The shortlived Chevrolet Cheetah...
03-19-2005, 11:53 PM
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The shortlived Chevrolet Cheetah...
I was thinking about how boring the new Chevy cars are, and stumbled across the Cheetah, the predecessor to Zora's Grand Sport.
"Exotic sports car racing was all the rage in the early '60s, and it became popular to build your own racers to compete with the "Big Boys." Shelby's Cobra and, later, Lance Reventlow's Scarab, proved that with guts and pizzaz, you could build a very fast, hot-looking car. In 1963, Chevy engine expert Bill Thomas and Indy car builder Don Edmunds created a Chevy-powered Snake hunter. As the production Corvette was no match for the Cobras, and Zora Duntov's Grand Sport was not yet ready, the Cheetah was set to stalk to Serpents.
When you look at a Cheetah, it screams "RACE CAR" at you. But the fact is that it was never intended to be a racer. Thomas and Edmunds built the Cheetah to make money! Consequently, the wild-looking machine is loaded with off-the-shelf, Chevy production parts. An all-out racer would have had many more exotic hand-made parts. But with a power-to-weight ratio of around 4:1, this was one bloody fast machine that proved to be more than a handful.
At that time, it was an SCCA standard that a company had to produce at least 100 cars to be considered a "production car." Unfortunately, a fire in their shop stopped production at around 16 units, with 11 cars complete and the remaining cars unfinished. This was the beginning of a series of unfortunate events for the Cheetah. Two weeks before the official debut at the L.A. Times Grand Prix, the car was crashed in testing. Then on the first lap of their first race, the lower radiator hose broke, causing water to spray under the tires, resulting in another crash. Then Chevrolet bought car No. 1, tested it, and determined the car's erratic handling was a result of a lack of torsion rigidity. The Cheetah was sent back to Thomas, and Chevrolet withdrew their support.
Despite the abundance of stock parts, the Cheetah was an amazing sports car. The 90-inch wheelbase Cheetah is smaller than an RX-7 Mazda. To get the engine as far back as possible, Edmunds built the car with no driveshaft. The gearbox connects to a heavy-duty aluminum Corvette differential with a single universal joint. To keep the weight down, the stock Corvette trailing arms and leaf springs were replaced with tube units and coil-over-shocks, as were the a-arms on the front suspension. Heavy-duty '62 Chevy station wagon spindles were used with a Triumph Herald rack and pinion. Brakes were heavy-duty Chevrolet drums with sintered linings. Power came from a mildly modified 327 Fuel Injected Corvette engine with open headers.
After Edmunds had the engine and drive train established, he built a birdcage-style tube chassis. The body was then built around the frame using a wooden buck to hand-form the aluminum skin. To keep the cost down, fiberglass molds were built for future Cheetahs.
After the fire halted production and Chevrolet pulled their support, the remaining Cheetahs were sold off. The price of the Cheetah was between $7,500 and $12,000, depending on equipment and how close to an all-out racer it was. Some were raced with marginal success and a few were driven on the street. In 1965, Jack Goodman, of Dixon Chevrolet, bought Cheetah No. 9 with plans to make it a street machine. However, along the way the the 1,500-lb car received a new 396/375hp big-block engine and an M22 Rock Crusher transmission!
Edmunds went off on his own to build a long line of successful Indy, Midget, Sprint, and Super Vee cars. Thomas got into drag racing parts before getting into real estate in 1969. In the end, 11 cars were completed and at least 8 survived."
Original Cheetah Components & Secifications
Body:
The first 2 or 3 were aluminum, then they were created made using fiberglass, with a green gelcoat, and then painted. There were 8 pieces that were joined together.
Chassis:
Race Works chassis was painted silver and had 9 additional gussetts and were built using 4130 chromoly tubing. They used solid mounts for the engine, transmission and differential. The Seats were stationary while the pedals could be adjusted to fit the driver. The wheelbase was a mere 90". Ground clearance was 5.5". It was 47" high, 68" wide, with a front track of 57"-59" and a rear track of 57". I didn't realize how short the wheelbase really is until I measured the wheelbase of my Pro-Street 1981 RX-7, which is 95".
Steering:
1962 Chevy Station Wagon heavy-duty spindles, Triumph Herald box & rack (Also found on Spitfires). Bell Auto Parts 15 1/2" steering wheel.
Suspension Monroe coil-over, adjustable shocks.
Engine:
Chevrolet 327, AMC Studebaker crank and balancer, stroked and bored to 377ci.
