I found a '71 396 SS 4 speed Camaro in Mulsanne blue with black stripes that I have a chance to buy. It's a really rough and hasn't moved in years. It does appear to be complete and original. I don't have any pictures yet, but I will soon. Here's the really interesting part. It has a Baldwin Motion paint job and the "L88" style hood. I can tell from the pictures I've seen that it is a big block, but I don't know what size. It could be the original 396 (402) or it could be a Motion 454. Looking at the pictures, it doesn't look like the car was ever repainted, but if it was, it was LONG ago. The person offering it is the second owner and bought in the late 70's from the original owner. I do know the car what bought new in New York and brought out west almost immediately. It appears to have very little rust.

My concerns are, obviously, is it a Motion car and how can I tell for sure. Does anyone know how the "L88" scoop hood was done? On this car, the scoop is not one piece with the hood, it appears to be a fiberglass scoop that, at one time, was made look like it was one piece. Now it is delaminating and coming off at the rear of the hood. Did Motion add scoops to metal hoods, or did they use a one piece replacement hood? Also, did Motion have different levels or packages available or was it just the phase III 454 car '71? The 454 is the only thing I can find any info on.

The way I see it, this could be a good car to get and restore, or it may be a one of those mythical barn finds. I just need to see if i can get it at the right price, and figure out what that price is.

This post has been edited by 00 SS: May 9 2013, 12:46 AM

Unfortunately, it looks like one could have a Camaro built with any number of options, from just a paint job and decals all the way to the 'full Monte' with a 454, M22, side-pipes, different rear gear ratio, hood, etc. There are probably way more clones out there than actual cars, so I'd look at any 'Baldwin Motion' Camaro with a bit of skepticism, and don't believe it until you can prove it.

It doesn't look like there's anyone on this list who's an expert on the cars. You're probably going to have to do some online searches, or post the query on restoration web forums and such. It does look like there's an 'official' Baldwin Motion web site, where they're hawking a Gen5 B-M Camaro:

http://www.officialbaldwinmotion.com/begin.htm

But I don't know how much help they can be.

Since these things were custom, mostly one-off cars for each one built, I'd bet many hood scoops and cowl hoods were fiberglassed onto a still stock hood. I have seen pictures of hoods with 4-corner hood pins on them, at indicating that perhaps some were all-fiberglass lift-off hoods.

Sounds like an interesting project either way. If you can get it for the price of a restorable 71 Camaro, I'd say go for it. If they are pricing it as a B-M car, I'd do more research to prove it first.

That's pretty much what I was thinking. What do you think a restorable 71 396 SS 4 sp car is worth? To really make this viable for me, I need to try to get it for less he $5k. If it could be proven to be a real Motion car, I might be able to go a bit higher.