Motion Performance’s Joel Rosen Is Still Making Legends

There is something to be said about the modifiers of modern muscle cars. But do they really stand up to the greats of the classic muscle car era, like Yenko Chevrolet, Nickey Chicago and Motion Performance? We could argue the topic either way, but don’t think anyone should have to choose between modern and classic schools of thought, and neither does Joel Rosen, according to the New York Times.

Rosen, the founding father of Motion Performance, is most well known for his powerful Chevy muscle car creations of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Partnered with Baldwin Chevrolet, Motion set out to create muscle cars more powerful than anything offered by Chevrolet at the time. Iconic cars like the Phase III Chevys and the 427ci-modified Camaro, Chevelle, Nova, Impala and Corvette SS models that made up the Fantastic Five resulted.

When the government started cracking down on pollution and implementing emissions standards in the ’70s, the muscle car era came to a crashing halt, as did the Motion-Baldwin partnership. With a cease-and-desist order from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department, Baldwin-Motion fizzled away to just a memory. Thirty years later, all but one of the powerful Chevys Motion Performance had once modified suffered the same fate.

But just like the case with the Chevrolet Camaro, the fate of Baldwin-Motion didn’t end there. At age 71, Rosen is now teaming with Redline Motorsports of Schenectady, New York to bring the iconic fire-breathing Baldwin-Motion performance of yester-year to modern performance enthusiasts. For 2011, the Baldwin-Motion Camaros were reintroduced, the most powerful of which is a Phase III 427-SC Camaro equipped with a supercharged 427ci engine pushing 800hp.

With the Camaro ZL1 set to be released early next year with 580hp, the modern muscle car market will no doubt be a challenge for the performance-driven Baldwin-Motion operation to thrive in. But if the company’s test of time and revival is any testament to how sought after their extreme approach to performance muscle cars is, we’re convinced that the encore operation of Baldwin-Motion will carry on for years to come.

About the author

Lindsey Fisher

Lindsey is a freelance writer and lover of anything with a rumble. Hot rods, muscle cars, motorcycles - she's owned and driven it all. When she's not busy writing about them, she's out in her garage wrenching away. Who doesn't love a tech-savy gal that knows her way around a garage?
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