This is a registry for Bobsy Formula Vees. The table below represents the best information I have at this time. New and improved information is encouraged. Please contact me through my email with any new information and I will try to incorporate it into the table below. I will not share contact information without the owner’s permission. See Contact Us page for my e-mail address.
I indexed by car numbers because I found most of these cars on the Internet and serial numbers seem to be very difficult to find on the Vanguards. I will get a dedicated URL and a more professional webpage once this project gets moving along. I have a lot more pictures and information on these cars to share but I decided to start here.
Has anyone ever found a serial number on a Vanguard? I was able to find one on my Vega right under the shifter knob. 109
Vanguard pictures and articles:
July 1965 Sports Car Graphic article: left right
December 1964 Vee Line: Vanguard introduction
Magazine article I saved many years ago. No idea where I got it.
2 This is a beautiful currently raced west coast car.
3 Old picture from the Bobsy fab shop contributed by John McCollister.
7 No Idea. Found on the Internet. Looks like a model car……
11 No idea. Found on the Internet.
23 Ken Holley’s car from Ohio.
49 No Idea. Found on the Internet. Maybe in Holland.
54 Steve Murphy’s vintage racer from Colorado.
64 Nate Groh’s custom Vanguard. Looks like a tribute to Jerry. He is getting it ready for vintage racing.
69 This is the car I purchased for the fiberglass that was missing on my #74 car.
74 Passing a Formcar at NJMP. First time wheel to wheel for this car since 1984.
78 F Mod autocross and hillclimb car.
142 Mid Western Solo 2 car.
192 Mid Western Solo 2 car.
671 Canadian?
852 A very nice vintage racer.
Vega pictures and articles:
April 1968 Road & Track article: page 98, page 99 and page 100.
November 1967 Vee Line: Vega Introduction
0 Chris Salyer’s Vega.
08 Nice Solo Vee racer.
11 & 14 Factory shot of 11 & 14. 14 was driven by John McCollister in the Grand Bahamas as a factory entree.
34 34 Mike Roger’s Vega vintage racer. Mike writes:
Not sure how the previous owner acquired the car but he had it at the FV 50th at Roebling in 2013 and it took me two years to get him to sell it to me. What I found on line was that only 6 or 8 of the 20+/- Vegas stayed in the US, the rest went overseas when SCCA refused to homologate them. All the photos I found around 2015 were mis-labeled Vanguards or not in the US. My car has been modified to get around the SCCA space-frame problem but is still not SCCA legal due to the current front hoop rule. Interesting, from the roll hoop forward it is almost identical to a 2000-2010 Protoform P3 and a bit of work might make the P3 engine cover work. Not bad for a mid-60’s car. Fact, there are two Bobsy Vegas in Texas. The other one was dug out of a barn a couple of years ago south of Houston. I had a lead on the location but was told it was a different chassis, something common like a Zink and not in good shape so I didn’t pursue it. The guy who bought it gave it to his 16-year-old nephew and they are restoring it. Second fact, one of the guys I race vintage with said his first vee was a Bobsy in the Great Lakes area and it was definitely not mine. Rumor, there is a Bobsy Vega somewhere on the east coast, have not located it. I’m attaching a picture of my car from Circuit of the Americas, exiting turn one. Mike
66 Mark Farnham’s recent purchase.
74 My car, Weatherly Hillclimb some years ago. 74 on the day I bought it. 74 Summit turn 5 back when the shower was a garden hose hung from a tree.
I can confirm that the skin on my serial # 109 is steel and was riveted about every 3 inches when I purchased it in 1982. I had to drill out every other rivet, add a front hoop, replace the main hoop with a much larger one and add diagonal bracing to get my car homologated in 1990. The bare frame now weighs 70 pounds versus 110 pounds for my Vanguards. This was after adding the hoops and braces. I remember being able to lift the frame with one finger before I started adding steel.
93 Factory shot contributed by John McCollister. John built and drove Vegas for Jerry. This car is in a Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.
John writes to me how the stressed skin issue was handled by the factory:
There were no vehicle Log Books or SCCA homologation documents back then.
The Zink FV “stressed skin” was controversial from day one and became more controversial the more they won. Why there was no protest taken to the limit, mid-season, I don’t know. Skin was steel (I think) sheet and pop-riveted to upper/lower rails and bulkhead hoops. As ’67 wore on with no clarification it appeared it was going to continue to be allowed.
As it turned out instead of the Vega (first seen at Nelson Ledges enduro, end of year) one-upping Zink (as envisioned), it was the last straw and over the winter SCCA clarified the rule. All the Zinks shed their skin’s rivets for ’68. Two of first three Vega’s were striped (the foam was tough). #93 (still a) mystery to me. All kits that went to customers were legal from day one. Panels, including dash, were held on by Wel-Nuts or Dzus; there was no foam. The Road & Track article was probably written in January, but even then …………we knew – read last paragraph of first page (98).
I’m guessing Vegas going overseas is nearly 50 years (I’m going to be sick, now) retelling of VW of America sponsored invasion of a couple German races. They “sent” John Magee/Autodynamics, Bill Scott/Zink and Glen Sullivan/Vega — and brought them home. They were chosen because between them they had won all four of the first National races, of ’68, in NE Division; (not arguably) the toughest Division at the time. I can scan magazine page that shows all three. No US vees were going to overseas drivers then, but a few Austro Vaus did come here.
Totally unfamiliar with today’s rules; so front hoop issue escapes me.
