1959 Bocar XP-5 ‘Meister Bräuser III’ Heads to Auction
This gorgeous example of American engineering, the 1959 Bocar XP-5 ‘Meister Bräuser III’, is heading to auction at RM Sotheby’s’ upcoming August Monterey sale coinciding with the 2016 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
The Bocar XP-5 was designed and built by Bob Carnes’ Bocar in early 1959. It was the fifth car from the designer, who started building his own cars just one year prior in 1958.
The XP-5 is based on a chromoly steel space frame, sits on torsion-bar suspension from a Porsche 356 and employs Buick drum brakes for stopping duties. A 283 cubic inch Corvette V8 sits just slightly towards the rear of the car and is offset to the passenger side to balance the weight of the driver.
Its beautiful body is made from fiberglass, making that big ‘Vette V8’s job an easy one.
Carnes claims to have built 30 Bocars in 1959, but historians estimate that just fifteen completed XP-5s put tyre to tarmac.
This car, chassis 003, went to Harry Heuer Jr. of Peter Hand Brewing Co for his developing Meister Bräu racing team. It debuted at the first annual Meadowdale 505 race and Harry Heuer Jr. himself drove it to lucky 13th.
Heuer then hired Augie Pabst, who would go on to win the ’59 and ’60 USAC championships, to race the team’s second car and help out in the XP-5. Pabst would secure Meister Bräuser III’s best finish at an SCCA Regional at Road America in a nailbiter that saw him claim second.
In late 1959 the car went to the Bahamas to compete in the Bahamas Speed Week. Pabst was behind the wheel again here and got off to a good start before fuel injection and clutch problems ended their race.
After that one season Meister Bräuser retired the XP-5, displaying it alongside their two Scarabs at the 1960 Auto Show before selling it to Gordon Mertens.
Mertens held on to the car until 1970, when he sold it to Worth Hill. Hill would keep the car for more than four decades, storing it in a climate controlled garage until he sold it to its current owner, a Bocar collector, in 2014.
It then received a full restoration including a rebuild of its original drivetrain and restoration of the Meister Bräuser III livery. Immaculate, the car was then shown at the 2015 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance where it won an Amelia Award in its ‘Pre-1959 Race Cars’ category.
This machine is a magnificent example of the limited production race cars of the era, and of the American racing culture of the time. It is in beautiful, freshly-restored, condition and is sold with period photographs, articles, advertisements and specification sheets, as well as documentation of its restoration.
It will head to sale over the 17th to 20th of August at RM Sotheby’s’ Monterey Sale. For more details, head to RM Sotheby’s’ website here.
Images by Darin Schnabel, thanks to RM Sotheby’s
