1972 Baldwin-Motion Corvette Catalog Car Is Almost as Good as the Real Thing

This Baldwin-Motion Corvette tribute is a catalog car built by its original owner, but it’s every bit as cool as the real thing.

In a time when power-hungry consumers were always wanting more, plenty of aftermarket companies were happy to oblige with a variety of conversions and upgrades for muscle cars and sports cars in the 1960s and 1970s. That included Motion Performance of Baldwin, New York, which was cranking out cool, custom Corvettes for a number of years, as well as selling parts through its own catalog. This 1972 Baldwin-Motion Corvette up for grabs on Craigslist wasn’t built by Motion Performance in-house, but it is fitted with a host of goodies from the company’s catalog that the original owner installed back in the late 1970s, making it nearly as good.

The original owner proceeded to take his Baldwin-Motion Corvette to a number of car shows, earning an award at the Detroit Autorama before selling it in 1981. However, the car has remained in the possession of that same family ever since, who have clearly taken excellent care of the cool catalog build.

The work here is immaculate as well, with this C3 wearing a Motion Performance rear end with a plexiglass rear window and louvers, a relocated gas cap with a billet aluminum cover, a replacement front end with an integrated lip, an L88 hood, and polished chrome spoke wheels, while the whole thing is capped off with a timeless black and red paint job.

Nothing screams 1970s more than this Corvette’s interior, however, which is covered from floor to ceiling in crushed red velour, which is obviously a lot to take in. The original owner didn’t leave the C3’s 350 V8 alone out of the modification equation either, as it’s equipped with a hotter cam, a snorkel-style air intake, an Edelbrock aluminum intake manifold, and a 550 cfm carb. Shifts are handled by a four-speed manual gearbox with a Hurst shifter.

For a reasonable asking price of $30k, this very cool Baldwin-Motion Corvette seems like a pretty darn good deal, especially given its condition and history. It may not be a real-deal conversion, but to us, it’s every bit as good, albeit slightly less coveted and valuable, which isn’t always a bad thing.

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Photos: Craigslist