The Car Designed To CRUSH the Shelby Cobra - The 1964 Bill Thomas Cheetah

In this Rare Cars documentary, we go in depth into the short but absolutely fascinating history of the Bill Thomas Cheetah, the car that was built to destroy the Shelby Cobra back in the 1960’s. The Cheetah is an exceptionally rare car that unfortunately not too many people know about as it sort of faded into obscurity and never got the praise nor spotlight that the Shelby Cobra got.
That doesn’t mean this car wasn’t awesome though! Weighing in at an estimated 1,500lbs and making between 365 and 550hp, the Cheetah was an absolutely insane vehicle that the world deserved to know so much more about!
This is the 4th Rare Cars documentary so if you enjoyed it, please make sure to subscribe to the channel because we have more documentaries just like this one coming out on history’s most interesting cars like the GT40, Porsche 907, Ferrari P4 and oh so many more!

[@AZCobraman]

"Cheetahs are perfectly balanced cars....once they start spinning they never stop." Mark Donohue.

[@juergriolo7334]

yes, you are right. And ... RedBull should KEEEP OUT !!! of the Pit Area the Vather of Max !!!

[@kennethjackson7574]

And on the opposite end of that spectrum was the V-8 Gremlin. One of the Petersen magazines of those days said it understeered so much it could smoke the front tires trying to turn off of a straight line. Neither feature is useful.

[@josefolsson5343]

So they are to the cars what I asume Tomcats flying through a jet wash are to airplanes? Although I couldn't possibly know this for sure since I don't have the knowledge to back that theory up. Might be that way with any military airplane in a similar situation. Also, I'm most defenitly not refering to Top Gun in an attempt to make a joke, so any trolls are free to try and make fun of me. 😏

[@johnquillman785]

@@kennethjackson7574 Had a stock Gremlin,,,,wide tires + short wheel base + slick road.......hold on, a spin is a real possibility on this trip. You could hit a puddle and do a 360 degree.

[@kennethjackson7574]

@@josefolsson5343 Picture holding a dumbbell, arm straight down, and turning it clockwise and counter clockwise. Now picture holding a barbell of the same weight and doing the same thing. Getting the barbell to turn will be harder than it was with the dumbbell, right? The Cheetah is rather like the dumbbell, relatively easy to spin because so much weight is near center. Especially if it’s gone off-track, such as on hard dirt or wet grass. I hope this helps.

[@Dan210871]

Gorgeous car, undoubtedly. Shame it didn't perform accordingly. Moral of the story: There is only one Carroll Shelby.

[@matthewbratton3825]

Cheetah Evolution and a few others make Cheetahs now that are state of the art modern versions of the Cheetah. A friend of mine nows owners and has painted a few in flawless finishes.

[@awaren8375]

Really? Shelby took a car someone else built and shoved a Ford V8 in it..not very original or very talented,Shelby=overrated & overpriced .bristol ace? When you take a car that's already existed for multiple years and put an engine in it that it never came with that doesn't make you anything but a f****** mechanic I never understood why people idolize this guy🤣🤣shelby😂😂😂😂see that badge makes my car faster than yours😂😂 hey guys if I put a Ford V8 in this car and call it a cobra you think anyone will notice that all I did was take the front bumper off and put a big engine in it and think I made the car right😂 no.. no , we won't.

[@Dan210871]

@@awaren8375 Then again, that is not the only thing that Shelby did. You may try to be less of a judgmental knowitall, replacing your contempt with curiosity.

[@charlesharper7292]

It will out run, and out handle the Cobra. Chevy didn't get to race in the same class as the Cobra because the racing administration changed the number you had to build to. compete in the class. Was you had to build 100 cars. They changed the rules to 1000 cars. Chevy pulled the plug. Steering and suspension was designed after a lotus Chevy had in the shop. Brakes were drum front and rear!😬

[@Dan210871]

@@charlesharper7292 I see that "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda": is still the favorite tune of GM fans.

[@blarfneggs3728]

I bought a Cheetah when I was a teenager as a project. Had no idea what I was doing. Ended up reselling it a few years later for what I paid for it which was $2500. Wish I had it now.

