Lost Muscle Cars. Wes Eisenschenk
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Rare Muscle Cars
In muscle car terminology, the word “rare” is usually associated with increased value. As with coins, stamps, artwork, etc., the fewer examples in the marketplace, the greater the value. Rare muscle cars are no different.
Seafrost Green is a rare color for any Chevy muscle car, let alone an L78 1968 Nova SS. With just 667 L78 copies made, it’s safe to say that Sea-frost Green on this car makes it unique. (Photo Courtesy Mike Dolence)
When the Big Three began building American iron, rare wasn’t a word cared about or associated with preserving a vehicle. If it had been, Chrysler would have a warehouse full of 1971 Hemicuda convertibles aging like a fine wine. Rare came to mean that not enough people could afford one, knew about the dazzling array of options available, or even wanted one.
Some cars were built in extremely low volume due to increased costs. Convertibles typically fall into this category. Ordering a 1969 Trans Am added $725 to the bill of your Firebird. Add the convertible option on your order and it could reach $1,500 over the base price of a standard Firebird. Add another $500 in creature comforts and your base $3,000 Firebird checks out at the register at $5,000. Although these amounts don’t sound like much today, it would be equivalent of adding $20,000 worth of options on a $30,000 vehicle. In the end, the ultimate Trans Am was never constructed, as none of the eight convertible buyers checked off the Ram Air IV powerplant.
A base 1969 Road Runner could be had for less than $3,000. Add the Hemi and the components paired with it and you’ve just added $1,000 to your bill. Around 84,000 1969 Road Runners were built, fewer than 900 with the Hemi.
Another aspect of low sales volume is the lack of sales staff knowing an option even existed at the time. In 1969 Chevrolet built more than 86,000 Chevelle SS cars. Of those, just 400 units came with the L89 aluminum head option. These cars are rare simply because factory literature at the time didn’t list the L89 as an option. Without it on the sales sheet, sales staff couldn’t “upsell” it to customers.
The survival rate of rare factory-built muscle cars typically exceeds that of their regular production counterparts. Convertibles have always been perceived as special. Hence of the eight 1969 Trans Am convertibles produced, all eight are well documented and accounted for.
Joe Oldham’s Stolen 1969 Baldwin-Motion SS 427 Camaro
By Wes Eisenschenk with Joe Oldham
In the heyday of the muscle car wars, few people had a better job than Joe Oldham, if you want to call it a job. Joe was an automotive journalist and his “job” was to beat the crap out of cars and then write reviews for Hi-Performance Cars magazine and other automotive publications of the day. It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it. Joe was living out every muscle car enthusiast’s dream: drive, street race, cruise, and drag race every muscle car. He didn’t have to spend money to do this; he was paid to do it. Of course, then he had to sit down and write articles about these cars, but it was a lot better than unloading trucks at a warehouse.
In 1968, one of the cars Joe tested was a 1968 Baldwin-Motion Phase III Camaro. If you’ve been living in the Amazon with the indigenous people, I can forgive you for not knowing what a Motion Camaro is or what Baldwin-Motion was. Otherwise, you should sit down in front of your computer for a couple of hours and Google Baldwin-Motion.
The car Joe tested was the company’s 1968 demonstrator. After the test, Joe had to have one. And with the new season just around the corner, it would be a 1969. Remember, this is the guy who drove everything from Hemi Road Runners to Royal Bobcat Firebirds to 440-powered Barracudas to 428 Cobra Jet Mustangs. Joe had experienced (for free) everything the muscle car wars had to offer, and he decided to actually buy a Baldwin-Motion Camaro with his own money.
The Oldham Baldwin-Motion Camaro makes its debut at the 1968 Thanksgiving weekend hot rod show held in the New York Coliseum. It’s difficult to believe that this was one of its only public showings. (Photo Courtesy Joe Oldham Collection)
Joe’s Special Camaro
Because the Camaro had to serve as daily transportation as well as his recreation, Joe ordered the car at Baldwin Chevrolet as an SS 427 rather than the balls-out Phase III model. Under the hood was a relatively stock L72 427/425-hp engine, not the Phase III’s L88. Hooker headers, chambered exhaust, 4.10 rear end, breakerless ignition, and a 3-speed Turbo 400 Hydramatic transmission completed the powertrain.
Joe was the first 1969 Camaro owner to have a Tuxedo Black ride. But wait, you say, black wasn’t an option on early Camaros in 1969. And you’re right. Folks, when you write reviews of cars for a living, it’s best not to poke a bear with a stick. So if Joe Oldham wants a black 1969 Camaro right at the start of production, the guys at Chevrolet manufacturing find a way. Because black was an option for Novas, and both Novas and Camaros were made at the Norwood, Ohio, assembly plant where Joe’s car was being constructed, then hey, let’s get some black plant over to the line when Joe’s car comes by.
Other aesthetically pleasing features included a black interior, black vinyl roof, the Super Sport package, VE3 body-colored bumper, Motion fiberglass scooped hood, hood tach, and 15 × 8 Keystone Kustomag wheels with G70-15 (front) and L70-15 (rear) Mickey Thompson rubber. In the cabin, the car had the optional center console with power windows. Motion Performance added Sun gauges under the radio. For a more stealthy and clean look, Joe ordered the car without spoilers and had Motion remove the white Super Sport hockey stripes. The final effect was a very imposing machine.
Motion Performance owner Joel Rosen was also smitten with the car. He asked Joe to showcase the SS 427 in the Motion Performance display at the 1968 Thanksgiving weekend hot rod show held in the New York Coliseum.
Before the SS stripes were removed, Rosen had the car photographed extensively for Motion’s 1969 advertising campaign. Part of the ad series was the now-famous “Wanted” poster ad featuring an Old West–style print with burnt edging and wording that described the outlawed weapon. To this day, the poster is often re-created and is a staple with muscle car memorabilia collectors.
Stolen After All
It would be great to tell you here that Joe was one of those fortunate original owners who held onto his car, and that years later he pulled it out of mothballs to resume his love affair with the Camaro, right? Well, thieves had another plan.
Only a few months into ownership, Joe opened his garage door one morning to witness a couple of crooks attempting to hijack his Camaro. As one guy finessed a piece of wire through the weather stripping above the glass, another stood lookout. Joe quickly took in the scene and charged. He was able to take them both down and land a couple of shots into the face of one of the perpetrators. He was then clocked over the head with something heavy and went groggy. The two would-be thieves bolted into the street without the Camaro.
For the next couple of months, Joe was on high alert, checking on his Camaro several times nightly. As good as he was at keeping an eye on the car, the thieves were one step better and finally nabbed it on a spring morning in 1969. Joe’s beloved Camaro went MIA. The thieves, probably the same ones from the first attempted heist, had succeeded in stealing the car. This one-of-one 1969 Baldwin Motion SS 427 Camaro was gone and has not been seen since that day.
Oldham made the requisite visit to the NYPD