Special Guest	Feature...
	LIVING The Dream In BALDWIN By Fred Greco
"Come meet a guy who grew up in Baldwin Long Island, bought a couple Camaros right off Baldwin's lot and raced with Joel Rosen's backing!!" -Wayne G	READ ON....

I was born and raised in Baldwin, Long Island, home of "you know what". My grandparents were among the first settlers in Baldwin, and since my parents still reside there, I spend a pretty fair amount of time in town. Lot’s of very good memories.

I definately grew up at the right time, right smack dab in the middle of the 60’s. Graduated Baldwin High School, in 1965, and believe it or not, was quite the Ford Fan. In 1964, as a junior in high school, I thought I might go to University of Rhode Island, and being the Ford fan I was, met and became quite friendly with Bob Tasca in East Providence, RI, home of Tacsa Ford (Thunderbolts and Light weight Galaxies).

I came very VERY close to buying a 63 1/2 Galaxie drag car until Bob started it up. You should have seen the look on my father face! Unfortunately, me being 16, and Dad being the boss meant one thing; the Galaxie stayed in Rhode Island. Since Mustang had just been introduced, they were difficult to come by, and, because I just I had to have a Tasca Ford, came home with a 64 Falcon Sprint.

Some contrast, huh? 600hp Vs 160. I guess in retrospect, Dad was doing the right thing. To this day, whenever I see an original factory light weight being advertised for sale at the typical $200,000 plus figures that seem to prevail, I always make it a point to show him.

He’s quick to remind me, however, that I’ve never kept any car I’ve ever had for more than a few years. Unfortunately he’s right. I became pretty active in some of the local Mustang clubs that many Ford dealers sponsored during the 60's.

That was a lot of fun..and then along came my first Camaro, 1968 SS396, 375hp. My best friend’s brother, a motor head of all motor heads, had a fuel injected Sting Ray, and the Camaro, that he bought for his wife (some excuse).

When she became pregnant with their first child, it was time to say goodbye to Camaro (couldn’t turn the wheel, never mind fit behind it) The car came from Baldwin Chevrolet..an SS coupe w/375 horse, M22, factory 4:88, AM radio. That’s was it. No power anything with the exception of the mandatory front disc brakes. By the way, I was a college junior at the time commuting to and from school daily. The SS seemed like a good idea at the time, but as AWESOME as this car was, it did approach gallons per mile. Even with Sunoco 260 at 32.9, it was a bit much.

I graduated from college in 1969 and was still uncertain about my relationship with this car. One thing for certain was that the bigblock had to go, a daily driver it wasn’t. I was still kind of interested in Mustangs (would have to be a Boss) but now torn between Z/28 and Boss 302.
	'68 Baldwin SS Coupe w/375 horse

Decisions... decisions. Since the new body style Camaro was just around the corner I decided to wait it out and see what the 70’s look like.

When the 1970 Camaro arrived, I wasn’t particularly crazy about the look but figured it would grow on me. I’m still going back and forth between the Boss 302 and the Z/28.

And then one day it happened. My Dad and I were watching a TV show that was being sponsored in part by Sunoco. They cut to a commercial...an ariel view of the 69 Penske Camaro running a road course... awesome audio and all.

That was it. I said to my Dad, "let’s take a ride, I just made up my mind". Ten minutes later we were at Baldwin Chevrolet. If my memory serves me, I think there were about a dozen left over 1969 Z’s on the lot. For some reason, I really liked the look of the Endura front bumper, of which there was only one. Cortez silver, gauges, flat hood.

The cool sticker I ran on my Motion prepped '69 Cortez silver Z/28

A look under the hood revealed Hooker headers. Per the invoice, the ignition and carb had been reworked as well. It seems that someone had ordered the car and Baldwin sent it up to Motion Performance for the work. Anyway, I had to have it and did...$3,208 out the door. Thinking about it now, I wonder what lurked under the hoods of the other Z’s that remained. Imagine passing up a JL8 or crossram car for an Endura bumper! Shame on me!!

Anyway, that lead to an association with Joel Rosen, especially with him getting involved in our project "Hugger Mugger" that was soon to come. It seemed that it didn’t take much to build a quick Camaro, but a Ford was another story, and, despite I’m now driving what, to this day I consider the best car I’ve ever owned, still had a place in my heart for Mustang. We ran primarily AHRA (National Speedway) and as you guessed from the name, was in a class that usually was dominated by Camaro’s. Well, I don’t want to get into too much detail about the car right now, but I will say it was very, very trick, as Joel got us in touch with Doug Nash, who, at he time was running his Bronco Buster funnycar.

The motor was very hi-tech for the time utilizing lot's of Boss and Ford Indy stuff. We probably spent close to the national debt in getting that Ford to run marginally quicker than a Chevy! But run it did. Despite the problems Motion had with National Speedway, everyone out there loved the car. The tower guy liked to let it run down the track by itself during time trials just to hear the motor. (We WERE making music.. trap rpm typically around 8600).

Then came the Army, followed by a career working for Chevrolet. Being involved with cars and car problems everyday changed my outlook on a lot things, particular spending spare time under the hood. The Z/28 was sold when we bought our home and for a while, at least , automania was on hold.

As time passed and family life began to get more comfortable, the cars came back. I got back into some nice Z/28’s (69 only) as well as some mid year Corvettes. Sometime in 1988 I saw a Hemmings add for a 1969 Camaro "Sebring Racer" which peaked my interest. It was being advertised by a broker who had purchased the car as part of a package and had no interest in keeping it. He said he thought it might have some history, and that the person he bought it from said something about a "Vince Gimondo" as being the driver.

Well this kind of thing was all new to me but, after some quick investigation, I had at least identified most of the people that had been associated with the car in it’s early years. If it was the car that it was supposed to be, it did appear to have some history. So right, wrong, or indifferent. I bought it. Once I began disassembling the car, I started recontacting everyone I had found ever conected with it, and subsequently became good friends with Vince Gimondo, who at this time, was not 100% sure that this was his car. After all, it was built almost twenty years ago..

Above: The Penske/Donohue Camaro pitted In the background with the Behrens/Gimondo Camaro heading out!!! *Early colors were red with gold stripes...

Editors note: (below) Yes, this really is a "Metal" Cross Ram Hood!!!

Over the years, the car had been pretty well modified and transformed into a GT-1 club racer, but thank goodness the frame and roll cage remained totally unscathed. When I began describing some items I thought unique such as a crankshaft connecting rod that served as a rear roll bar brace to panhard support, and some other "unusual" things in the car, Vince seemed to think this was his car.

Below- 1970 Sebring: Vince Gimondo takes first in class...

1. Bruce Behrens Racing (1969-1970)

2. Takondo Racing (Vince Gimondo and Gene Takash) (1970-1971)

3. Gerald Lipke (1971-1973)

4. Ray Mummary/Ralph Noseda/Rich Smalls, Jeffrey Loving (1973-1988)

Although the last group ran the car well into the 80's at Sebring and Daytona, it was more for fun than anything else. The last year the car was competitively run was in 1973.

	Poetry... "It dosen't get any more beautiful than this... The lines on this racer are simply magnificent" Wayne G.

"And what goes around, comes around.
My goal is to have Vince drive the car in
his1970 configuration once again."... Fred Greco

 

Questions and comments are welcome...

Fred Greco
Long Island, NY
e-mail fg99@aol.com