[@kennethjackson7574]

The car I wish I had bought 50-ish years ago was a Dan Gurney Cougar, Gurney’s counter to the Shelby Mustang. The other side of the coin- Shelby v. Thomas, and Shelby v. Gurney. $800. Oh well.

[@kevinbarrett9615]

Saw one race at Road America , loudest car at the event , a hoot to watch. I will always remember the Cox gas powered model when I was a kid.

[@todd3285]

I use to race SCCA back in the late seventies and early eighties . Later on I did a few historic races . The sound of the Cheetah was amazing . You could hear it before you could see it .

[@samsonian]

One of the very few ‘legend’ cars of the 60s I have NO desire to drive. Looks AND appears designed to want to kill its driver (that’s saying something from the 60s)!

[@kenm4678]

You can still usually watch a SOCAL Cheetah and the coupe at vintage/historic RA races.

[@rickwho2314]

The whole story sounds like another whining GM ass clown. Just another Wan 2 Bee😢

[@DanimalZ32]

Was just at RA for the vintage weathertech challenge this weekend and the cheetah dominated everything as always!

[@scottmccutcheon2530]

One of my favorites from the sixties. I remember have a slot car with a cheetah body on it. Those were the days

[@tiberiusgracchus7328]

The Cheetah made a great slot car body, low and wide. Slot cars were great fun. A great time to be a kid.

[@VWPirates]

I admired my Cheetah slot car for many hours as a kid. It helped making me a petrol head.

[@donnarolando3961]

@carmineredd Strombecker😃

[@freedom_323]

the Slot car race tracks :) we had one track/store in my area, with 3 major hobby shops ...those were great times

[@donnarolando3961]

Had one from Strombecker, one of my favorites

[@deadmeat8754]

The BT Chevy Cheetah was such a niche tuner product that it's beyond presumptuous to suggest it was the Shelby Cobra's biggest (or even major) rival. Every thing about the Cheetah was derivative and epitomized Duct Tape Engineering, whereas everything Shelby did was bold and involved utilizing actual racing automotive engineering of the era.

[@kennethjackson7574]

If “Duct Tape Engineering” works it works. I like the informal motto of the folks who built the Super Guppy transport airplanes entrusted with hauling Saturn V rocket components cross country: “Build to fit, draw to match, paint to cover.”

[@freedom_323]

yep. thats how I remember the Cheetah, as a cheap knock off of the cobra...still a cool car, but thats how it was viewed by the motor head adults i grew up around

[@AtropalArbaal-dk8jv]

The Cobra is neither a Shelby, nor original. It is an AC Ace, with Ford badges, beefed up chassis, and Ford engines.

[@v.e.7236]

Bill Thomas' work w/ the Chevy Corvair is what pushed my mother to buy a turbocharged Corvair in 1964. She Rallye raced the heck out of that car and I got to be her co-pilot, because I was the youngest kid and still needed supervision. My favorite supervision, ever. We clocked hundreds of miles in that Corvair. I own a '65 convertible Corvair as my daily driver and think of Mom every time I get in.

[@monkeyearcheese420]

Your mom sounds pretty cool

[@v.e.7236]

@@monkeyearcheese420 I'm slightly biased, but yeah, she was a really cool mother. She was an artist, as well as an avid Rallye racer.

[@edwhitson9873]

Awesome momma. Mine had a built trans-am and I could get her to race red light to red light, or smoke the tires off.....but rally racing, Wow

[@HanoiHustler]

My mother dragged a Roadrunner got to drive that car in her lap.

[@HanoiHustler]

My mother was a artist to!

[@ytwhite5930]

Great video! As a 9yr old kid,I got to take a ride in the green Alan Green Cheetah on 1st ave so. one Sat. morning with a mchanic.Note that it still has the original drum brakes on it! RIP Bill Thomas.

[@rarecars3336]

That’s an awesome story!

[@anthonysiler4938]

My dad has the pic of that car in his office at the Bardahl plant, cool car!

