The legend of Roberto Schneider and his 500-horsepower Phase III Chevys.
Roberto Schneider could have purchased any number of cars he wanted in 1968, regardless of cost. The 18-year-old grandson of a wealthy Mexican industrialist, who owned the largest bank in Mexico, lived on his family’s 90,000-acre ranch in Chihuahua. The ranch was known for raising the finest cattle in Mexico and, among other things, for supplying President Lyndon Johnson with breeding stock. In 1968 he fell in love with Yvonne Flores and they got engaged. Yvonne was the beautiful daughter of Oscar Flores Sanchez, the Governor of Chihuahua. Roberto was also in love with fast cars.
“I discovered Baldwin-Motion in 1968 as I read car magazines and saw those cool 427 Camaro advertisements. I talked to a friend in Mexico City who owned a 427/435 Corvette. He said if I wanted the quickest, fastest street car available - one that also could be raced - to order a Phase III 427 Camaro from Joel Rosen.”
Roberto took his friend’s advice and on November 28, 1968 flew to New York to meet Rosen. Two days after a demo ride in a Phase III Camaro, he placed his order for what would be the most significant purchase in Baldwin-Motion history. The $16, 692.86 order was for a pair of Phase III Chevys: A race-ready, four-speed Rallye Green Camaro and an automatic Tuxedo Black Chevelle that Yvonne could drive and be used to tow the Camaro. After leaving a $10,000 deposit on what would eventually become a $20,000 purchase, Roberto flew home to tell Yvonne. President Lyndon Johnson with Roberto and his family on the ranch, during a cattle buying trip. right, above.
While the cars were being built and Roberto and Yvonne were planning their wedding, Governor Sanchez personally appealed to Mexico’s authoritarian President, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, for two import permits. They were to be the Governor’s wedding gift to his son-in-law. NOTE: Automotive import permits were rarely issued to anyone in the late-1960s and early-1970s; and that included someone from an important family who was marrying a Governor’s daughter!
The Camaro and Chevelle were nearing completion and Roberto knew he would not have permits anytime soon. He added some extras to his order and advised Rosen that the cars may have to be stored until paperwork was forthcoming. In Spring 1969 both cars were finished and put into storage. Neither he nor Rosen anticipated that the cars would be warehoused for almost 1½ years!
Schneider received just one import certificate for the Camaro. In September 1970 after vacationing in Hawaii, Roberto and Yvonne flew to New York to take delivery of their two Supercars, above. Additional modifications and storage charges came to $3,307.14 and increased the invoice to $20,000. Since they could not bring both cars into Mexico, Roberto decided that they would tow the Camaro with its race-prepped engine behind the Chevelle to El Paso, Texas. There he would be able to garage the cars, have them tuned and maintained by local drag racer and speed merchant, Dickie Stearns and have easy access to El Paso Dragway. He would use El Paso, a quick commute from Chihuahua City, as his base for street and strip racing.
Roberto and Yvonne’s trip from Baldwin to El Paso was uneventful except for gathering crowds whenever they stopped. Once in El Paso, both cars were parked in the garage across from the Gateway Hotel where Roberto and Yvonne would stay on their “race weekends.”
Both the automatic Chevelle and four-speed Camaro were originally fitted with matching wood steering wheels, above, a popular Baldwin-Motion option in the late-1960s.
“Most of my drag racing was purely for fun. I had no interest in running for a record, even though I ran consistent low 11s. We did a lot of street racing around El Paso and the Camaro and Chevelle were never beat. My friends told me that they were often too afraid to go for a ride in my cars because they were so frighteningly fast,” said Schneider during a visit with Dr. Mark Murphy of Scottsdale, AZ, who now owns the Chevelle.
After a couple of years Roberto’s interest in drag and street racing waned and he moved on to other interests. In return for their services and friendship, Roberto gifted his Camaro to Dickie Stearns, the man who kept it ready to race. And he gave the Chevelle to George Olvera, a bellman at the Gateway Hotel!
The under-6, 000-mile Rallye Green Camaro, powered by a 500-horsepower 427, above, passed through Stearns’ hands to Tom Johnson in Houston, TX and on to Otis Chandler. When Chandler sold off his museum’s muscle cars in the mid-to-late-1990s, the Camaro and a 1970 Baldwin-Motion Phase III 454 Chevelle were purchased by Jim Lynch of Burley, ID. Roberto’s 427 Chevelle had four owners after Olvera, including Joel Rosen, before Mark Murphy bought it sans original engine and in need of a total restoration in 2004.
“I consider Baldwin-Motion Chevys to be the ultimate muscle cars from both an aesthetic and performance point of view. When I started collecting I had heard about Roberto’s Chevelle and contacted Joel Rosen, whom I discovered had owned it for a short time before selling it to a collector in California. Joel worked with me on the purchase, helped me with research and oversaw the building of an exact copy of the 427 motor he had originally built, below. He supplied one of the last Motion L72 blocks as well as original Phase III parts.”
While his Chevelle was undergoing a multi-year show restoration, Mark hired a PI to locate Roberto Schneider. After making contact, he received an invitation to visit the family ranch in Chihuahua.
“Connecting with Roberto was like hitting the lottery! As quick as I could I flew into El Paso and chartered a plane to Chihuahua City. Roberto, his wife and two sons were incredibly warm and hospitable and shared 1970-1972 photos and Baldwin-Motion paperwork with me. I now have documentation showing uninterrupted Chevelle ownership history back to the original purchase plus documentation from Joel Rosen. It doesn’t get much better than this.”
The Chevelle’s restoration was completed in February 2008 and it was displayed with the Camaro at the Amelia Island Concours, above, where it won an “Amelia” award. It was the first time in more than 35 years that Roberto Schneider’s Baldwin-Motion Phase III Camaro and Chevelle were together.
That scene was replayed last month at the Baldwin-Motion Reunion/MOTION MADNESS at MCACN 2011, the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Chicago. Jim Lynch and Mark Murphy shared their ultimate muscle cars with enthusiasts at the biggest and best show of its kind.
Photos courtesy of Dan Schutzbank, Roberto Schneider & Phil Wojnarowski.
For more information about Baldwin-Motion Chevys, please visit, http://www.officialbaldwinmotion.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Motion-Performance-Tales-Muscle-Builder/dp/0760335389