Fuel Injection Rochester Stock: single air meter. Works: modified dual meter unit.
Transmission:
Muncie M21 or M22 RockCrushers, 4speed w custom furst shifter linkage. Gear ratios as follows: 1st 2.2:1, 2nd 1.68:1, 3rd 1.31:1, 4th 1:1
Clutch:
Standare 327 flywheel with an 8 1/2" clutch, 2200lb. pressure plate, hydraulic throw-out bearing, 26 spline, 6" shaft and u-joint.
Rear-end:
Chevy heavy-duty aluminum differential as used on 1962 Corvette Grandsports. American Autocraft still Reproduces this differencial.
Wheels & Tires:
15"x7" magnesium round spoke American Racing Torque-thrust wheels, with. Goodyear T-4 racetires 6.50-6.70
Brakes:
Dual cylinder 11" Chevy Nascar drums with cerametallic linings.
Fourteen Years of Raucous Silence
by Paul van Valkenburgh
History of the Cheetah
There was one last holdout that appeared about that time, but it was based more on economy than all-out performance. Bill Thoms had been around Chevrolet products for a number of years, first managing a team of Corvettes, and then handling special-effects cars for Chevrolet advertising through Bill Stroppe. While there he met Don Edmunds, and because Stroppe was more sod on Ford and Mercury performance activities, the tow of them left to handle the Chevrolet work on their own. That sort of work got a little slow, however, and so Thomas and Edmunds went their own way. They decided to get back into high performance cars to show what they could do.
Their first project was a ‘62 Chevrolet, a stocker, which was built specifically for Dan Gurney to drive in the first Riverside stock car race. It was rather unusual in those days to see a Chevrolet up among the Pontiacs and Fords, but Gurney qualified fifth without even practicing. In the first 100 mile 100 mile heat. Gurney won easily, as Goldsmith, Ward and Foyt dropped out. In the second heat Goldsmith stayed togther to finish just ahead of Gurney, who therefore took first overall. But then, after the race, the inspectors noticed that some stiffening panels and the wheels wells were modified or removed and Gurney was disqualified. That was enough USAC for Thomas, who decided to stick with the sports cars in SCCA.
The Cheetah was never really intended to be a race car. Like most other Chevy specials, it’s primary purpose was to make money. But to make money, it had to be produced as economically as possible, which meant few specially machined or welded parts. Thomas was in close with Chevrolet Engineering, so he was able to get all the new components almost as soon as the car itself was available, and Edmunds began building a frame around the engine, driveline, and suspension. Practically every piece in the drive train, from the radiator back to the rear hubs was right our of the Corvette. One notable exception, however, was the driveshaft. There wasn’t any. To get the engine as far aback as possible, they simply coupled the transmission output shaft universal joint to the one on the frame-mounted differential.
At the front, the 1962 Chevrolet knuckle assemblies were located 90 inches from the rear hubs, and a frame was sketched up to connect everything together. The front suspension was finished with conventional tubular A-frames, with a large number of optional mountings holes for experimentation. At the rear the geometry was standard Stingray, but the heavy stamped trailing arms were replaced with fabricated tube arms, and the transverse leaf spring was replaced with Monroe coil/shock units. This was before disc brakes were readily available, so the Cheetah used the heavy duty Chevrolet drums, with sintered linings. Most of the rest of the components were hand made, but in conventional design to race cars of the day.
The first body was hand-formed in aluminum, to match a simple wooden buck built over the frame and a tubular sub-structure was formed to support it. From that, molds were taken so that the production bodies could be rapidly reproduced in fiberglass for the street models. While that was going on, though, two more bodies were built in aluminum for a trio of racing versions. Jerry Titus tested the first car in the fall of 1963, and was highly impressed with its’ performance-per-dollar ratio. With a weight of 1500 pounds, and the recent 327 fuel-injected engine, it certainly had tremendous acceleration, and the brakes were adequate for a car of twice the weight. The handling was never widely acclaimed, however, and it was obvious that Titus’ skill was making up for a lot. A local Chevrolet dealer picked up the sponsorship, and Titus raced the car briefly, but never with any outstanding success. After all, when they were in the same neighborhood , the Cheetah had to race against Hall’s Chaparral. Jerry Grant also drove one of the cars, until he wrapped it up at Daytona. Cheetah number two was never raced because it was sold to Chevrolet Engineering at about the same time that Duntov was building his first lightweight Stingrays. It was extensively tested, and did quite well on the skidpad, but it was concluded that the lack of torsional rigidity was responsible for the erratic handling.