[@freedom_323]

This generation will never know the joy of drum brakes and bias ply tires :)

[@rarecars3336]

USE THIS AS THE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM THREAD! I have been reading through the comments of the last videos and noted all the critiques and tried to implement the following changes: 1. I removed the hard coded subtitles 2. I tried to slow down my speaking, annunciate better and I added larger pauses between sentences so things don’t seem like one large run on sentence 3. I added images and animated them to make them a bit more engaging than just a regular image. 4. I used shorter clips and more different clips to make the video more visually engaging. I know the microphone settings in this video are a tad bit peaky at certain points so I apologize, I just got a new PC to edit and haven’t nailed the settings yet but I’m working on it! Any other critiques you have please feel free to leave them here. Also please mention and other Cheetah related facts here, it’s difficult to find a lot of info on this car! Thanks everyone for watching though, 1,000 subs in a month is crazy!

[@omegapolat]

your speak being speedy sometimes in this video, but i know you will slow it too in the future.

[@rileyberkowitz]

This video is a huge improvement to what I already thought was great content! Your videos are so unique and high quality and it's awesome to see a creator taking criticism so well. Keep it up!

[@rarecars3336]

@@rileyberkowitz thank you for the kind words, I’m just trying to make good content that people enjoy!

[@brianmorgan4678]

1

[@garyallen8869]

Using other people's videos without permission is not the way to go about putting together an informative video, the black cheetah that I am tuning would be one example, try asking people rather than copying their videos, I happen to have an extensive knowledge of Cheetah's both original, and continuations, but since you didn't do the right thing, you'll have to keep searchin

[@rientsdijkstra4266]

1500lbs = about 675kg. That is already remarkable, but nearly unbelievable with a heavy cast iron "small" block V8 on board.

[@monkeyearcheese420]

Pretty sure a stock beetle is around 1600 lbs. That's insane power to weight in the cheetah

[@Thumper68]

Small block Chevy not that heavy really and much more compact then even new v8 engines

[@rientsdijkstra4266]

@@Thumper68 Old style "Small block" Chevy is still an iron v8 lump of about 5.7 litres or so that weighs about 350 to 450 lbs depending on the spec. In European perspective that is an enormous and very heavy engine, even if it is relatively compact. Of course modern chevy v8's like the LS3 and later versions are a bit lighter because they are constructed from aluminium, but that is not the case here.

[@zztop7306]

I'm not sure why the quotes for small. The block size has nothing to do with the overall cubic inch of the engine.

[@rientsdijkstra4266]

@@zztop7306 The quotes around the small are there because the Small Block is only small when compared to the Big Block, but compared to most European engines it is still very big AND heavy. And by the way: cubic inch and (minimum) block size actually ARE related. Cubic inches are bore x stroke and these determine both the height of the cylinder block(s) and the minimum spacing between the cylinders and thus the minimum length of the block (together with other parameters, such as the amount of spacing between the cylinders, etc. )

[@timheidel5849]

I seem to recall an episode of the show "Billions" where the main character ("Bobby Axelrod") is walking through his car collection, with a red Cheetah at the center of his collection. He also mentions that he is a billionaire who has everything a man can buy, including a Cheetah.

[@rarecars3336]

Now that is a cool reference!

[@doug3805]

The Shelby is pure art, but the Cheetah is something else. Nice video

[@ChadGerstmeyer-vr1sg]

The Cheetah was a death trap! Chevy saw it and wanted nothing to do with it.

[@roadragerescues]

Ralph Salyer not Sayler. From Hammond Indiana. Gene Crowe was his mechanic and together they built and raced the Cheetah known as the Cro-Sal Special. Also they raced Oldsmobile powered CanAm cars. Very cool history there.

[@johnkemas7344]

I remember the Cheetahs! As a kid I had several Cheeta slot cars 1/24 and 1/32 scale. They were great too! Certainly a sweet ride!

[@39KHall]

Cool. I had a Thunderjet 500 (HO) Cheetah when I was a kid.

[@johnkemas7344]

I had the Aurora HO sot cars too, but never could find the Cheetah. I did have 2 - 63 Split widow Vettes though in the Auroras. Good old days! I live in Pittsburgh and can't find any slot car tracks at all anymore and few privately owned ones either. the last commericial one was at a big big hobby shop and it wnet out of business 5 years ago. Sad days!!

[@blastingcapps4341]

​@@johnkemas7344check out Mark's model World Canton Ohio might be worth the drive

[@thewatcher5271]

Hey Man, You Were Lucky! I Always Wanted A 1/32 Scale Slot Car But I Ended Up With The Aurora HO Track Which I Still Have Somewhere In The Attic. Thank You.

