Here to Obscurity
“If at first you don’t succeed…” is a great life motto, unless it comes to crazy car designs. That was certainly the case with Bruce Baldwin Mohs, creator of the SafariKar, as Richard Heseltine discovered...
One of life’s original thinkers, Bruce Baldwin Mohs made few cars. However, the ones he did make were nothing if not memorable. This entrepreneurial inventor from Madison, Wisconsin, was not one to do things by halves, that’s for sure. His resume had almost as many hits as misses, having variously conceived the instant milkshake, reflective strips used on motorway barriers and a variety of seaplanes. In the latter camp there was his motorcycle sidecar that doubled as a submersible and, it has to be said, his attempt at the ‘ultimate in luxury motor cars’.
Mohs unleashed his first automotive design in 1968, the mighty Ostentatienne Opera Sedan. Strictly speaking, however, it was a commercial vehicle given that it was underpinned by an International truck chassis which also provided its 304cu in V8. Means of entry was via a vast single door that hinged just above the windscreen and comprised much of the roof. The cabin featured such essentials as a TV, a refrigerator, and a butane furnace (plus a large supply tank). Ming-style rugs were, however, optional, as was a 549cu in eight-cylinder unit. Oh, and the car rode on 20-inch wheels, the tyre tubes being filled with nitrogen to reduce heat build-up.
Mohs claimed it was the safest car in the world, one that was aimed at those: ‘[who] demand the impossible and expect the improbable’. There were no takers, not least because it cost four times as much as the most expensive Cadillac then on sale. His next stab at producing an automobile was, however, more successful (all things being relative).
The even more bizarre Mohs SafariKar was unleashed in 1973, and billed as: ‘…the only luxury convertible produced in America which is also a dual-cowl phaeton’. Based on International Scout underpinnings, this brave new world featured a folding metal roof and, predictably, a novel means of entry: the hingeless doors moved outwards on linear bearing and centre shafts, and then back.
The body itself was made of aluminium tungsten-alloy, onto which was placed polyurethane foam. On top of that was lashings of the finest Naugahyde artificial leather, the reasoning being that it a) meant there was no need to paint the SafariKar, and b) it reduced engine noise. This was particularly important, no doubt, when tracking big game on the African savannah… Mohs claimed the car could be used on and off road, and the rear seat opened into a bed should you choose to sleep beneath the stars. Up front, there was a three-abreast seating layout, the instruments being borrowed from the International parts bin, which is about the only thing conventional about the SafariKar.
Remarkably, three were made, two of which were sold. Mohs, however, was far from done. He continued to beaver away on all manner of designs, many of them of the two-wheeled variety. His sole attempt at producing another car, however, was the Model G Gee Whiz, a trike with forward-arm front suspension on the single front wheel. Built in 1975, it remained a prototype.
Mohs went on to write a book about his exploits – The Amazing Mr. Mohs – and also founded a car museum. He died in 2015, his legacy as one of the world’s great eccentrics already assured.