Adam Tuckman’s Baldwin-Motion 500-plus horsepower Chevelle is the quintessential muscle car.
The cover of the April 2012 issue of MUSCLE CAR REVIEW showcases what is arguably one of the finest examples of a kick-ass, back-in-the-day street fighter: Adam Tuckman’s 1970 (Motionized) LS6 Chevelle. Restored by Artisan Coachworks’ John Waleck to the way it was delivered new by Baldwin-Motion’s Joel Rosen more than four decades ago, it now shares a garage with Adam’s stunning ’71 Baldwin-Motion Phase III GT Corvette, the last built of the series. Artisan, located in Hopatcong, NJ, also restored his flawless GT.
While Pontiac is often credited with creating the Supercar (now called Muscle Car) market segment with its head-turning Tempest powered by a 389 and badged GTO, Chevrolet actually built some higher-performance mid-size Chevelles. The big-block 396 Chevelle was Chevrolet’s answer to the GTO and it was available with high-compression pistons, solid-lifters, big four-barrel and, in 1970, a 454 with big-valve aluminum heads. The engine in Adam’s Phase III Chevelle, rated conservatively at 500 horsepower, is fitted with open-chamber aluminum heads as used on late L88 and ZL1 engines.
Adam’s Chevelle started out as a stock SS454 LS6 hardtop ordered through Baldwin Chevrolet, Baldwin, NY and delivered per the purchaser’s instructions to Joel Rosen at Motion Performance, also in Baldwin, for the complete Phase III conversion.
With just delivery miles on its odometer it received Rosen’s signature modifications: engine, transmission, Hone overdrive, rear end, suspension, wheels and tires, mid-series Corvette side exhausts, domed L88 hood and stripes. While Rosen had tried to talk the purchaser into bucket seats and console shifter, he stood his ground on a bench seat and column shifter. Rare choices for a car of this nature.
Adam Tuckman had dreamed about owning a Baldwin-Motion Super Chevy long before he was old enough to drive. It all started when his car guy Dad gave him a Revell scale model of a green Baldwin-Motion Chevelle, not unlike the real Chevelle he now owns. It also led him to acquire an extremely rare Phase III GT Corvette, above, from the original owner’s family.
In 2010 Adam showed his then newly restored GT at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN) in Chicago, followed by showing his Chevelle at this show in 2011. Joel Rosen, right, and Marty Schorr at Chevelle's debut at MCACN, above.
Under the Chevelle’s fiberglass hood is a blueprinted and balanced 454, built around a date-coded four-bolt-main (#512) block by P&W Automotive, Parsippany, NJ. The 11.5-to-1 LS6 is topped off with a pair of aluminum (#3946074) heads and an Edelbrock intake with one of Rosen’s favorite carburetors, a 950-cfm Holley four-barrel. A Motion Super Pumper assembly (twin electric Depree pumps) feeds the thirsty Holley. Chevrolet fitted production Gen II L88 and all-aluminum ZL1 race motors with these open-chamber alloy heads. A brand new original Mark Ten CD ignition works with a Mallory dual point distributor.
Bolted to a Turbo-Hydro three-speed automatic with Sure-Shift modifications and a Hone auxiliary overdrive (30% final drive reduction), torque is transmitted rearward to a 12-bolt rear with 4.11 Posi gears. Lakewood ladder-style traction bars help keep the M&H Racemaster-shod Torq-Thrust mags from hopping.
In typical Baldwin-Motion fashion, the interior sports a wood wheel, an (rebuilt) original Sun tach and a chromed extra gauge panel. Adam retained the Chevelle’s original column shift and green bucket seat interior, redone by Master Upholstery, Newton, NJ. Hone OD control mounts on passenger side of tunnel, above.
Documented by Joel Rosen and restored using correct date-coded components, Adam Tuckman’s Chevelle looks, sounds and runs like it had just rolled off Motion’s Clayton dyno (again), ready to run on Connecting Highway and other area street racing haunts!
Chevelle photos by Richard Prince, http://www.rprincephoto.com
Phase III GT photography, Martyn L. Schorr
For more information about Baldwin-Motion and its niche market muscle, please visit,
http://www.amazon.com/Motion-Performance-Tales-Muscle-Builder/dp/0760335389
http://www.officialbaldwinmotion.com/begin.htm
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