[@johnkemas7344]

@@thewatcher5271 I was lucky enough to live close to 3 commercial pay to play tracks in the 60's in the Pittsburgh, PA area. My Dad would take me but I had to pay the track fees with my allowances and earnings from cutting neighbors grass etc. Lot of fun in those days!! But it was still pricey. Built my own cars with brass tubing and a frame jig and bought the car body t my local hobby shop. Damn ..... $3.00 was a lot of money in those days!!

[@monkeyearcheese420]

This was one of my favorite hot wheels when I was a kid. So aggressive looking

[@E.T.GARAGE]

The more I think about the Cheetah the more it resembles a sprint car packaged differently.

[@keithlenzner]

We built a Triumph. A 350 Chevy motor, 4 speed Olds automatic trans. We ended up with a 1" long driveshaft. At least we didn't have to balance it.

[@neorandy]

It’s great to finally know the history of the orange car, my favorite, that I ran on my racetrack that Christmas morning many years ago. I’m guessing it was about 1966 when I was 10.

[@bradsanders6954]

I had an HO slot car track as a young kid, the Cheetah was my favorite car for sure. 50 some years later I have an all digital german made slot car track upstairs. What did I order for it first? A Cheetah of course, ending up with 2 of them. They are 1/32 to exact scale so they're small compared to other 1/32 cars. They fly!

[@TamTran-vw7zm]

This car was a dismal failure from its inception. From its drum brakes to its wildly overheating cockpit, it was half-baked and broke almost every time it ran--esp against the cobras. I always felt sorry for the underappreciated Jerry Titus who got saddled with driving it. Finally Talph Salyer cut the entire roof from his trying to survive the heat. And that car I saw launch its flywheel into the air like a giant lethal discus.

[@freedom_323]

As a child in the 60s growing up in Northern Virginia inside the Beltway, there were many Pentagon based Military as well as FT. Belvoire, who had returned from Combat duty , and they bought bad ass cars, I got to see Cobras, Shelby Mustangs, Jaguar's etc.. Not to say they were EVERYWHERE, they were the once a week rare sightings that all of us car crazy kids looked for....it was an awesome decade in many regards

[@XrayxRich]

One of the Firestone kids had one when I was at Parsons' college in 1966. That thing was a real beast.

[@Loulovesspeed]

A design that was sketched out in chalk on the floor, then built of aluminum which was hammered around a wooden buck. Sound familiar? Exactly the way the World Championship Cobra Daytona Coupe was created by Peter Brock! The Cheetah got a lot of people excited at first as it looked like the car that could do what no one else could do....reel in the Cobra. But it turned out to be another example that looked good on paper, but just never got engineered to the point where it was practical. If there is such a thing as being overpowered, the Cheetah was first in class. Trying to effectively control that much power on such a small wheelbase coupled with an ineffective chassis and suspension helped to doom the car. The fire at the Cheetah factory was the final blow for this ill conceived machine. It never amounted to a Cobra killer after all. RIP Cheetah. The Shelby Cobra still rules! 🤠 🏆 🏁

[@rickyrobertson9874]

Being born in '59 I know that it is better than I know, watching this period come into it's OWN!

[@Thomas-pq4ys]

As a kid, I loved the look of the Cheetah. I built a slot car with a vacuum formed Cheetah body. I couldn't wait to get home from school to work on it. When done, it was fast. I won a lot of races. What was cool about this slot car was that when accelerating out of a corner, it'd pull a partial wheelie, impressing onlookers. My father, a meticulous craftsman, would wonder that my cobbled together creations were so fast, handled well.... eat my dust dad. I never knew the history of the Cheetah. Thanks for this.

[@jimiverson3085]

The Cheetah did have some fame at the time. Stromberg made slot cars using Cheetah body shapes over the slot car chassis. I had one in my collection as a kid.

[@MrBinnie824]

Love the content bud. Binged all your vids while I was out on a run. Excited for more vids on quirky cars.

[@rarecars3336]

Thank you so much for watching, glad you enjoyed them!

