The 1959 Stiletto Bocar

Remember a few weeks back when we discussed the Bocar? In that feature, I mentioned that Bob Carnes also worked on a special streamlined version of the car that he called the Stiletto. In total, he built three of these modified racers – one being supercharged.

Last week, I got an email from a gentleman named Kelly Dietrick. Kelly has pretty much devoted his life to rare sports cars and racers and wanted to inject some feedback. Rather than reword that email, I’ll let it fly in Kelly’s own words:

“Two-thousand pounds of streamlined lightning – the Stiletto has slightly more than half it’s total weight on the rear wheels. With a GMC 471 blower, crank driven through a Potvin adapter, and pumping into a Rochester fuel injector and with a Racer Brown 37r roller cam, the 283 cubic inch Corvette engine can push the car through the quarter mile clocks at close to 120 mph at 11.81 seconds.

The Stiletto was the result of two years of testing, experimenting and modifying while shaking down at the 1960 Daytona Speedweek, hill climbing on Pikes Peak, and racing on Continental Divide Raceway.

There are two surviving Stilettos that we know of and only one supercharged example. This ex-Bob Carnes “team” car was built to compete against the Scarabs. In fact, Carnes raced this supercharged Stiletto at Daytona, Pikes Peak (in the snow!) and even drag raced it. After Carnes, the Stiletto was raced by Bob Spooner (who ran the Purple People Eater Corvette) including competing at the 1963 USRRC race at Road America. The Stiletto retains its 1963 USRRC livery to this day… And I’m selling it.”

Wait… Read that last line again. He’s selling it?

Of course, I had to request pictures and within hours Kelly got back to me. What you see is what I got:

Incredible, right? And this Stiletto could be bought… Not at a rare hot rod price, but at a rare race car price. But frankly, the return is probably better than anything you can get on Wallstreet right now. If interested, shoot me a pm and I will put you in contact with Kelly.