It s just one of three built.
There are seemingly an endless number of unique Corvettes out there. The car s nearly 70-year history has produced a ton of interesting examples, but every once in a while something ultra-special appears for sale. This is one of those occasions. What you re looking at is a 1973 Corvette Motion Manta Ray GT scheduled to cross the stage at Mecum Auctions event in Indianapolis next month. It s only one of three built and the sole survivor.
Built by Baldwin-Motion, a company founded in 1967 by Joel Rosen and Ed Simonin. The two pulled their resources and industry contacts together and managed to build some of the fastest faux-production cars in the US. This lasted until 1974 when the Department of Justice and EPA threatened to shut them down for not even coming close to meeting the newly enacted emissions standards.
The mid-1970s wasn’t a great time for American fans of performance cars. Spiraling insurance costs, falling compression ratios to accommodate low-lead gas and heavy 5 mph bumpers all took their toll on the once great muscle car.
But not everyone went down without a fight. In 1973 Pontiac unveiled the epic Trans Am Super Duty, and Motion Performance built this incredible Manta Ray from a C3 Corvette. In fact, Motion built two other Manta Rays that year, shortly before the company closed its doors, but this is the only survivor and it’s getting ready to go under the hammer at Mecum’s Indy sale in May.