Photo Caption: I don’t care how big, heavy, slow, or tasteless most cars were in the ’70s, all I care about is how rad the decal packages were, and this Chevelle is totally rad. Photo from yenko.net.
Compression was down, the timing was pulled, weight was up, the gear ratios sucked, and iconic muscle car names were being dragged through the mud. The world was going to run out of fuel and oil, and it felt like the sky was falling. The obvious thing to do would have been to make smaller, lighter cars that used less fuel. What the consumer got was larger, heavier cars that made less power and typically used more fuel. If that doesn’t sound like government-style problem solving, I don’t know what does.
The Trans Am in Smokey and the Bandit did all of its own stunts, but the nasty exhaust note had to be dubbed in. Highway gears and two-barrel carburetors were commonplace, as were enormous bumpers and deluxe interiors. Was performance dead? Not necessarily. It was certainly dying, but not if you knew the right people.
Baldwin Motion is renowned in the history books for making slow cars fast and fast cars faster. Not only was a Baldwin Motion car fast, it also looked really good, and not ever in a subtle way. You knew what you were looking at, there was just no mistaking it. The Corvette, Nova, and Camaro were all commonplace in the Baldwin Motion history books, but a Chevelle? Rare. Especially in 1973.
Honestly, I’ve never hated this body style, but I’ve also never really been in love with it. I’ve always felt the El Camino wore the look better than the Chevelle, but this Baldwin Motion car really has me swaying the other way. Obviously, the appearance looks tough as nails. Black accent striping runs along the bottom of the car, though it’s hardly noticeable due to the enormous header collectors and side pipes that fill all of the real estate between the tires. Speaking of the tires, they’re fat, they’re white-lettered, and they’re wrapped around shiny aluminum slotted mags. The quarter panel states “Phase III Chevelle,” and if the racing stripes on the hood weren’t enough to let you know that it was fast, the “427 CU.IN.” decals certainly did the trick. That’s right, in 1973, Baldwin Motion was dropping 427 big blocks into the newest of Chevelles.
Outfitted with aluminum heads and a big Holley carburetor, it took a solid drive train to put all that power to the pavement. An M22 four-speed manual transmission was backed by a Hone-O-Drive two-speed overdrive unit and finished off with a nasty 4.88:1 rear gear. Did it go? It had to. The list of ingredients reads like a recipe that you know is good without ever having to taste it. If you wanted a taste of this car in 1973, it would have set you back twelve grand American. Today, it’s well into six-figure territory, if you can even find one.
