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The Baldwin Motion Phase III Camaro – A Rare Street-Legal 525 hp 1/4 Mile Killer

The cars built by Baldwin Motion were among the fastest semi-production cars in the United States in the ’60s and ’70s, they were so fast in fact that the DOJ and EPA shut the company down in 1974 with threats of $50,000 USD per car manufactured (in 1974 dollars) if the company didn’t comply.

The reason Baldwin Motion piqued the interest of the DOJ and EPA was said to be down to their habit of removing all emissions equipment from cars as part of their high-performance rebuilds.

The truth of the matter is a little more complex, this was the age of the Ralph Nader book “Unsafe at Any Speed”, and companies producing cars deemed too dangerous for the street were being targeted.

Above Image: The mighty 454 cubic inch, 525 hp V8 built by Baldwin Motion to guarantee 11.5 second quarter mile times.

Although Baldwin Motion aren’t as famous as Roush, Shelby, or Yenko the work they were doing was arguably more impressive. In the late ’60s and early ’70s you could buy a Baldwin Motion Camaro or Corvette that was guaranteed to run the quarter mile in 11.5 seconds or less, or your money back:

“We think so much of our Phase III Supercars that we guarantee they will turn at least 120 mph in 11.50 seconds or better with an M/P-approved driver on an AHRA or NHRA-sanctioned drag strip. Phase III Supercars are completely streetable, reliable machines that will run these times off the street.” – Joel Rosen, Baldwin Motion

Baldwin Motion had been formed in 1967 with the partnership of Baldwin Chevrolet based in Baldwin, Long Island, New York, and Motion Performance – originally founded in a Sunoco service station in Brooklyn, New York. The two companies combined their resources to offer highly-modified Chevrolets right off the dealer showroom floor, with the same full factory warranty enjoyed by any other Chevy.

Among the cars offered by Baldwin Motion were their famous special-bodied Phase III GT Corvettes and the car shown here, the Baldwin Motion Phase III Camaro. Other vehicles on offer included highly-modified Novas, Chevelles, and Biscaynes.

Above Image: The purposeful suspension set up used on the car was designed specifically for drag racing, however the cars were are streetable and 100% road legal.

An article about the Baldwin Motion 454 Motion Super Vega in Car Craft magazine titled “King Kong Lives On Long Island” would prove unintentionally disastrous for the company, it caught the eye of people at the EPA and eventually brought the hammer down on the whole enterprise.

After much legal wrangling a $500 fine was paid and Joel Rosen promised not to build anymore wild customs for American roads. He got around the restrictions by building cars for export or race track use only, but this severely limited his customer base and eventually the company had to stop operating.

Today Baldwin Motion cars are wildly popular collectors items that have no problem blowing the doors off many modern supercars in the 1/4 mile dash

The 1970 Chevrolet Camaro Baldwin Motion Phase III Shown Here

The car you see here is an original 525 hp Baldwin Motion Phase III Camaro that has been painstakingly restored by Scott Tiemann of Supercar Specialties in Portland, Michigan.

Above Image: The interior of the cars remained largely unchained, and there was little to tell you you were sitting in a 525 hp tire-melter.

The Baldwin Motion fitted each Phase III Camaro with a worked 454 cu. in. LS6 V8 producing over 500 hp and sending power back to the rear wheels via a M21 4-speed transmission and a 12 bolt Positraction rear end with 4.10 gears.

No two Baldwin Motion cars were ever identical due to the way they were built to customer specification, this car has a COPO 9796 tall rear spoiler, a COPO aluminum intake, an ultra flow air cleaner, Phase III valve cover and retainers, the Super Bite suspension kit, Hooker headers and side pipes, Cragar SS wheels, a Motion hood with pins, Motion stripes, and it was previously part of the Les Quam collection.

If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing, it’s due to be offered by Mecum and at the time of writing there’s no auction estimate.

Images courtesy of Mecum

The post The Baldwin Motion Phase III Camaro – A Rare Street-Legal 525 hp 1/4 Mile Killer appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/baldwin-motion-phase-iii-camaro/
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Toyota Land Cruiser FJ70 – The Perfect 1980s-Era 4×4?

When the Toyota Land Cruiser FJ70, and the 70 series family, were introduced to the general public in 1984 Toyota executives must have been watching the reception the vehicles were getting very closely.

Toyota knew if the car was seen as inferior to its forebear it would potentially permanently harm their reputation in the highly competitive world of four-wheel drive manufacturing, a reputation that had been carefully built over the preceding three decades.

The Toyota Land Cruiser 70 Series

The 70 Series was developed to replace the 40 Series Land Cruisers which had grown to become among the most beloved four-wheel drives in the world. As any automaker knows, replacing a model that has become a cult classic in its own lifetime is a risky undertaking, and a strong argument could be made that it’s often bungled in one way or another.

