Again, perhaps ‘factory’ is taking some liberties, but why should we diminish Bob Carnes’ efforts by referring to his Denver facility as a mere workshop?
Bob Carnes. Bob Carnes. BoCar. Get it? Cute, eh?
Factories at Work: Bocar
Again, perhaps ‘factory’ is taking some liberties, but why should we diminish Bob Carnes’ efforts by referring to his Denver facility as a mere workshop?
Bob Carnes. Bob Carnes. BoCar. Get it? Cute, eh?
12 replies on “Factories at Work: Bocar”
That is fantastic. I love this blog, It has introduced me to so many cars I would otherwise probably never heard of. Is it fiberglass?
Thanks Edmund! It is indeed a fiberglass body on the BoCar.
http://www.finecars.cc/en/detail/car/98820/index.html
Here’s one for sale with excellent pics. Its stratospherically out of my budget, but those intake runners leave me drooling like no others. It doesn’t hurt that they were built a half hour from my house either.
Please add original dates to photos such as those of the Bocar.
Wow. Such a pretty car! A lot of those fiberglass “wanna-be european sporty cars” from the 50s modelled on Italian and British designs never looked that great. This one is really sexy! It looks like only 7 were made, according to the ad above. Is that right??
Beautiful cars, fast, but descriptions of handling were mixed. Bob Carnes was not known as the best driver in Colorado. I remember seeing him race at Continental Divide Raceways and number of times. More that once, I saw him spin out and then blow out an axle coming back onto the pavement at max. I remember that when his factory burned down it was described as “suspicious” circumstances. I haven’t seen a Bocar in person since the last classic car races in Steamboat.
It’s great to see these cars again.
I went to college at the U of Colorado in ’61-62.
I would hang out and lend a hand part time at the old Bocar factory in Denver.
I remember the Stiletto well as it was Bob Carnes personal driver and he would take it home daily.
I remember him driving it to the shop putting it on a trailer and taking it to CDR raceway for a sports car race where I was one of the pit crew
At the time I was there it had a Potvin front mounted blower with Hilborn injection, and as I drove it a few times, it was actually pretty smooth even with the with the injection.
Bob would cut the front suspensions off Jags, and other foreign cars and graft them on the front of his custom designed space frames. I don’t remember what he used on that car.
Bob was a bit of a character and when I returned from my Christmas vacation the factory had burned down under suspicious circumstances and that was the last I heard of him.
I built my old car at the Bocar shop using a 4-71 blower and B&M hydro out of their parts bin.
No long ago there was an XP-4 Bocar s/n 002 found in a storage container located in Golden. It had a hole in the hood for a blower. Looks like it was painted blue and old photo’s indicated it had some 8″ wide American wheels with Firestones. Not much left of it but hopefully it will get restored some day.
Not easy to find photos of a Bocar. The ideal one may need to exist in your mind. I remember I read they used a 356 Porsche front suspension. Imagine the big V8 on top of that coming into turn 5 at RoadAmerica. Perhaps suspension design is overblown.
Shreve Automotive use to have a Bocar it raced at Caddo Mills. What happened to it is anybody’s quess. But Shreve Automotive had the Bocar plus “Hank’s Tank” an Olds Mill was “A” gas. Shreveport La. was it’s home, the bocar was all cut up to run “A” modified sports at Caddo Mills against L.C. Krby’s Cad. Bandani back in the late fifties
Hello Mike
Would you happen to know what color the Bocar was that Shreve Automotive had? I’m trying to find the origin of my car so I’m following up on this lead.
It turns out the at Shreve Automotive Bocar was the X-1 that had been sold to Charles Cobb, that car is now in Az. There is a photo I have of another Bocar that was raced at Caddo Mills in 1960 that could be mine but I haven’t been able to track down any more information yet.