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.

[@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!

[@jonhayden6235]

Almost two feet shorter than a VW Beetle! Regardless of one's brand loyalty (Ford/Chevrolet/Mopar/etc.) Mr. Thomas' ingenuity and tenacity should be recognised and celebrated. Well-done video!

[@williampotter2098]

I couldn't believe the length but I Googled it and you are right. Well, 20 inches but damned near 2 feet. Hard to imagine.

[@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.

[@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😃

[@freedomm323]

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

[@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!

[@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.”

[@freedomm323]

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

[@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!

[@freedomm323]

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

[@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.

[@vernhoke7730]

Wow! As a kid my grandfather had a small slot car track in his basement. When my cousins and I were over we'd go down there and race. One of my favorites was a Cheetah. The sixties were cool!

[@Jzay67]

I also loved the looks of the Cheetah and had a unpainted clear bodied slot car way back in the day. (I was too impatient to paint it!)

[@heaven-is-real]

same here i had a cheetah slot car i painted metallic green and it won all the races

[@cag1763]

I was gonna say that...that was out Marx layout in basement..the other car was a bird cage Maserati...

[@bradsanders6954]

The new digital slot setups from Carrera are a blast! They do a lot more than the old school sets did. Cars can be rockets right out of the box.

[@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.

[@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

[@currentbatches6205]

Not sure that is accurate. Restored an early '70s F-1; it was ~1200# and much, much smaller.

[@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.

[@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

[@monkeyearcheese420]

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

[@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.

[@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!

[@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!!

[@hughjass1044]

Great video! I'd seen this car before but knew almost nothing about the story behind it.

[@dannygloversshotgun211]

I wonder if the Cheetah was used as a basis for inspiration when GM produced the Pontiac Solstice/Saturn Sky. I can definitely see the general body shape in the design, especially on the hardtop models

[@charlesharper7292]

Never crossed my mind!👍

[@deltavee2]

Fascinating! First contact and you have thumbs up, subscription and white bell. Good stuff!

[@rarecars3336]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for becoming part of the channel!

[@ChadGeidel]

This is such an awesome story! Thank you!

[@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!

[@ericdawson845]

I used to go to the SCCA races at the Santa Barbara airport in the mid-60s and so saw with my own eyes. The Cheetahs were fun to look at but were just not developed and amounted to dismal failures compared to the Cobras; of the latter, the 289s were so much better at handling than the nose-heavy 427s. BTW, the Corvette Gran Sports were cannon fodder and were absolutely inhaled by both Cobras and even the GT350 mustangs even though they were of a lower class. The most excitement was the small displacement Ferrari V12s going down the runway/straightaway redlined out in top gear; absolutely made your hair stand up. The best performers overall were the Porsche 904s. Best handling in the tight bits were the Mini Cooper S cars.

[@martinmoffitt4702]

a footnote in American production and Racing...cool looking cars!

[@Another_Saved_Sinner]

So much I never knew about that car. Had i known, i wouldnt have passed when the opportunity to buy a rolling chassis presented itself to me!

[@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!

[@bryanst.martin7134]

Surprising that a Factory guy would be so short sighted. Difference between trained and self taught, I guess. As a racer you have to figure out a lot of things on the fly. Where the heat is going is certainly one, durability of the suspension is another critical point. 3 lbs per horse power is really difficult to control and keep stuck to the surface without speed and aerodynamics to push it down. I remember seeing it, but knew nothing about it. Thank you for the post!

[@EricTheOld]

Finally information on the cheetah, thanks

[@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.

[@gregkistner1955]

A great story!

[@E.T.GARAGE]

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

[@vrm86gt]

I heard of the cheetah but didn't know it was that light! Thanks for the information!

[@rarecars3336]

anytime, thanks for watching!

[@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 😱

[@XrayxRich]

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

[@fredtedstedman]

beautiful car - never seen this before !

[@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! 🤠 🏆 🏁

[@AynManRand]

This was my favorite hot wheel

[@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.

[@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.

[@andykerr3803]

Fun video 👍

[@bbracing3925]

3:09 How gracious of the king to lead his people to the start of the race. How humble of him. 🤴 All hail king Supra the 4th!

[@chugchug5657]

That's why it's rare. The beautiful thought of it was there but not enough to pass the test.

[@rickyrobertson9874]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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...

[@freedomm323]

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

[@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!

[@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.

[@Turbo4Joe363]

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

[@joeJoe-pb3su]

Wow...never heard about the cheetah 🐆 great little machine 😀 👍

[@oldhick9047]

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

[@chrisnizer5702]

Love these classic race cars! No active suspension, no paddle shifters, or high tech electronic devices. Nothing but the skills of the driver and the crew.

[@rarecars3336]

Indeed, a true raw experience!

[@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. 😄

[@edwhitson9873]

Most awesome looking car ever

[@byrnc927]

As a child during this period the Cheetah was always the ultimate car for me.

[@christophecamus3295]

Cool looking car

[@conradsenior5843]

Love it.