Amazingly Toyota nailed it first time out. The reason the 70 Series Land Cruisers proved so popular was because they kept every single element of the 40 Series that people loved, but very carefully and incrementally updated it. Even the most ardent Toyota diehard would admit that the styling of the 40 Series Land Cruisers was notably dated by the 1980s, and Toyota addressed this concern directly.

Above Image: The more modern, angular lines of the 70 series was a contrast to its predecessor, but the engineering remained as rugged as ever.

The J40 series was very closely based on the J20 series Land Cruisers which had first been released all the way back in 1955 to compete with the American Jeep and the British Land Rover – in fact the former vehicle inspired its styling and the latter vehicle inspired its name.

Land Cruisers had become popular because they were among the most reliable and capable four-wheel drives in the world, reliability being a key concern when you know you’ll be hundreds of miles from civilisation.

When the engineers at Toyota set out to design the new J70 Land Cruiser they kept the same basic architecture as the J40 vehicles – a ladder frame chassis with live axles and leaf springs front and back, a reliable engine up front, and an all-steel body offered in a variety of lengths to suit different uses.

The new body used on the J70 was clearly inspired by its predecessor but it was a far newer and more modern design throughout, with sharper angles and a purposeful, no-nonsense presence. The interior had been completely updated as well, with much more thought given to the comfort of the occupants than the J40.

Above Image: Land Cruisers have always been famous for their reliability, most notably for their impossible-to-kill engines.

The 70 series Land Cruisers proved so popular they largely dominated the market in places like Australia, New Zealand, and throughout much of Africa and South America.

The Toyota 70 series has now been in production for over 36 years, its popularity shows no signs of waning and Toyota has no public plans to discontinue or replace it. For reference, the popular 40 series was in production for 24 years.

The 1989 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ70 Shown Here

The 1989 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ70 you see here is an early short wheelbase version with the original, more angular bodywork.

In recent years we’ve seen the values of early J40 Land Cruisers skyrocket, along with other classic four-wheel drives like Series Land Rovers, first generation Ford Broncos, and early International Scouts.

Above Image: The interior of the 70 series Land Cruisers represented a significant upgrade over the outgoing J40.

We haven’t yet seen this meteoric value increase in the later 70 series Land Cruisers but many are speculating that it won’t be long until we do.

The vehicle you see here benefits from a careful recommissioning that includes brand new Toyota blue 8B2 paintwork, gold cadmium plated hardware, original switchgear, controls, and the original upholstery.

It’s fitted with the 3F 4.0 litre inline 6-cylinder petrol engine which is mated to a 5-speed manual transmission, a 2-speed transfer case, and it has locking front hubs. It’s now riding on a new set of Mastercraft Courser AXT tires on black steel wheels, and as a bonus it has working air conditioning.

If you’d like to read more about this vehicle or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Mecum.

Images courtesy of Mecum

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from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/toyota-land-cruiser-fj70/
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1 of 3 Ever Made: The Rare Ferrari 375 America by Vignale

Just three examples of the Ferrari 375 America were bodied as coupes by Turin’s legendary Carrozzeria Vignale in 1954, each of the cars was unique in its own way as they were built by hand without the aid of a body jig.

The 1954 Ferrari 375 America is powered by the remarkable race-winning 4.5 litre Lampredi V12 capable of approximately 300 hp, making it one of the fastest and most powerful production cars in the world at the time.

In post-WWII Italy the burgeoning race car builder Ferrari was just finding its feet. Led by a charismatic and deeply stubborn man named Enzo Ferrari, this new automaker was mostly focussed on building race winning cars, however they did also build road cars to help fund their competition efforts.

The Ferrari 375 America + Vignale

The limited number of Ferrari’s road cars existed within a model hierarchy, and at the top of this hierarchy was the name “America”.

Above Image: The stunning lines of the 375 America combined with the potent ~300 hp V12 made it one of the fastest production cars in the world in 1954.

This naming convention was likely for two reasons, America was a lucrative market for these high-end sporting GT cars, and America had just played a significant role in helping to free Europe from tyranny – the word “America” conjured up images of freedom and liberty, with many Europeans immigrating across the Atlantic after the war for this very reason.

The chassis and suspension of the 375 America shared much with the Ferrari 250 Europa GT, however the car was set apart by its almost impossibly beautiful bodies shaped by the likes of Pinin Farina (it was two words until the company officially became “Pininfarina” in 1962), and Vignale.