[@sfeddie1]

Back in the mid 60's I was well into the burgeoning slot car hobby. When the the Cox Cheetah kits and clear plastic Cheetah bodies came out, I was fell in love with the body shape of the Cheetah. I hadn't yet learned about the Cheetahs being built as the "Cobra killer", I just knew that the this was the most beautiful race car I had ever seen. I built many a Cheetah slot car racer back then. Fast forward to the early 2000's when slot cars were kind of making a somewhat of a comeback, I got back into the the hobby. Along with the current super-slick bodied cars, I still built a few Cheetahs using the clear bodies I had kept since the 60's. They weren't competitive, but I didn't care. So long as they ran fast and handled well......good enough. My bucket list? To be able to one day drive a real Cheetah. Maybe around a race track, not fast enough to kill myself but to experience the thrill of it all. Yeah!

[@timhallas4275]

I built a plastic model kit called "Cheetah" in the mid 60s. I never knew it was a real car.

[@ablejack3]

Same. Well, I didn't have a model kit to build but I had a few different scale Cheetah model/toy cars. The funny thing is - I wasn't crazy about them. While they were cool, I preferred the toy cars based on actual cars. I too thought the Cheetah was only a fantasy design. 😄

[@markhale8084]

The Cheetah was planned to compete against 289 Cobra, not 427. No matter as it was never a production car so couldn’t compete in production sports car classes. While I love the Cheetah, comparing a purpose built race car to a production sports car regardless of the original plan is pretty worthless.

[@idesantiago]

@8:01 structural rigidity can not be affected if you do not have any to start with. Might as well do a convertible.

[@caribman10]

Thus, the Cro-Sal Cheetah...

[@Turbo4Joe363]

I wouldn't be surprised if some Cheetah owner swapped in a junkyard 5.3 LS....😂 Yeah, I'll take a 427 Cobra!

[@oldhick9047]

Design and putting that design into practice are two very different things.

[@fredtedstedman]

beautiful car - never seen this before !

[@rpols22]

Great video. Always wanted to know more about the cheetah. Had GM put more thought and effort into this, this car would have destroyed the Shelby Cobra. With that insane power to weight ratio, it would have walked away from the Cobra. But of course..... As usual.... GM just had to protect its beloved corvette.

[@joshuagibson2520]

Bingo. I'm an old school fbody gm guy. As much as I love the C2 AND C3 as well, GM really fucked themselves many times because of the "beloved corvette". Fuck corvette.

[@georgeburns7251]

I remember watching one of these attempt to race at Laguna Seca in the early sixties. It looked good until it attempted to keep up with the other cars. It was obvious it couldn’t handle corners or the straights. Bill should have stuck with Vettes

[@Motor-City-Mike]

I don't understand why you would compare the GT40 to the Cheetah financially - or in any way for that matter. It was NOT a Shelby, Nor a Cobra. The FORD GT40 was a car entirely financed by FORD because it was a FORD, Shelby only served as a contractor brought in to aid in the cars development. So the comparison (or contrast) is the equivalent of comparing apples to hand grenades. I loved the Cheetah nearly as much as the 427 Cobra (the 289 cars don't figure here), but the Cheetah didn't "CRUSH" the Cobra, nor was it developed to the point it could. Your manipulation of the facts is spotty - though in the interest of creating content I suppose facts are irrelevant.

[@garyallen8869]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYenkp6Vlp1ngas

[@AynManRand]

This was my favorite hot wheel

[@stevedeleon8775]

Pretty much 4 out of 5 Shelby Cobras I've seen in shows are Kit Car Replicas..

[@gavinvalentino6002]

4 out of five? So of the car shows you've attended, 20% of the Cobras have been authentic multi-multi-million$$$ rarities? Nope.

[@jimandnancymcoil]

@@gavinvalentino6002 At a Carlisle Kit Car Show, 10/15 years ago, a guy from N.H., brought 2 Cheetahs, they were in the Big Red Barn, I walked around them everyday, talked to the owner< nice guy? I happened to catch him loading up or unloading, I forgot? I did 100 shows at Carlisle in 10 years as a AMSOIL Dealer, saw 100's of Cobras, But, only 2 Cheetahs!!

[@Turbo4Joe363]

That's because there weren't many real Cobras made.... And the real ones cost MILLIONS.