[@melodigrand]

About Ralph Salyer, he raced the Cheetah against all out mid engine sports racers, the Chapparal 2, Cooper Ford King Cobra, Genie Chevrolet. The Cheetah never qualified to race in the production class with the Cobra. At least once, the Cheetah came in 1st ahead of all the mid engine racers.

[@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

[@mgbchuck6527]

Thanks

[@jamesweaver1738]

I always loved this car.

[@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.

[@amigo8872]

AMAZING

[@rarecars3336]

Indeed!

[@gulgul2006]

The Bill Thomas Cheetah. When almost is enough.

[@chawenhalo0089]

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

[@hansdomke89]

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

[@rarecars3336]

Thank you! I am glad you liked it 😀

[@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.

[@Mr.Guild1971]

SPRINT cars have direct drive-no shaft,pushing more HP and they're on dirt !! So under rated

[@bunsonhoneydew9099]

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

[@nobodygrinder5667]

Awesome

[@Thumper68]

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

[@rdt1104]

Good looking car

[@jerrychase4177]

Reminds one of Sno Jet's awesome 1972 Thunder Jet

[@randr10]

That's the thing about Shelby. He had a reputation for being a showman and a shyster who would do anything to sell his cars, but he was a legitimately good engineer and an experienced race car driver who sold real race cars that you could drive on the street. The Cobras were put to the test and won. They were blindingly fast even by today's standards in 427 trim, they were fairly reliable on the race track and the only major shortcoming was the aero generating lift and unpredictable handling up around 140+ mph. This is why Shelby moved on to what was essentially a research project for the GT40, the Daytona Coupe. They put a roof and a fastback on the Cobra, modified the nose and did real wind tunnel testing to create a car that made both front and rear downforce at speed. Most of the aero design-elements that they discovered went into the Ford GT40 cars, which is a major reason why those cars turned out to be so good on the race track. Sure Ford put a lot of support behind those cars, but it was really Shelby who made them what they were. The rear mid-engine layout didn't hurt either, but if the Daytona Coupe had gotten more support than it did, I think it would have possibly been faster at Le Mans just due to lightness. Regardless, the Cheetah didn't win because it wasn't a total package race car, and all of the Cobras and GT cars were. They truly delivered performance-wise. I've driven a Factory 5 replica of a Cobra with a real 427SO motor, which Shelby himself said was the closest to the originals out there, and it was good in every way conceivable. I was surprised because all of the journalists talked about what a handful they were, and I didn't get that impression at all. It was a tied down chassis, it had great traction, it was light and it had more power than you could possibly use on the street without catching a felony. The handling was right up there with a modern front engine Corvette for example. Actually better honestly, because weight distribution was rear biased. There's a reason for their reputation, and it's because they'll still hang with the best today except for the aforementioned aero flaws.

[@garyallen8869]

Says the guy with no video content 🤣🤣

[@randr10]

Great burn Gary.

[@charlespitts5901]

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

[@triplesoup9769]

3:49 hey jerma985 here showing off my new car

[@sltillim]

I was at Laguna seca to see that #8 car race in the video.

[@kennethjackson7574]

Seems to me one of these had been in a print ad for Quaker State oil.

[@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.

[@uv77mc85]

AC brought out a car called the 428 which was gorgeous, especially the spider but very very rare.

[@mikeholland1031]

A lot of cobras only had 428's in them. You could get it swapped if you complained.

[@jeffthompson9622]

A friend, Donald Long, long ago built a car in Maryland with a fiberglass body and Chevy V-8 that closely resembles the Cheetah. He called his "The Monster" because its low weight made its performance outrageous.

[@mikecone4049]

Maybe the history of the hemi back to the 231

[@lovehistory5305]

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

[@Stevespoken]

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

[@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.

[@ferrelx]

5:46 it really is no big deal and can only be done with rear independent suspension because the dif is solid mounted while the control arms are sprung..not the entire axle..

[@martinchristian7270]

Man!! That car was practically a go cart with a V-8 engine in it.

[@gavinvalentino6002]

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

[@kenxiong6830]

Beast of a machine but never given an opportunity.

[@mikecone4049]

Thunderbolt :)

[@rarecars3336]

A great topic idea!

[@theohlinsguy4649]

Saw it run at Times Riverside GP

[@nigelrg1]

Re: Lack of a driveshaft between transmission and differential. I could be wrong, but I don't think the old Renault 4L had one, either. The engine and transmission were reversed, with the transmission just behind the radiator and it was front-wheel drive.

[@monnimonnickendam7289]

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

[@rarecars3336]

LOL so true

[@brianchiasson2465]

Yes, so successful and threatening that it’s largely forgotten.

[@loti54]

I like these things 😛 and nobody has heard of them, I blow people away by showing them these cars, they are very cool, very experimental

[@IndridCool54]

I was ten years old when the Cheetah came about. I thought it was the coolest car ever… still do. The short wheelbase definitely added to the sketchy handling.

[@rarecars3336]

It is an undeniably cool car even if it was sketchy

[@1183newman]

Sadly have yet to see a cheetah race at the goodwood revival against the cobra and griffith :(

[@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

[@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!