This was an era when many automakers would still sell you a rolling chassis which you could then get “bodied” at your favorite coachbuilder. Most automobiles of the time used a separate chassis and body, and so some pre-WWII clients even had both summer and winter bodies for their cars.

Before the 375 America there had been the 340 America and the 342 America released in 1951 and 1952 respectively. Just 12 examples of the 375 America would be built, 11 coupes and one cabriolet. Of these, eight would be bodied by Pinin Farina and four would be sent to Vignale – who built three coupes and one cabriolet.

Above Image: The distinctive aluminum body was shaped one panel at a time using hand tools without the use of a body buck.

Alfredo Vignale had founded Carrozzeria Vignale in 1948 and rapidly became one of Italy’s most important coachbuilders. Frequently working with Giovanni Michelotti, Vignale bodied cars from some of the world’s most prestigious marques including Ferrari, Maserati, Cisitalia, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, and he worked with American Briggs Cunningham to develop the Continental C-3.

Vignale was famous for creating beautiful lightweight aluminum bodies which was ideal for Ferrari, who wanted his cars to keep the sporting nature of the competition cars that occupied much of his time.

The Lampredi V12 + Technical Specifications

The 375 America was powered by the race-derived Lampredi V12, this was an astonishing engine for its day, with a swept capacity of 4,522cc, a bore x stroke of 84mm x 68mm, a bank of three twin choke Weber carburetors, and a twin coil, twin distributor ignition. The engine was good for a claimed 300 hp, it had been designed by Aurelio Lampredi specifically to compete in Formula One after all.

Power was sent from the long-block V12 back through a 4-speed all-synchromesh transmission to a live axle rear. Customers could specify their preferred gearing, with some wanting better acceleration, and some wanting to be able to drive at sustained highway speeds at lower revs.

The car utilizes a tubular steel frame with independent front suspension consisting of unequal length wishbones, a transverse leaf spring, and Houdaille shock absorbers. In the rear you’ll find a live axle on semi-elliptic leaf springs, with matching Houdaille shock absorbers.

Above Image: The Lampredi V12 was a tour de force of engineering by the standards of the era, it’s an all aluminum 60° V12 with a single overhead cam per bank.

Brakes were drums on all four corners and the car uses worm and sector steering, it has a fuel capacity of 140 litres. It boasted breathtaking performance by the standards of the day with a claimed top speed of 250 km/h or 155.3 mph.

The Ferrari 375 America Shown Here

The car you see here was originally displayed at the 1954 New York World Motor Sports Show and 1954 Geneva Motor Show, for many attendees it would be the first time seeing a Ferrari in the flesh and it doubtless left a lasting impression.

It was sold new to legendary racing sponsor Robert Wilke, of Leader Card fame, and over the course of its life it’s maintained documented ownership history from new with noted enthusiasts.

If you’d like to read more about the car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on RM Sotheby’s. The price estimate is $2.4 million to $3.4 million USD, and it’ll be rolling across the auction block in Arizona on the 22nd of January.

The post 1 of 3 Ever Made: The Rare Ferrari 375 America by Vignale appeared first on Silodrome.

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The Cizeta V16T – Built For The Sultan Of Brunei – Powered By A Transverse V16

The Cizeta V16T is undoubtably one of the most unusual supercars ever made, it’s powered by a transversely mounted 6.0 litre V16, it was designed by Marcello Gandini, the development was done by team of former Lamborghini engineers, and it was almost released in partnership with Sylvester Stallone as the “Cizeta-Stallone”.

Unlike many fledgling supercar makers who frequently flounder before a single production car is built, Cizeta proved to have enough sheer stubbornness to stay in business in one form or another from the late 1980s and well into the 2000s.

Claudio Zampolli, Sylvester Stallone, And The Father of Disco

The story of the Cizeta can’t be told without first talking about company founder and former Lamborghini test driver/engineer Claudio Zampolli.

Zampolli is a larger-than-life Italian who moved from Italy to California to open a Lamborghini dealership, he began offering high-end servicing and mechanical work for all Italian supercars and in just a few years he was on a first name basis with many of Hollywood’s biggest names.

Speaking of names, the car would be named after Claudio Zampolli’s initials – “CZ” though pronounced in the Italian way “Ci-Zeta”. The “16” in the model name comes from the 16 cylinders of course, and the “T” is a reference to the way in which the transmission is attached (more on that below).

Above Image: The Cizeta V16T bears an unmistakeable resemblance to the Lamborghini Diablo, both cars were designed by Marcello Gandini and if anything, the Cizeta is closer to his original design for the Diablo than the Lamborghini production car ever was.

Zampolli’s lifelong dream had been to create his own supercar, much the same way that fellow Italians Enzo Ferrari and Ferruccio Lamborghini had decades before. With his new contacts in California and his long list of former Lamborghini engineering colleagues in Italy, Zampolli was in a unique position to start a supercar company and perhaps even pull it off.

