speed shop on Telegraph (MI) in the mid ’70s where we installed a Hone overdrive in a Gran Torino. From what I remember it went like ……. but don’t recall how long the OD lasted.
dreaming…..good try though
Just thinking most 396’s were 375 horse except the on in my Caprice with the 2bl
from the factory….good for 290 hp…a little more that a 1974 454…….if I remember correctly…….
396’s & later 402’s came in many hp ratings. The 375 hp was also rated at 425hp in the Corvette. The high horse ones were not as common as the others such as 300, 325 & 350hp
Wow guys, almost feels like high school in the 70’s again. Jeez I was just teasin’ sorry. Be straight and keep ’em between the lines, all good.
Must have been absolutely mind blowing living that close to the Baldwin/Motion shop.I was just a young boy, but I always liked that “Wanted” ad with the SS427 Camaro, nastiest Camaro I’ve ever seen. That and the phase three 454 Camaro in a high performance Cars magazine article from back then. Guaranteed to run in the 11’s at a buck twenty or your money back! Crazy.
i have a gear vendors in my 1979 pontiac trans am with a 1967 428 ho tri power and b+m shifter , …… lots more. roll bar , sub frame conn , hurb adams suspension.all the options including fisher t-tops……1976 formula hood with reverse trans am scoop that is cool air induction that works. i leave the snorkels out to let air in and out to cool under hood temps. msd, rear window defogger and louvers.wide wheels like 300 rear and fat front customs rims . 15″ turbo rims for driving.fat wheel wells, new nos ac , cruise control . every part is rebuilt or new .the best thing is the over/under drive on the high way and i have posi traction rear , 3.23 gears and four wheel disc brakes.new interior, painted interior using sem black, extra sound proofing and rotatissory construction .elec. dl, win,trunk release , ps, pb…..question is since i bought it second hand and have been following in the foot prints of the former owner ….do i revert back to a burt renalds car?
Sounds like a kick ass car on its own, Id run it they you have it set up. From what I hear, While cute (Not my type, but cute) Sally Field is a monstrous PIA in real life as well, So image and reality are 2 different things. Your car sounds great!
(we have 68 & 69 Chevelle Malibus, Dont care about pretending ours are LS6/7 tribute fake SS, A small block Malibu is a nice ride on its own)