Edmunds left the company to get into the more profitable USAC game, but production eventually reached a total of sixteen cars. The price was from $7500 to $12,000, depending on the equipment and state of competitiveness, but the average cart wept for about $9500. Many of those cars are still running around southern California, some on the street, some on the strip and at least one on road courses. By reverting to the manufacture and marketing of components only primarily drag parts Thomas was able to keep operating for a number of years. But finally, in 1969, the economy caught up to him., and he quit to go into the real estate business.
Picture Captions
The Bill Thomas Cheetah was an economy street version of the old Scarab-Chaparral school, but it was also competitive in amateur road racing.. This is the engine room of one of the three aluminum-bodied competitive versions.
A well detailed Cheetah was a beautiful machine, although it had a number of critical drawbacks in either everyday transportation or control on a race track. A few of the fiberglass bodied cars are still seen today.
"Exotic sports car racing was all the rage in the early '60s, and it became popular to build your own racers to compete with the "Big Boys." Shelby's Cobra and, later, Lance Reventlow's Scarab, proved that with guts and pizzaz, you could build a very fast, hot-looking car. In 1963, Chevy engine expert Bill Thomas and Indy car builder Don Edmunds created a Chevy-powered Snake hunter. As the production Corvette was no match for the Cobras, and Zora Duntov's Grand Sport was not yet ready, the Cheetah was set to stalk to Serpents.
When you look at a Cheetah, it screams "RACE CAR" at you. But the fact is that it was never intended to be a racer. Thomas and Edmunds built the Cheetah to make money! Consequently, the wild-looking machine is loaded with off-the-shelf, Chevy production parts. An all-out racer would have had many more exotic hand-made parts. But with a power-to-weight ratio of around 4:1, this was one bloody fast machine that proved to be more than a handful.
At that time, it was an SCCA standard that a company had to produce at least 100 cars to be considered a "production car." Unfortunately, a fire in their shop stopped production at around 16 units, with 11 cars complete and the remaining cars unfinished. This was the beginning of a series of unfortunate events for the Cheetah. Two weeks before the official debut at the L.A. Times Grand Prix, the car was crashed in testing. Then on the first lap of their first race, the lower radiator hose broke, causing water to spray under the tires, resulting in another crash. Then Chevrolet bought car No. 1, tested it, and determined the car's erratic handling was a result of a lack of torsion rigidity. The Cheetah was sent back to Thomas, and Chevrolet withdrew their support.
Despite the abundance of stock parts, the Cheetah was an amazing sports car. The 90-inch wheelbase Cheetah is smaller than an RX-7 Mazda. To get the engine as far back as possible, Edmunds built the car with no driveshaft. The gearbox connects to a heavy-duty aluminum Corvette differential with a single universal joint. To keep the weight down, the stock Corvette trailing arms and leaf springs were replaced with tube units and coil-over-shocks, as were the a-arms on the front suspension. Heavy-duty '62 Chevy station wagon spindles were used with a Triumph Herald rack and pinion. Brakes were heavy-duty Chevrolet drums with sintered linings. Power came from a mildly modified 327 Fuel Injected Corvette engine with open headers.
After Edmunds had the engine and drive train established, he built a birdcage-style tube chassis. The body was then built around the frame using a wooden buck to hand-form the aluminum skin. To keep the cost down, fiberglass molds were built for future Cheetahs.
After the fire halted production and Chevrolet pulled their support, the remaining Cheetahs were sold off. The price of the Cheetah was between $7,500 and $12,000, depending on equipment and how close to an all-out racer it was. Some were raced with marginal success and a few were driven on the street. In 1965, Jack Goodman, of Dixon Chevrolet, bought Cheetah No. 9 with plans to make it a street machine. However, along the way the the 1,500-lb car received a new 396/375hp big-block engine and an M22 Rock Crusher transmission!
Edmunds went off on his own to build a long line of successful Indy, Midget, Sprint, and Super Vee cars. Thomas got into drag racing parts before getting into real estate in 1969. In the end, 11 cars were completed and at least 8 survived."
Original Cheetah Components & Secifications
Body:
The first 2 or 3 were aluminum, then they were created made using fiberglass, with a green gelcoat, and then painted. There were 8 pieces that were joined together.