Initially it looked like Sylvester Stallone was going to fund the project in return for equity and having his name on the badge alongside Zampolli’s. For reasons that are unclear this never came to fruition, instead the project was funded by legendary music composer Giorgio Moroder.

Moroder is known as the “Father of Disco” – he’s credited with pioneering electronic dance music, and he’s won three Academy Awards and four Golden Globes. He also wrote “Take My Breath Away” for the 1986 film Top Gun.

Cizeta V16T – Engine and Specifications

Rather than playing it safe, Zampolli realized if he was going to get lots of free publicity he was going to need to one-up both Ferrari and Lamborghini. He worked with a small team of engineers developing an all-alloy V16 engine that would be mounted transversely (sideways) in the back of the car.

Above Video: This period Australian television show “Beyond 2000” visited Italy in the early 1990s, met with Claudio Zampolli, filmed inside the factory, and test drove the Cizeta V16T.

This engine is highly unusual, it uses a single long block cast in aluminum alloy, there are four heads containing double overhead camshafts each powering 64 valves in total, and the crankshaft sends the power back to the transmission via a bevel gear system through the center of the block – as a result the engine and transmission form a “T” shape with power sent to the rear wheels.

Zampolli used his connections at Lamborghini to source the heads and some of the other required parts, mostly from the Lamborghini Uracco P300S V8. The resulting engine has a swept capacity of 6.0 litres and it was capable of 540 bhp at 8,000 rpm with 400 lb ft of torque at 6,000 rpm, with a redline of 8,500 rpm.

The performance figures were breaking at the time and they’re still remarkable today, the top speed was 204 mph (328 km/h), with a 0 to 60 mph time of under 4 seconds.

Above Image: The Cizeta V16 engine mated to the ZF 5-speed transmission in its unusual “T” configuration.

The chassis used was formed from tubular chromoly steel welded into a rigid spaceframe, there was seating for two and the V16 engine is very literally right behind the occupants – resulting an entirely unique soundtrack.

Fellow Italian and iconic automotive designer Marcello Gandini was brought in to style the new car. Gandini was the original designer of the Lamborghini Miura, the Lamborghini Countach, and initially, of the Lamborghini Diablo.

He had a famous falling out with Lamborghini after they “softened” his design for the Diablo, allegedly at the insistence of new parent company Chrysler.

With the Cizeta, Gandini realized he had found salvation for his original design, and he used much of his Diablo design for the car, with additional input from fellow Lamborghini alumni Zampolli.

Above Image: Upon glancing into the Cizeta’s engine bay it can take a moment before you realize what you’re actually looking at.

Even today it’s clear there’s a strong design link between the two cars, with some thinking the Cizeta is either a Diablo-based kit car or a body kit on a real Diablo. Saying either of these things to Zampolli is likely to get you shot.

Cizeta V16T – The Production Run

As with any brand new car the production run of the Cizeta V16T was fraught with teething issues. Various production figures had been mentioned but perhaps the most realistic was for 12 cars to be built per year, or one a month, with a starting price tag in 1991 dollars of $650,000 USD.

The cars were being built in Modena, Italy as this is where the craftsmen were who could build such exotic machinery, and they were sold to wealthy clientele right around the world.

Although the order book filled quickly a few issues plagued the company, one was the economic downturn that affected much of the world in the early 1990s, and the other was the staggering complex supply and fabrication pipeline that needed to work perfectly to build each car.

Above Image: The interior of the Cizeta was opulent by the supercar standards of the day, though there was very little room for luggage.

Between 1991 and 1995 it’s believed that 12 were built in total including one prototype. Two additional cars were built after this in 1999 and 2003, and the car was still technically in production as recently as 2018 – with Zampolli saying he could fulfill new orders if they were placed.

The 1993 Cizeta V16T Shown Here

The car you see here is remarkable for a number of reasons, not only is it a very low mileage original Cizeta V16T, it was originally bought for the Sultan of Brunei along with two others. Both of the others were modified at some point in their lives with Ferrari flat-12 engines and irreversible structural changes, however this car was never delivered to the royals.

For reasons unknown it stayed with Hong Seh Motors of Singapore, the primary dealer in Asia for the Brunei Royal Family. The car would stay unused in Singapore for over 25 years and was never delivered to Brunei, it has accumulated fewer than 1,000 km (620 miles) in all that time, mostly thought to be testing mileage.

The car is now being offered by RM Sotheby’s on the 22nd of January, representing a unique opportunity to acquire a genuinely unique supercar with an engine note unlike any other. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.