Not all “barn-find” cars are actually found in barns. This rare Phase III Chevelle was found by its current owner 30 years ago parked on the lawn of a neighborhood house.
Neither buyer nor seller had a clue in 1981 that the battle-scarred white Chevelle parked on a Ft. Lauderdale, FL street was a 1970 Baldwin-Motion Phase III SS-454 Chevelle. Fortunately for Steve Calamusa, the price was right and he became the fourth owner of one of the most desirable icons of the Supercar era.
Shortly after graduating from St. Thomas Aquinas High School and getting ready to start college, Calamusa spotted a well-worn white big-block Chevelle while taking a shortcut home. Even though he was getting ready to leave for college and already owned a ‘71 Z/28 Camaro, he couldn’t pass up checking out the SS.
“It was just sitting on the grass in front of a small house, looking like a tired veteran of the drag racing wars. It was pretty much all there, but in overall sad shape. I didn’t have a clue what the MOTION emblems were all about, but I knew I wanted to buy it,” said Steve Calamusa.
Even though the Chevelle did not have a For Sale sign on it, Calamusa checked with the owner of the house to see if the Chevelle was available. He discovered that it belonged to a family member who just arrived the night before. While the Chevelle’s owner was not particularly interested in selling, he was willing to entertain any offers.
“All I really knew about the car was that the guy owned it for a few years while he was in the military and that it had been modified and actively street raced in New York and New Jersey before he bought it. It had ladder-bars, Hurst Line-Loc, remnants of air bags in the rear coil springs and, according to the owner, a 12-bolt Posi rear with 4.56 gears. Popping the hood revealed a 454 with aluminum heads, big four-barrel and fenderwell-style headers.”
“Even though it had Motion emblems on the fenders and trunk and vinyl stickers on the windows, I had no idea that this car was special. I was raised in Ft. Lauderdale and never heard of Motion! He said it was some speed shop in New York owned by a drag racer and the emblems were on the car when he bought it,” said Calamusa.
All it took was a short ride in the Chevelle to convince Calamusa that he had to buy this car.
“He wouldn’t let me drive the car, but offered to take me for a demo ride. He lit up the tires, banged off a few 6,000-rpm shifts, and, as far as I was concerned, the car was mine! It was the fastest car I had ever been in,” reminisced Calamusa.
The white-on-white Chevelle may not have been for sale, but later that summer day in 1981, Steve Calamusa convinced his father to loan him $1,200.00 to buy the ferocious 1970 Chevelle. And, he became the fourth owner of a rare, fully loaded 500-plus-horsepower Baldwin-Motion Phase III SS-454 Chevelle.
Originally ordered and built by Joel Rosen for a customer, this Baldwin-Motion Chevelle was heavily optioned with serious racing in mind. The blueprinted LS-7 short block was fitted with open-chamber aluminum-heads, L-88/ZL-1 cam and valve train, Edelbrock high-rise aluminum manifold with an 850-cfm Holley double-pumper fitted with gear-drive secondaries and competition-style fenderwell headers. The battery and dual electric fuel pumps were mounted in the trunk and the engine equipped with an electric cooling fan.
Additional options ordered by the original purchaser included a Hurst shifter and Line-Loc for the Muncie “Rock Crusher” M-22 four-speed, Schiefer/Lakewood clutch-scattershield, Sun tach and gauges, Phase III hood, American mags, and full Super-Bite suspension with Air Lifts and ladder bars. This Chevelle is one of a very few race-ready Baldwin-Motion Phase III model SS-454 Chevelles built in 1970.
While at the University Of Miami the Chevelle was kept at the Calamusa home and Steve worked on it during school breaks. All through undergraduate and then Law School, Steve drag raced the Chevelle.
“After some massaging, the Chevelle would run consistent 11.00s at between 120 and 122 mph and could be driven on the street. I still didn’t understand what all that Motion stuff was about!”
It wasn’t until the early-1990s that Steve Calamusa realized that his Chevelle might be a rare Baldwin-Motion car. While flipping through a car magazine he spotted a feature on a big-block Camaro with Motion emblems and Baldwin-Motion provenance. When he read about it being built by drag racer Joel Rosen in his shop, Motion Performance in Baldwin, NY, he realized that his Chevelle was a lot more special than he ever imagined.
Calamusa tracked Joel Rosen down after locating the second owner, Alexander Thompson in Cherry Hill, NJ, who had owned the Chevelle for five years during the 1970s. He confirmed that it was a real Baldwin-Motion car. Thompson had raced the car at Englishtown Raceway and was able to supply a photo of the car at the track in the late-1970s.
After Joel Rosen officially documented his SS-454 Chevelle, Calamusa, working with local area shops, restored it to its original “as delivered” splendor. He also made some minor performance updates.
When new, Baldwin-Motion Phase III big-block Camaros were guaranteed by Joel Rosen (in writing) “to turn at least 120 mph in 11.50 seconds or better.” Steve’s heavier Phase III Chevelle runs close to a half-second quicker and it is streetable!
Steve Calamusa still owns his rare Phase III Chevelle and drives it on the street and occasionally on the track. A certified “speed junkie,” he also tracks his very-quick modified AMG Mercedes!