[@skaldlouiscyphre2453]

If 20% of the Cobras you've seen were real, you're doing pretty well. Hell, if they're not cobbled together out of Fox body parts you're doing decent.

[@FSEVENMAN]

Since everyone knows about the Shelby Cobra and they're all over the place these days and there aren't any cheetahs I'm thinking things didn't really work out for the cheetah. It completely failed at putting the Cobra in its place.

[@mountainskys]

Read the history of it. It wasn't Bill Thomas' fault. Little to no support from Chevrolet was a huge burden. There is a fantastic Cheetah kit car available today (Shell Valley) for those that still dream of going fast.

[@philking7805]

Cobra's aren't "all over the place" but replicas are

[@ScooterLee-ei1ep]

Well they weren’t allowed too

[@ScooterLee-ei1ep]

Look into why ford “donated” money to the SCCA and there were rule changes. And yes then Shelby saw the cheetah run he was scared.

[@timmcfarland2853]

​@@philking7805Cobra replicas are but you don't see many Daytonas, which is more comparable to the Cheetah. The Ford SOHC 427 was one of the best designed engines ever built for racing.

[@Thumper68]

Carol Shelby didn’t originally build the GT-40 he came on to help fix it after.

[@willstikken5619]

I always loved these cars. It is a shame they didn't receive a little more engineering support which could have elevated this car to legendary status. I often wonder how well the Cheetah Evolution addresses these short comings.

[@skaldlouiscyphre2453]

Pretty sure the wheelbase was a big part of the problem with how these cars handled. They like to spin.

[@willstikken5619]

@@skaldlouiscyphre2453 So, for some reason you imagine the wheelbase is what makes the cars spin and creates their handling problems? Ignoring that the Cobra as an identical wheelbase you think this is the problem and not the balance of the car or the suspension geometry but the wheelbase? If that were true it would equate to saying the issues are all driver error...

[@skaldlouiscyphre2453]

@@willstikken5619 I'm just repeating Mark Donohue's insights about the car. He's not really known for driver error.

[@messyg-tar2251]

​@@willstikken5619 come now. That attitude is not needed

[@willstikken5619]

@@skaldlouiscyphre2453 I suspect you're missing some context there. The wheelbase alone is not a cause of the problem no matter which driver you parrot.

[@gulgul2006]

The Bill Thomas Cheetah. When almost is enough.

[@chawenhalo0089]

This dude sounds like like Mike from Bug Muscle. Legend!

[@ChadGeidel]

This is such an awesome story! Thank you!

[@josefolsson5343]

Thanks for an interesting documentary short about this car! Think I saw a video with this car many years ago, but with the v8 being replaced by a v16!

[@rarecars3336]

I think I saw a video about a cheetah getting a v12 but I never heard of someone v16 swapping one 😱

[@bunsonhoneydew9099]

I always wondered what would happen if the transmission was hooked directly to the differential with one u-joint.

[@jackylsmith8138]

The TVR Griffith and the cheetah were very similar in design at the same time. Got to love a small block American V8 in a small lightweight body.

[@jamesharrison6201]

Never lived up to hopes. It was called FLEXIBLE FLYER because the frame was not rigid enough

[@lovehistory5305]

Would have been a great car if Goverment Motors helped fund it.

[@christophecamus3295]

Cool looking car

[@Retroscoop]

The De Tomaso Mangusta too was developed to "eat" Cobra's, the Mangusta being the natural enemy n° 1 of Cobra's. So, the name choosen was no coïncident. Whether De Tomaso fulfilled its ambition, I'll leave that to others to comment on....

[@rarecars3336]

The mangusta is a cool car, I like pretty much all the cars De Tomaso made!

[@Pulsonar]

If you crash in that Cheetah thing your body will involuntarily donate organs, get cremated and buried at the same time.

[@rarecars3336]

TRUE lol

[@kenxiong6830]

Beast of a machine but never given an opportunity.

[@charlespitts5901]

I watched one race at Riverside International Raceway back in the day,,,

[@monnimonnickendam7289]

When it comes to legendary cars - trust a chicken farmer.

[@rarecars3336]

LOL so true

[@jamesweaver1738]

I always loved this car.