Chassis:
Race Works chassis was painted silver and had 9 additional gussetts and were built using 4130 chromoly tubing. They used solid mounts for the engine, transmission and differential. The Seats were stationary while the pedals could be adjusted to fit the driver. The wheelbase was a mere 90". Ground clearance was 5.5". It was 47" high, 68" wide, with a front track of 57"-59" and a rear track of 57". I didn't realize how short the wheelbase really is until I measured the wheelbase of my Pro-Street 1981 RX-7, which is 95".
Steering:
1962 Chevy Station Wagon heavy-duty spindles, Triumph Herald box & rack (Also found on Spitfires). Bell Auto Parts 15 1/2" steering wheel.
Suspension Monroe coil-over, adjustable shocks.
Engine:
Chevrolet 327, AMC Studebaker crank and balancer, stroked and bored to 377ci.
Fuel Injection Rochester Stock: single air meter. Works: modified dual meter unit.
Transmission:
Muncie M21 or M22 RockCrushers, 4speed w custom furst shifter linkage. Gear ratios as follows: 1st 2.2:1, 2nd 1.68:1, 3rd 1.31:1, 4th 1:1
Clutch:
Standare 327 flywheel with an 8 1/2" clutch, 2200lb. pressure plate, hydraulic throw-out bearing, 26 spline, 6" shaft and u-joint.
Rear-end:
Chevy heavy-duty aluminum differential as used on 1962 Corvette Grandsports. American Autocraft still Reproduces this differencial.
Wheels & Tires:
15"x7" magnesium round spoke American Racing Torque-thrust wheels, with. Goodyear T-4 racetires 6.50-6.70
Brakes:
Dual cylinder 11" Chevy Nascar drums with cerametallic linings.
Fourteen Years of Raucous Silence
by Paul van Valkenburgh
History of the Cheetah
There was one last holdout that appeared about that time, but it was based more on economy than all-out performance. Bill Thoms had been around Chevrolet products for a number of years, first managing a team of Corvettes, and then handling special-effects cars for Chevrolet advertising through Bill Stroppe. While there he met Don Edmunds, and because Stroppe was more sod on Ford and Mercury performance activities, the tow of them left to handle the Chevrolet work on their own. That sort of work got a little slow, however, and so Thomas and Edmunds went their own way. They decided to get back into high performance cars to show what they could do.
Their first project was a ‘62 Chevrolet, a stocker, which was built specifically for Dan Gurney to drive in the first Riverside stock car race. It was rather unusual in those days to see a Chevrolet up among the Pontiacs and Fords, but Gurney qualified fifth without even practicing. In the first 100 mile 100 mile heat. Gurney won easily, as Goldsmith, Ward and Foyt dropped out. In the second heat Goldsmith stayed togther to finish just ahead of Gurney, who therefore took first overall. But then, after the race, the inspectors noticed that some stiffening panels and the wheels wells were modified or removed and Gurney was disqualified. That was enough USAC for Thomas, who decided to stick with the sports cars in SCCA.
The Cheetah was never really intended to be a race car. Like most other Chevy specials, it’s primary purpose was to make money. But to make money, it had to be produced as economically as possible, which meant few specially machined or welded parts. Thomas was in close with Chevrolet Engineering, so he was able to get all the new components almost as soon as the car itself was available, and Edmunds began building a frame around the engine, driveline, and suspension. Practically every piece in the drive train, from the radiator back to the rear hubs was right our of the Corvette. One notable exception, however, was the driveshaft. There wasn’t any. To get the engine as far aback as possible, they simply coupled the transmission output shaft universal joint to the one on the frame-mounted differential.
At the front, the 1962 Chevrolet knuckle assemblies were located 90 inches from the rear hubs, and a frame was sketched up to connect everything together. The front suspension was finished with conventional tubular A-frames, with a large number of optional mountings holes for experimentation. At the rear the geometry was standard Stingray, but the heavy stamped trailing arms were replaced with fabricated tube arms, and the transverse leaf spring was replaced with Monroe coil/shock units. This was before disc brakes were readily available, so the Cheetah used the heavy duty Chevrolet drums, with sintered linings. Most of the rest of the components were hand made, but in conventional design to race cars of the day.
