JOEL ROSEN, AKA MR. MOTION

JOEL ROSEN, AKA MR. MOTION
Legendary builder of Baldwin-Motion Supercars and national record setting A & B/Modified big-block Camaros and Shelby Cobras - JOEL ROSEN, AKA MR. MOTION – has passed away. Joel “Mr. Motion” Rosen, Delray Beach, Florida, passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on October 9th, 2023, after battling bladder cancer for more than a year. He was just two weeks shy of his 84th birthday, and had been admitted to Hospice Care on September 30th. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1939, he g...
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MOTION MINICAR VW THUNDERBUG

After setting records for two years in Baldwin-Motion’s A/MP Camaro, in 1970 Bill Mitchell shrinks the Supercar and continues his winning ways driving the MOTION MINICAR VW THUNDERBUG. New model introductions for 1970 reinforced Detroit’s accelerating love affair with performance.  It was a new decade and carmakers continued seducing buyers with the most powerful Ponycars and Supercars yet.  It was a boom year for Motown Muscle.  And it was a record year for Baldwin-Motion and Motion Perfor...
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BALDWIN-MOTION PHASE III SS427 CAMARO

A rare, fully-documented ‘69 BALDWIN-MOTION PHASE III SS427 CAMARO, just out of a major collection, lands on Bring A Trailer. Let the bidding wars begin! It’s not often that a real-deal Baldwin-Motion Camaro, complete with documentation, paper trail and a history of time spent in major Musclecar collections, comes up for sale. Quality cars, like this one, usually change hands through private sales. Most of the ones you see on auction sites have stories, stories without a good ending! ...
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MOTION 482-INCH VETTE: THE BEAST FROM BALDWIN

MOTION 482-INCH VETTE: THE BEAST FROM BALDWIN
The most powerful Phase III Corvette built in 1969 - MOTION 482-INCH VETTE: THE BEAST FROM BALDWIN was close, but not a true Baldwin-Motion car.  It was a 600-horsepower Vette built on a brand-new Stingray from Reedman Chevrolet, supplied by purchaser David McCaughey, a returning Vietnam vet.  After serving a couple of tours in Vietnam in 1968, McCaughey returned home to Southampton, PA and gave serious thought to buying the car he had been dreaming about for the past year - a super-perform...
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FIVE-STAR: THE AMERICAN SPEED SHOP

If you are truly interested in the birth and evolution of hot rodding, the speed equipment industry and drag racing in America, Bob McClurg’s FIVE-STAR: THE AMERICAN SPEED SHOP is THE book to read! If there’s anyone who should be teaching Hot Rodding 101 at your local community college, it’s Bob McClurg! He’s an accomplished photographer, scribe, author and a true student of the evolution of hot rodding and drag racing - from four-cylinder and Flathead and OHV V8 revolutions, through mo...
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JOEL ROSEN: BALDWIN-MOTION SUPERCARS

JOEL ROSEN: BALDWIN-MOTION SUPERCARS
Hagerty’s Reggie Horning blogs about the man from Motion who earned his cred the old fashion way - a quarter-mile at a time – and the Supercars he built between 1967 and 1974! If you lived in Brooklyn in the early-1960s and drag raced a fuel-injected Corvette or a Chevy powered by a Rochester-injected small-block, you would’ve known Joel Rosen, right w/"Astoria Chas" Snyder, tuning Chas' Corvette. He owned Motion Performance, a local speed shop known for his dynamometer tuning of record-sett...
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LOST & FOUND: MOTION KING COBRA!

LOST & FOUND: MOTION KING COBRA!
It was a pair of national record-setting Cobras, that first put Chevrolet performance icons Joel Rosen and Motion Performance into the National Record books. The first was his small-block MOTION Cobra, the second was the big-block LOST & FOUND: MOTION KING COBRA. LOST & FOUND: MOTION KING COBRA! During 1965 and 1966 Joel Rosen campaigned not one but two national record-holding Cobras - the small-block MOTION Cobra and Clem Hoppe's big-block King Cobra. While he did have help from Shelby-...
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RADNOR: BUICKS IN THE HUNT!

RADNOR: BUICKS IN THE HUNT!
The Radnor Hunt Concours, located in Malvern, PA celebrated all-things Buick; Maureen & Mike Matune were on the show field representing the CarGuyChronicles. Each year the Radnor Hunt Concours has signaled the beginning of Fall and this year was no different. For the 23rd year, Founder & Chairman, Mike Tillson, his staff and volunteers have brought together 100 exemplary historic motorcars, along with an impressive display of motorcycles. The Concours capped a three-day celebration of mo...
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BALDWIN-MOTION: HERITAGE & HORSEPOWER!

BALDWIN-MOTION: HERITAGE & HORSEPOWER!
A celebration of more than a half-century of horsepower & heritage and kick-ass, road & track big-block Chevy Supercars. BALDWIN-MOTION: HERITAGE & HORSEPOWER! Randy Leffingwell wrote in American Muscle Cars in 1990,“Motion (Performance) and Baldwin (Chevrolet) got together to provide enthusiasts a faster car than any manufacturer could offer.” Motion Performance’s Joel Rosen was the driving force behind the creation of Baldwin-Motion in 1967. His calling card was a 427 Camaro...
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GARAGE STYLE: IN THE GARAGE W/ JIM PALAM!

GARAGE STYLE: IN THE GARAGE W/ JIM PALAM!
Our man on the Left Coast spends some time in front of the camera in his garage while Cindy Meitle profiles him for Garage Style magazine. I first met Jim Palam more than a half-century ago when he was a kid on the pit crew of the legendary “Astoria Chas” Snyder’s ‘67 Corvette powered by an L88 engine, below. The car was KO-MOTION, it was built at Motion Performance, Baldwin, NY, raced by Chas, and I was Editor of Hi-Performance CARS magazine. CARS was one of the Corvette’s sponsors. Chas becam...
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