[@0Sirk0]

That #92 Cheetah looks an awful lot like a C3 Corvette. *LOL*

[@jcchristopher7827]

What ever happened to the Pontiac Corvette and it's racing version had the straight six etc. I can't remember the name of it but I remember when I was five years old seeing them and loved them

[@joestephan1111]

What you call weird combination of parts is how it was done back then. Engineering & design was a far cry from today's. Shelby would have gotten no where with out Ford's money. Ford asked him to take over the GT-40 program after initial builder Lola Cars in England first built designed & built it. Ford took it "in house" but was getting nowhere with it.

[@stanleykemp3979]

glad someone finally gave credit to the Lola as being the grand daddy of the LM winnner!

[@joestephan1111]

@@stanleykemp3979 Lola started the project on is own, however, being a small company they didn't have the kind of cash needed to fully develop it. With Ford showing increasing interest they purchased the program and brought it "in house". Ford greatly improved things but we're caught up in that time old trap if you spend a lot of money you get an instant winner. They were already working with Shelby and after seeing his kind of results based on racing smarts it was only a natural they commissioned him to take over. The rest is history.

[@joestephan1111]

@@stanleykemp3979 Thank you. Having been around back then I enjoy "educating" the younger racing generation. I'm now doing a monthly online column and have begun work on a book of racing memoirs.

[@ohbromo]

I believe the Cat-A-Pult Hot Wherls car was heavily based on the Cheetah

[@blakeabraham4050]

This car reminds me of darkwing duck cartoon in the 90s.

[@gregkistner1955]

A great story!

[@samsonian]

@9:00 I’m not 100% sure, but I can definitely say without much doubt that roll bar has to be in the top 3 of pointless executions (or in other words, guaranteed to RESULT in an execution during any serious crash). Well, except if you’re under 5’ tall, I guess.

[@baronoflivonia.3512]

No comparison between this and Cobra, as Cobra was a AC Ace frame, suspension and body, with Ford Engines. Much as several cars manufactured in UK had American V8's from several Brands. Daimler and Jenson were the well known examples.

[@mikecone4049]

Maybe the history of the hemi back to the 231

[@gavinvalentino6002]

*Thank god for a red arrow in the thumbnail, just like every other channel overusing silly red arrows since around 2002.*

[@kennykendall9916]

Was blessed with a Cox Cheetah slot car in my young days . Cox car hade a magnesium frame , Dad put a bigger motor . Many years later I saw a Cheetah on a trailer coming out a storage unit in Windsor Ca. Where is that car now ???

[@LordMekanicus]

By comparison, our Bocars are much like the Cheetah, albeit several years earlier than even the Cobra. Glass body, tube chassis, Z06 powered, with the engine so far back that the driveshaft is 13" long. Engine is also offset to the right by and inch and three quarters for proper balance fore, aft, and laterally with a 170 pound driver., Brakes are 12" Buick Alfins, suspension is a weird combo of whatever could be sourced but most commonly VW front and live axle rear using a VW rear torsion bar for springs and the lower link in a fourlink.

[@carlinshowalter1806]

Why would someone put a crap VW suspension on a tube frame?

[@LordMekanicus]

Apparently because it was light, and cheap at the junkyards. Some bocars had a Jag front, one had 300SL, one of ours has DB Panhard, but most were Type 1 VW. Atleast it's stiff.

[@skaldlouiscyphre2453]

@@LordMekanicus I had to search what a Bocar was but they sound pretty interesting.

[@LordMekanicus]

Glad you had a peek! I posted Sn. .007 on my channel many moons ago. 007 is the car with DB Panhard front and leafspring rear. Scary machine, but even the Porsche 911 RSR guys hate me. The big Buick brakes allowed me to dive under and beat a '75 RSR into and out of three consecutive corners on two separate laps at HPR in 2011. Needless to say I got protested. He was my best friend after I made him crack a wheel off and stare at that big aluminum drum.

[@skaldlouiscyphre2453]

@@LordMekanicus How much fade do the drums get, compared to a disk brake setup?

[@michaelwallis56]

Stunning looks, but that won’t get it around corners

[@pdexBigTeacher]

Wow; so that HotWheel I have is an actual car!

[@Scramblerkidd]

Mysterious fire my rear. I’m sure Shelby and or Ford felt threatened by the Cheetah.

