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Bocar XP-5 - the American Cobra predecessor from the backyard garage

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Created on July 24, 2016

Text:

Bruno von Rotz

Photos:

Darin Schnabel - Courtesy RM/Sotheby's

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Collection of the Henry Ford - Courtesy RM/Sotheby's

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Darin Schnabel - Courtesy RM/Sotheby's

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Collection of the Henry Ford - Courtesy RM/Sotheby's

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - trimmed for aerodynamic efficiency

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - with twin headlights

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - with Borrani rims, which were available at extra cost

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - the body is made of plastic

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - the body was certainly influenced by the Lister and D-Type

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - with road registration

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - with the "Meister Bräuser" look from back then

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - not easy to drive, but certainly fast

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - looks more like a racing car than a road vehicle

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - Bob Barnes didn't want to win beauty prizes, he wanted to be efficient on the race track

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - carefully restored interior

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - archaic bucket seats

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - Speedometer up to 160 miles per hour

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - shifting gears with the brown lever

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - Chevrolet V8 engine with fuel injection

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - the engine from the Corvette

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - with the starting number 62, as displayed at the time for the Bahamas Speed Week

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - beautiful Borrani wheels and Alfin drum brakes

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - Augie Pabst drove the sports car in the Nassau Trohpy race on the occasion of Bahama Speed Week on December 6, 1959 - before the start

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - Augie Pabst drove the sports car in the Nassau Trohpy race on the occasion of Bahama Speed Week on December 6, 1959 - before the start

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Bocar XP-5 (1959) - Augie Pabst drove the sports car in the Nassau Trohpy race on the occasion of Bahama Speed Week on December 6, 1959

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Summary

Between 1958 and 1962, the trained aeronautical engineer Bob Carnes built 30 to 40 sports cars in Lakewood (Colorado), which won some laurels on the racetrack and can be considered the forerunners of the Cobra, as they combined American drive technologies with a European-influenced chassis. Equipped with plastic bodies throughout, the sporty vehicles for the racetrack and road are reminiscent of the cars by Devin and Kellison, which had similar concepts. This report portrays Carne's most successful sports car, the XP-5, and shows it in current and historical pictures.

This article contains the following chapters

Just over three years
The XP-5
For the racing driver
The Master Bräuser III

Estimated reading time: 4min

Preview (beginning of the article)

When you hear "Bocar", your brain thinks "Beau Car" and imagines his beautiful car. But beauty was far less important to Bob Carnes, who gave the sports car the brand name with letters of his name, than efficiency and sporting competitiveness. From 1958 to 1962, Carnes, an aeronautical engineer by training, built around 30 to 40 cars, starting with the X-1, which he assembled from Jaguar, Lincoln and Chevrolet parts in his own garage in Lakewood (Colorado, US). The engine was a 4.6-liter Chevy V8. Like Devin and Kellison, the body was made of plastic. Carnes did not start out without his own experience, as he had already optimized sports cars to make them faster. He was also an enthusiastic racing driver and had been behind the wheel of a Glöckler Porsche Spyder and a Jaguar XK 120.

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