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Bocar XP-5, 6, 7, 7R, and Stiletto.

43K views 65 replies 14 participants last post by  foolthrottle 
#1 · (Edited)
Morning all.
Been thinking about this for a while, and finally decided to do it. The Bocar, for those who don't know, is a rare sportscar produced between 1958 and 1961 in Denver Colorado. Less than thirty have been found since the factory burned over Christmas 1961, and little by little, they creep out of the woodwork to show their pretty faces to the world. We have campaigned one for the past twenty years in the Colorado vintage racing scene, and recently retired it. I am posting in the hopes that more Bocar owners and enthusiasts will come foreward with pictures and maybe a little history of their cars. I know some about certain cars and if you have questions about yours, I may be able to help. So, here we go. The car we have raced is XP-5 SN. 007 and has been a real treat to race. Though a bit scary considering it weighs 2100 lbs. and still has its original 283. You can still find pictures of this car online with its numbers and rollbar still in it. (107) If the driver is in a white firesuit with a blue neck donut, it's me. If the driver has a red firesuit, It's my Grandfather.
 

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#2 · (Edited)
Perhaps some more history.

The creator, Bob Carnes, wanted to build the fastest, safest, and most reliable sports car in America. Using a glass body, triangulated 4130 Chrome-molly tube frame, Buick Alfin drums, Corvette powerplant and driveline, and Volkswagen torsion bars for suspension. Though some cars had VW front suspension, many others had whatever he could get his hands on up front. One had Aston Martin, 007 has DB Panhard, another has Jaguar, one has '59 chevy, and another with 300sl Mercedes. The rears were almost always Corvette. The rear suspension was typically a four link using a VW rear torsion bar as the lower link and an a-frame on the top of the pumpkin for locating. Others had leaf springs and an upper trailing link like 007 does. Each car was different, and each car has its own personality. The XP-6 was 14 inches longer than the XP-5, and featured a Potvin adapted supercharger. The XP-7 was an unsupercharged long car, the XP-7R was supercharged and featured a solid front axle sprung with a torsion bar. The Stiletto was pure race machine, long and low, supercharged, and weighing in at 1700lbs. Though we have a sales brochure for an XP-9, we have never heard of one still existing. The Prototype XP-9 coupe is in the following picture that I've had for ages. 007 is the white car on the right. Bob Carnes is in the center.
 

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#6 ·
I love the cars of that era. I remember there was one Bocar in Tucson in the late seventies.! I went to look at it ... and to drool! They had a very aggressive "look"... and the performance to go with it

I was never involved with a Bocar, but there were many other similar cars and body products in those days. I also fell in love with the Ferrari-like Devin bodies used for racing at the drags, road courses, Bonneville, and Pikes Peak.

Later I worked for customers on the completion of a Roger McCluskey built Devin, that he never finished... some production Devin car restorations... A complete build around the body used for the SS model... and bought and sold a few bodies.

A partner and I even tried to work out a deal with Bill Devin to start manufacturing them again, but sadly his offer made it unachievable. Beautiful cars though!

Here is the McCluskey car finished.
 

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#7 ·
The Bocar X-1.

Tucson Jay, if the Bocar you saw was red with a blower jutting out of the hood, then you saw the Bocar X-1, the first one ever built. I know the man who owns it, and it is still in the Tucson area. He also built a copy of it to race at Bonneville. Once the flood waters here in Colorado subside, I'll go up to our archives in the mountains and find a picture to scan in.
 
#8 ·
Sam, It's been a very long time, but I seem to remember him building the Bonneville clone car... though I can't recall his name. I only remember about where his shop was.

Bill Devin is gone now. I did take a splash mold off of the SS style front body, and could gain access to a couple Devin C's, which had the same rear body shape. In other words, I could produce a facsimile of an SS. On a realistic note... I don't see such an effort leading to a profitable venture, since the day of those wonderful cars is past. Today it is very rare to even hear mention of them. Sad, because they were amazing!
 
#9 · (Edited)
The Bonneville Bocar, atleast a mention of it.

His name is Bonner Denton, Professor of Chemsitry at U of A. Google search him and you get some of his college acheivements, and of his racing history, Plus pictures of his current record setting car, a 540ci twin turbo Berkley. Only mentions his Bocar though. Hope that helps TJ.
On another note, a Gentleman recently contacted me from Wisconsin who purchased a Bocar off of an online auction site. I will post some of the pictures he sent me of his car. Wish I had one with all the body panels on it. I suspect it is was a factory purchased kit, since the tubes are all the same size instead of a mix of inch and five eights for the primaries, and inch for the braces. It is a little mysterious, but perhaps someone knows it. Seems to me it was someones prized drag racer, since nearly every tube has the builders initials hand-stamped into it, E M T. They didn't do that in the factory.
 

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#13 ·
Here is the first batch of Devin pics I promised.

The top car (on the body dolly in the first group) is one of the two Corvair powered Devin Cs I restored.
I don't have any other pictures of them scanned into the computer.

The rest of the photos are of the McCuskey built car. in prcess, and finished.
 

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#14 ·
These pictures are of a Devin kit body that happened to also be used for the factory turn key Corvette-powered "Devin SS" models. We built a tube chassis with all Jaguar suspension and Knock-off Dunlop wheels like the factory cars. We also duplicated the top bows... and the same hinges and latches that were used on the Devin production cars. We shipped it in the late eighties with an early Corvette engine and T-10 trans sitting in it. I called the guy about ten years ago, and the car was still never completed.

This also happens to be the largest body Devin ever made.

He built modular molds, so they could produce various models to fit different chassis, by simply adding length or width.