[@mikecone4049]

Thunderbolt :)

[@rarecars3336]

A great topic idea!

[@TheBallls]

Cool looking car. Great concept. But...never ever cruched the Cobra. Should say "What if The Car Designed To CRUSH the Shelby Cobra - The 1964 Bill Thomas Cheetah". They should have never gave up on it.

[@mrfawkes9110]

Well it's definitely not as sexy as the Cobra. This thing's actually pretty goofy looking to me, but super cool none the less.

[@rarecars3336]

I think if it was like 6 inches longer it would look less goofy

[@chuckwhitson654]

The coolest looking car ever. Not a good race car, not a good driver, just way cool to look at

[@raginroadrunner]

The Cheetah fizzled.

[@Stevespoken]

I had one those it went like hell yeah 1/24 scale slot car

[@hansdomke89]

Ooh I love the Cheetah. Great improvement on this video!

[@rarecars3336]

Thank you! I am glad you liked it 😀

[@freman007]

Now I really want a Cheetah. Lighter and smaller than a Cobra, with all the power that could be wrung out of a small block Chevrolet. Heck, use a modern aluminium block for even less weight. 1400 pounds with 500 horsepower, anyone? The only thing I can think of comparable would be a Lotus 7 replica that someone shoehorned a very hot Mazda rotary into.

[@freman007]

Here's one. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2LIeqCGj6ekeJI

[@rdt1104]

Good looking car

[@captainchaos3053]

My mini cooper weighs 1321lbs with a full tank. It's got 61ci (997cc) engine putting out 91hp and 86lb-ft and it's stock standard the way my grandfather bought it in 1960s no upgrades except the modern battery and I wouldn't swap it for 10 cheetahs. These things could never compete with an AC cobra.

[@caribman10]

Anybody here ever been in a Cheetah? Really hard to get into and out of vehicle; if it's on its roof, your only way out is through the windshield. It takes about 20 seconds to get into it if you're fast. A truly dangerous vehicle even for a race car. That said, any transmission or clutch problems you might have will require you to have thought of and installed a scattershield, since you are sitting almost on the differential and have the transmission, flywheeel et al at about your thigh/knee area.

[@mikeholland1031]

Then don't flip it over

[@MrMakemyday3]

actually had some studebaker brake parts

[@darthdaddy6983]

For this car only , that H&M add was sort of appropriate , we’ll let it slide 😂

[@andykerr3803]

Fun video 👍

[@jongallant6054]

However things didn’t turn out the way they imagined it would. 😂

[@guyforlogos]

Comparing the Cheetah to the Cobra is common, but not a good comparison, the Cheetah is a one off non production car built to race with only a few built to meet the homologation rules. The Cobra was a full production street car, many were built through the years by Shelby/ford and could be bought in select Ford dealerships, most were built for the street. About 100 were built to race.

[@RussellBond-b3z]

I have ale love the Cheetah , James (Jim) Garner had a baby blue one he raced for several years pretty successfully

[@donaldgrant9067]

These were all coming out at the end of road racing. As the SCCA made it more and more expensive to race these cars with rules like a certain gas tank and all the rest. This is the reason we don't have much road racing in America today and of those they are just shows, not really racing. Plus you add in that the rich started buying victories and then the sport was doomed.

[@conniechamberlain6586]

you have to finish a race to win a race.

[@videogamingvideos]

3:09 Supra mk4 safety car

[@ericdary8041]

I may be new here but, wouldn’t that make it mid-engine?

[@markwilliams5606]

Legendary 🇺🇸🏁🏆 Chevrolet

[@artmchugh5644]

Years ago I made a delivery to a garage near me , the owner was well off and in the back room on the way out was a cheetah!!! He was shocked that I knew what it was!!!!😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@charleswaynewright2042]

This is not the only dud connected to GM that's why Ford made history while GM left fans with fantasy

[@Tee-roni]

The question is,is it faster than a Shelby Daytona 🤔

[@YouveBeenMiddled]

Paging Factory Five Racing, Factory Five Racing to the courtesy phone please.

[@mgguygardening]

I've always loved the Cheetah!

[@jamestazewell2435]

Big talk for a car that never got anywhere . Never did crush the cobras

[@kelvinmann1058]

Not to mention the Cobra is way Sexier.