The first body was hand-formed in aluminum, to match a simple wooden buck built over the frame and a tubular sub-structure was formed to support it. From that, molds were taken so that the production bodies could be rapidly reproduced in fiberglass for the street models. While that was going on, though, two more bodies were built in aluminum for a trio of racing versions. Jerry Titus tested the first car in the fall of 1963, and was highly impressed with its’ performance-per-dollar ratio. With a weight of 1500 pounds, and the recent 327 fuel-injected engine, it certainly had tremendous acceleration, and the brakes were adequate for a car of twice the weight. The handling was never widely acclaimed, however, and it was obvious that Titus’ skill was making up for a lot. A local Chevrolet dealer picked up the sponsorship, and Titus raced the car briefly, but never with any outstanding success. After all, when they were in the same neighborhood , the Cheetah had to race against Hall’s Chaparral. Jerry Grant also drove one of the cars, until he wrapped it up at Daytona. Cheetah number two was never raced because it was sold to Chevrolet Engineering at about the same time that Duntov was building his first lightweight Stingrays. It was extensively tested, and did quite well on the skidpad, but it was concluded that the lack of torsional rigidity was responsible for the erratic handling.
Edmunds left the company to get into the more profitable USAC game, but production eventually reached a total of sixteen cars. The price was from $7500 to $12,000, depending on the equipment and state of competitiveness, but the average cart wept for about $9500. Many of those cars are still running around southern California, some on the street, some on the strip and at least one on road courses. By reverting to the manufacture and marketing of components only primarily drag parts Thomas was able to keep operating for a number of years. But finally, in 1969, the economy caught up to him., and he quit to go into the real estate business.
Picture Captions
The Bill Thomas Cheetah was an economy street version of the old Scarab-Chaparral school, but it was also competitive in amateur road racing.. This is the engine room of one of the three aluminum-bodied competitive versions.
A well detailed Cheetah was a beautiful machine, although it had a number of critical drawbacks in either everyday transportation or control on a race track. A few of the fiberglass bodied cars are still seen today.
thanks
03-20-2005, 09:39 AM
#3
Safety Car
Beautiful cars! Thanks. 
Griffiths were pretty neat, too. TVR body/chassis and smallblock Chevy and Fords.
Link ->http://www.tvrna.com/pictures1.html
I had a Cheetah "slot car" in 1967 -wasn't the quickest but it sure was pretty.
Griffiths were pretty neat, too. TVR body/chassis and smallblock Chevy and Fords.
Link ->http://www.tvrna.com/pictures1.html
I had a Cheetah "slot car" in 1967 -wasn't the quickest but it sure was pretty.
Last edited by Bink; 03-20-2005 at 09:41 AM.
03-20-2005, 03:30 PM
#4
Team Owner
Member Since: Mar 2001
Location: Boston, Dallas, Detroit, SoCal, back to Boston MA
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Cool info! 
Speaking of TVR, did you see the TVR running in ALMS at Sebring?
It's new Russian owner wanted to be a true exotic. They're now producing they're own engines. Unfortunately it broke down, but that's development for you.
Speaking of TVR, did you see the TVR running in ALMS at Sebring?
It's new Russian owner wanted to be a true exotic. They're now producing they're own engines. Unfortunately it broke down, but that's development for you.
03-21-2005, 09:42 AM
#5
Melting Slicks
Member Since: Sep 2003
Location: If you don't weigh in you don't wrestle Road America
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There are two Cheetah's that show up for the Vintage races in July at Road America, very cool cars they run small blocks so they aren't very competitive in group 6A. The Big blocks are just to fast down the straits, but in there class they seem to do very well. Great info though
03-24-2005, 02:17 PM
#6
Melting Slicks
Originally Posted by Bink
Beautiful cars! Thanks.
Griffiths were pretty neat, too. TVR body/chassis and smallblock Chevy and Fords.
Link ->http://www.tvrna.com/pictures1.html
I had a Cheetah "slot car" in 1967 -wasn't the quickest but it sure was pretty.
Griffiths were pretty neat, too. TVR body/chassis and smallblock Chevy and Fords.
Link ->http://www.tvrna.com/pictures1.html
I had a Cheetah "slot car" in 1967 -wasn't the quickest but it sure was pretty.
There is a real Cheetah in West Chester , right down the street from me. My dads buddy bought it and roadraced it in the early -mid sixties. He still owns it and periodically runs it at vintage events. If I could only get my Z to have that kind of power/wieght ratio.
03-24-2005, 05:07 PM
#7
Race Director
Originally Posted by 96CollectorSport
There are two Cheetah's that show up for the Vintage races in July at Road America, very cool cars they run small blocks so they aren't very competitive in group 6A.
...redvetracr
