1964 Cheetah GT V8
Introduction
Bill Thomas had one goal in mind when he designed and produced the Cheetah: beat the Ford Cobra. With Chevrolet backing the company, 25 fine examples were produced until sadly, the factory burnt down. After the blaze, chevrolet pulled out of the project. The power to weight ratio of this beast was phenomenal as the car was small and lightweight (Almost 500lbs lighter than the cobra!). The V8 was pushed back as far as possible leaving the engine almost in the center of the car. Some examples were tuned as high as 520HP.
The Details
The Cheetah was meant to be Cobra-killer. It was Corvette powered, with a custom-designed chassis and suspension. There has never been another car like it. Unfortunately, the Cheetah never made production. A fire in the shop stopped production somewhere around the 16th car, only 11 cars were fully completed.
The Cheetah was conceived and created by Bill Thomas at his company Bill Thomas Race Cars. Due mainly to Thomas’ connections at Chevrolet, the most recent Corvette technology was available to the pair for almost every component. In order to get the engine (and weight) as far back as possible, it was decided to forego the traditional use of a driveshaft. On this car, the universal joint on the frame-mounted differential is coupled directly to the transmission output shaft joint.
Don Edmunds, a Thomas employee, is generally credited with the original chassis work. Once the engine, driveline and suspension were completed, Edmunds simply created a frame to cage them, and a cage is exactly what the tube frame resembles. The body was created in much the same manner. A simple wooden buck was built over the frame and the first aluminum body was hand formed. This first body had a tubular substructure for support. Then they took molds from the aluminum body, one more aluminum body was built before the first fiberglass body hit production. About this time Don Edmunds left to form his own company Autoreasearch, Inc. to build racing cars on his own.
