1959 Bocar XP-5
I must have called the guy dozens of times, year after year for more than a decade. It was about a racecar hiding in his garage that few people knew about. It was historic, beautiful, powerful, and definitely worth obsessing over. Trouble was the guy wasn’t a seller. Despite the inoperative nature of the vehicle, no money or approach mattered. It was always a courteous “thanks for calling but no thanks.” After a while the owner became acquainted with my voice and the conversations politely ended before they began. Then, on what would become my final attempt, I heard that horrible recording about his phone being disconnected. And at that point I suppose I gave up.
Years passed and the car fell from the top off my cranial lust-list. It wasn’t that I’d lost interest. Just that other shiny objects had me distracted. The torment associated with this type of long-term automotive longing can be profound, and I have found psychotherapy and medication to be totally ineffective. For me, gradual forgetfulness, a progressive form of amnesia, has always been the very best coping mechanism. Of course there will always be people out there, like my good friend Harold Pace, who take great pleasure in coaxing the memory. In a recent phone call Pace said to me, “I just heard Worth Hill posted his Bocar for sale on Craigslist.” And before I could get to the keyboard Pace added, “And it sold immediately.”
Worth Hill’s Bocar wasn’t just any old Bocar, if there is such a thing. No, this was the one and only Meister Brauser Bocar XP-5 that raced on the same team alongside the Scarabs. This was the car I had chased for more than 10 years of my life…and in a flash it was lost to someone trolling the Internet superhighway.
In the 1950s, Bob Carnes built a series of outrageous Bocar (a contraction of his first and last names) racing machines in his shop in Denver, Colorado. Powered most commonly by thumping Chevrolet V8s and cloaked in swoopy fiberglass skins, Bocar sports cars were easy to dream about. Carnes went through a series of developments including the XP-1 and XP-4 before he hit on his most successful design. The Bocar XP-5 was constructed on a round-tube space frame chassis of Carnes’ invention. While at least one XP-5 left the factory with a Pontiac mill, most were motivated by 283 Chevy V8s. With a dry weight of less than 2,000 pounds, it’s not hard to imagine the speed potential of the XP-5.
In 1959, Harry Heuer was a driver who understood speed. His Meister Brauser racing team, sponsored by the Peter Hand Brewery, was campaigning two world-beating Scarabs with Heuer and Augie Pabst doing the driving. It’s not completely clear why Heuer wanted a Bocar XP-5 in the stable, but there’s absolutely no doubt that his team campaigned one. According to the current owner, this XP-5 was chassis #003 and was powered by a small block Chevy pumping out 315-hp, shifting through a Borg-Warner T-10 4-speed. Front suspension was via Porsche 356 components and rear suspension was Volkswagen with a torsion bar. Drum brakes were fitted at all four corners. The current owner’s research shows that this XP-5 was originally painted powder blue before Heuer had it branded in the Meister Brauser paint scheme.
Multiple published period accounts about the car’s race manners from both Heuer and Pabst were anything but flattering. The car was a bullet in a straight line, but its handling and turning and stopping were suboptimal. Heuer raced the car in the May 1959 USAC event at Meadowdale and finished 13th. Heuer finished 17th in the car at Vaca Valley in September. The following month Heuer failed to qualify the car for the Riverside Grand Prix. Two weeks later Pabst drove the car to a 2nd-place finish at Road America. The last race of the year for #003 was the 6th Annual International Bahamas Speed Week outing. Pabst and the car sat on the pole based on the somewhat unusual method of gridding cars by engine displacement. The XP-5 led the first lap, but shortly thereafter retired with a mechanical problem. From there the car was sold to Gordon Mertens who sold it to Worth Hill in 1970. Hill owned the car for the next five decades, always keeping it inside and in good condition.
Doug Karon is a Bocar man. He bought his first XP-5 in 1998 from Harold Pace. According to Karon, that car is now being vintage raced out of Belgium. He acquired his second XP-5 in 2003 and sometime later sold it to his friend, Mike Fisher. An XP-4 came to Karon in 2008, and it is now in the collection of McKeel Hagerty. By his own admission, Karon was unaware of the whereabouts of the ex-Meister Brauser team XP-5 until a friend tipped him off about the advertisement on Craigslist in April of 2014. Karon said, “The car was in Illinois, and the next day I flew down with my friend Bruce Eide to see it.
The car needed some work, but it was in reasonable condition and was in one piece. At some point it had been painted gray which was somewhat drab and didn’t highlight the car’s wonderful curves. I quickly agreed on a price with Mr. Hill, and soon the car was headed to my shop in Plymouth, Minnesota.”
Karon continued: “I really love Bocars. Carnes designed his machines as true dual-purpose sports cars. The XP-5 filled the need of the enthusiast looking for a daily driver that could also be highly competitive in club racing events.”
Not long after bringing the car back to his shop Karon began the process of restoration. Along with partners Eide and Fisher, Karon is in the course of returning the car to its 1959 Meister Brauser state. This included removing several layers of old paint which ultimately revealed the original Meister Brauser scheme.
Karon’s immediate goal is to get the partially restored car to the 6th Meadowdale, Motorsports & Memories reunion this September, where the Meister Brau Racing Team will be honored and Heuer and Pabst will be part of a panel discussion. He would also like to show the restored car at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in 2015.
Karon hints at the possibility of selling #003 after that, so we may see this one at public auction someday soon. Along with the car the next custodian will receive a large file of historical documents that Worth Hill has carefully preserved through the many years. According to Karon, my name and phone number are listed throughout the file from the dozens of times I called Mr. Hill trying to buy the car. But instead of calling me, he put it on Craigslist!
What a world, what a world.
