Lost Muscle Cars. Wes Eisenschenk
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Cars such as this were often stolen and parted out because it was impossible to re-title them or have them registered without tipping off the insurance companies or police. And speaking of insurance, the company finally paid Joe’s claim several months later, but of course, the payment was thousands short of what he had paid for the car. “That’s depreciation for you.”
Joe Oldham takes delivery of his 1969 Baldwin-Motion SS 427 Camaro. Not even a rainy day could keep him from cracking a smile. (Photo Courtesy Joe Oldham Collection)
Now, 45 years later, and with lots of help and support from Summit Racing Equipment, Joe and his son Scott have re-created this prized car. But that is as close as he has come to owning his Baldwin-Motion SS 427 Camaro again. In 2013, the tribute car made an appearance at the Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals.
The Search Goes On
So what can be done to find Joe’s old Camaro? For starters, it was a special paint car and had the code “- -” on the cowl tag. Tuxedo Black became a factory paint code for the 1969 model year, but it was not an option at the time Joe’s car was built. It also wore a vinyl roof and was coded as such with a “B” in the upper body part of the cowl tag’s paint code. Because this Camaro was built at the Norwood, Ohio, facility, it had “NOR” coding in the plant location on the tag. Of course, all of this is contingent on the car retaining its original cowl tag.
Other possibilities are that it spent its life (or still exists) as a cut-up race car needing no titling, licensing, or registration, or it has been scrapped. All of these are ominous and obviously not happy endings.
Another scenario is that someone who participated in the theft would be doing the muscle car community a huge favor by anonymously disclosing what happened to it. This one is a long shot to be sure, but according to Joel Rosen, the statute of limitations has long since expired. This means that, criminally, nothing can be charged against the perpetrator(s).
If you know its whereabouts or have information on Joe’s old car, please contact Scott Oldham.
1971 Rallye Red Hemicuda Convertible
By Wade Ogle
As a young man, Morgan (last name omitted for privacy) was involved in a terrible accident and was paralyzed from the waist down. As part of his insurance settlement, he decided to buy a new car. With money to spend and a new lease on life, his new car had to be fast and had to be a convertible.
Because of economic, safety, and environmental concerns, by 1971, the muscle car era was waning and convertibles were fading into obscurity, so Morgan’s prospects were thin. Chrysler no longer offered convertibles on its new B-Body line, and for this year Dodge chose to limit the engine size on its E-Body Challenger convertibles to 383 ci. In terms of ultra-performance, this left just one option: the vaunted Hemi engine in a 1971 Plymouth ’Cuda convertible.
Sure to bring your blood pressure up . . . This is what it looks like discovering the last missing 1971 Hemicuda convertible. (Photo Courtesy Wade Ogle Archive)
The Order Specs
Morgan went to Bill Luke’s Chrysler Plymouth dealership in Phoenix, Arizona. He discussed his physical situation with the sales manager, who agreed to install hand controls for him to operate the gas and brake pedals on his new car. Satisfied, Morgan ordered a code BS27 ’Cuda convertible with the stout 727 TorqueFlite automatic transmission.
As part of the ’Cuda package, Morgan’s car was automatically equipped with chrome hood pins, dual exhaust, and chrome exhaust tips. He chose FE5 Rallye Red for his new ride, along with a V3X black convertible top. He loaded the order sheet with convenience options, including Power Steering, Console with Slap-Stik shifter handle, six-way adjustable driver’s seat, black leather interior with bucket seats, power top, Light Package Group, AM/FM Multiplex Stereo, undercoating, tinted windows, and V5X vinyl side moldings.
For optimal performance he selected the top-of-the-line A34 Super Track Pak axle package that included power front disc brakes, the Maximum Cooling package, Hemi suspension, and 4.10 gears in a bulletproof Dana 9.75-inch housing with Sure-Grip differential.
And last, of critical importance, he upgraded from the 383 to the top-of-the-line E74 engine option. By selecting this box he had equipped his bright red ’Cuda with the most powerful engine ever installed in a convertible pony car: the 426-ci 425-hp Hemi. This included the menacing Shaker hood, a Hemi-only F60-15 Goodyear Polyglas GT tires, and other Hemi-specific accoutrements.
One of Seven
Chrysler’s production figures reveal that for U.S.–ordered cars in 1971, only six other individuals made this same E74 selection in the BS27 ’Cuda convertible. Of these seven prized vehicles, two 1971 Hemicuda convertibles were equipped with 4-speed transmissions and five others, including Morgan’s, were supplied with automatics.
Because the 1972 model year saw Chrysler’s discontinuation of both the ’Cuda convertible and the Hemi engine option, these seven pinnacle U.S.-shipped cars, along with five others exported to Canada and Europe, were the last and arguably greatest cars ever produced during the muscle car era.
Even when ordered, the guys at Bill Luke’s dealership knew it was a special car. They had never ordered anything like it before, and it was a huge event when the transporter finally arrived. The dealership team installed the requisite hand controls and Morgan was off on his first short trip, which was literally across the street, where the car was immediately fitted with headers, traction bars, and mag wheels.
From Weekender to Lost
To the chagrin of Bill Luke’s service team, the car, now equipped with Arizona license plates (PTE-971), became a fixture at the dealership on Monday mornings. Morgan generally picked up his car on Friday and proceeded to tear it up over the weekend. Monday morning, like clockwork, he brought it back for some sort of warranty repair, often with the interior filled with empty beer cans. By Friday the cycle started all over again.
This punishment didn’t last long, and in early 1973 the ’Cuda was sold to its second owners, Bill and Bob Graham, for $1,700. They had wanted a Corvette convertible and couldn’t find one, so they settled for this car instead. The first thing they did was to remove the hand controls. The original transmission was having problems and they took it back to Bill Luke for warranty repair, but the dealership said no. The dealership had had enough of this car, so the Grahams performed the swap themselves.
During one long, overheating trip from Phoenix to Reno, the Graham brothers accidentally left the Shaker bubble at a gas station. They later decided to fill the gaping hole in the hood with a homemade tunnel ram setup. They put dirt tires and high-lift leaf-spring shackles on the rear and turned their ’Cuda into a desert dune buggy of sorts.
Just two years later, the Graham brothers traded the four-year-old ’Cuda for a 1967 tri-power Corvette convertible, finally fulfilling their dream. Less than a year later, the ’Cuda was for sale again, this time for $1,900. The Grahams considered buying it back, as it looked the same except for a hole in the rear convertible window, but they couldn’t come up with the cash.
And poof! For the next 30 years the car disappeared into oblivion.
Search Leads
Fast forward to the spring of 2005. By this time the value of these rare cars was in the stratosphere, literally in the millions, after having experienced price doubling each of the previous five years. As this happened, all of the 1971 Hemicuda convertibles had surfaced, except this one. Because Chrysler’s U.S. production numbers were fairly well documented, it was known that seven of these cars were manufactured for the United States, but only six were accounted for. One equipped with an automatic was still missing.
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