There were also Large mouth and small mouth models... plus the Devin Cs, Devin Ds (VW powered), which had no grill openings... but they had deck lid opening for the air cooled motors.

For you drag race buffs... a few famous cars that ran in Modified Sports, such as Joe Lunatis "Trouble Maker", used Devin kit bodies. They were very thin... hand laid from cloth... used resin only for the top finish... and required a great deal of work to use and paint!!!
 

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#15 · (Edited)
Always good to see the Devins

Lovely indeed! There has always been a special place in my heart for the Devins ever since I saw two Echidnas at Steamboat Springs one year for the vintage races. We also had a guy try and trade us a VW powered devin for one of our Stilettos. Which I will show you all here.... The car on the left had a spot of black or British racing green at the base of the headrest, but no other history can we find. The car on the right raced in the Bahamas speedweeks at Nassau 1961, driven by Graham Shaw.
 

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#16 ·
Since we are into it....

Well since we are getting into this as well, I figure I should post a few pics of another of our glass bodied mysteries. This is a Bocar-Bangert special. Didn't have the time to slip the nose back on it so it could smile for the camera. We found this one chained to a tree in a guys backyard. Said he drag raced it with a 392 Hemi and put the corvette chassis under it. However a friend of mine who worked for Bob Carnes remembered this car in the factory. "Old Purple" we call it and so does he. He said it originally had a box tube and round tube chassis and a tri-power pontiac 389.
 

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#17 ·
Neat stuff Sam! I doubt I could name all of the glass sports cars I have read about in the past. I do know there were quite a few produced. It's good to see someone else was impressed with that part of the hobby too! :)

Wasn't it Ak Millar who raced Pikes Peak with a Devin special? Seems like it had 427 Ford power???
 
#21 ·
Yep, sure does.

Very similar styling in places to the Sprite. Believe it or not, Dr. Denton built a streamlined version of one to run at Bonneville after he exploded a tire on the Bocar. He has since set several records and is getting closer and closer to the 300MPH club.(Meaning, setting a record at or over 300.) In a front wheel-drive Berkeley! (Well, he used his 540ci Bocar engine in it, not a motorcycle engine.)
Bonneville Salt Flats 310 MPH Berkeley! | MyRideisMe.com
 
#56 ·
Bocar XP4

Very similar styling in places to the Sprite. Believe it or not, Dr. Denton built a streamlined version of one to run at Bonneville after he exploded a tire on the Bocar. He has since set several records and is getting closer and closer to the 300MPH club.(Meaning, setting a record at or over 300.) In a front wheel-drive Berkeley! (Well, he used his 540ci Bocar engine in it, not a motorcycle engine.)
Bonneville Salt Flats 310 MPH Berkeley! | MyRideisMe.com[/QUOTE) I have located a Bocar and I think it is a XP4. Does anyone have any information on the XP4?
 
#22 ·
Bocar xp5

Years ago I saw my first Bocar at Steam boat Springs Co vintage road race and I've wanted one ever since. I was fortunate this morning to speak with Mr. Curley the owner of the car I saw race so many years ago, he's now 81 and sounds to be doing pretty well, he has a number of original Bocars including a couple of Stilleto's (not my favorite body style) and he is considering making molds from his original XP5 cars, any replicas made by Mr. Curley would in my mind be considered true Bocars because of his long history of building and racing these cars.
 

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#23 ·
Greetings Mr. Throttle

Glad you caught up with Grandpa, considering the last race in Steamboat was in '98. Oddly enough, I called him while you were on the phone with him so I apologize if I interuppted. And yes, we are planning to pull a mold off of either Bocar 028 or Bocar 034. Mainly to make repair parts for some of our existing cars, and if someone were to beg and plead hard enough, we probably will make replacement parts if someone bangs theirs up. The two Stilettos pictured earlier in the post are ours. (I'm the one holding the wheel.) I am also glad you found this post, as I hope more Bocar guys like yourself do. There was recently an XP-5 replica built in England, sadly I didn't get a chance to go see it personally, but it was a beauty. Built correctly from what I could tell, and with the period correct parts. A fine job they did, so far the finest replica I have seen. (One of the few I have seen.) Again, glad to see you on here, spread the word that "Bocars Live."
 
#24 ·
This makes me very happy indeed. All of these handbuilt specials need to not just be preserved; but brought out and USED, to keep interest in them alive. I understand static displays, and sometimes thats the only option, but generally it makes me a little sad. One of my customers has an original Cheetah and he takes it to open track events and really pushes it. He cooked the gearbox and apologized profusely. I shrugged and said "Good!" "what?" "At least you're driving it, but please try to keep a quart of oil in it"

Thanks for sharing guys
 
#25 ·
Cheethas are interesting cars, as a kid I remmber seeing them race when they were the latest race car inovation, along with Old Yellars, Cobras, Echidnas, Devins and specials of every stripe. A number of the cars after a few races were really hammered looking with nasty patch panels, quickly beat out panels and paint jobs that looked like they were done by a five year old with a buzz can, but they were spectacular to watch race. A large number of these cars were built in small shops or home garages and always underfunded and the innovation and creativity using what was available, off the chart!
 
#26 ·
If you're into 1-off racing specials; you need to read Brock Yates book "The Hot Rod" Its about the history of Duff Livingston's "Eliminator" T-bucket/road racer. He raced against Birdcage Maserati's, Max Balchowsky's Old Yeller, Ferrari's etc. The pictures in this book alone are worth the $12 bucks or so. Its wonderfully written, and covers both the history of the car, the ressurection, restoration and preservation of it...and driving it at speed at the Monterrey Historics.

The Hot Rod: Resurrection of a Legend: Brock Yates: 9780760315989: Amazon.com: Books
 
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