Search 4 Original owner '69 Motion Vette

[Pantera]

My name is Larry Clain of Tulsa OK.

I presently own what I believe to be the 1st 1969, Baldwin Motion Phase III "GT" Corvette built. It was Hugger (Actually Monaco) orange with a black stripe. It was on the cover of Car's magazine, back in 1969 when it was still new. Inside the article shows it at the NY auto show back in April of '69. Joel Rosen is standing talking about the car with Zora Duntov.

If you have any original owner info on this car I sure would appreciate it. When I bought it back in 1972 it was painted black w/Gold twin stripes from one end to the other. I have owned it for all these years and am now trying to document it.

I have been able only to trace it back to Dallas and that was sold by Diamond Motor co. back in early '72. By then it was Black with a candy gold stripe down the center of the car and around the tail. I would love to find the original owner and /or any old photos of this '69 Baldwin Motion SS427 Phase III GT. I am certain that it is the 1st one that Joel made and the same car as on the cover of the magazine.

I have the tank sticker showing it came from Baldwin Chev as the new car dealer. It shows it to be a 435 hp car with Th400 trans the same as shown in a article in and on the cover of the Aug. '69, issue of High perf Car's magazine.

Please, if you can be of any help let me know. Please understand that I have already talked to Joel Rosen himself in person all about my car and he will only help if I pay him $1500 just to search his old records. You can be sure that I intend to do it just as soon as I can afford to, but still I want to try to locate the original owner to see if I can find any old photos or other info about it.

I will pay up to $25 for any good photos of this car that were not already published in the car magazines of that era. I would love to find pic of the car at the auto show.

What ever you do Please don't send this to Joel. He has heard enough about it already I am sure. I am ready to part with the $1500 to Joel but I am not a rich guy like most of these in the car hobby and I just work for a living repairing swimming pools. It was very hard to hold on to these cars all these years and especially throught a nasty divorce, but it is still mine and in bad need of restoration. I love my car and black is my favorite color. I am not crazy about orange but will paint it that color if it turns out to be the actual car that was on the cover back then. Marty Shore, who was the editor of the magazine back then has told me that it was Hugger orange not red like it looks on the cover. he just played with the color some so that it looked more red because it sold more copies on the newsstand.

Please...? help me if you can ...? If you have no info then PLEASE accept my thanks for your time to read this and NO Reply from you will be necessary..! Please let me thank you in advance for your time.

Larry Clain
Tulsa OK
918-698-3777

http://home.swbell.net/vette-65/69_motion.html