jimgessner

That is FRED YEAKEL'S Cheetah. He has owned it and raced it for many years. And it has a real FIA HTC certificate so it is qualified to race at any international Vintage Race event. Neat car, and a great piece of American Muscle car history.

sahhas

sunday morning on Gearz on Velocity they had a profile of the Bill Thomas Cheetah. it was kind of cool, and talked to the Cheetah Evolution folks about making the current ones.
no new earth shattering info unveiled, and i'm sure that most of the info could be seen from watching a few youtube clips, but it was cool to see.

kellsdad

Disregard

sahhas

hey had part 2 of the cheetah evolution build on gearz the other day.
the show's host decided to put in an LSX 454. my god that engine looked HUGE in the front end of the cheetah! and when he said it had 620HP, I was like: wow, that's a lot of power for not a very big car!!!!!
it was impressive, but I'm not sure I'd want to experience it!!! ok, I would like to experience it, but I wonder how scary would it be!!!!

kellsdad

sahhas,
My Cobra replica weighs about 2,500 pounds and has a 408 ci engine built for high torque. Even with 315 tires on the back, I can break them loose in 1st, 2nd or 3rd gear (any speed up to about 100 MPH) simply by pressing the gas pedal fully down. The back end will dance around as the positraction searches for grip. It was very scary the first time it happened to me and still is if I keep my foot in it too long. With experience I can now feel the tires start to break loose and feather the gas in time to keep it straight. .... There are many guys on the Cobra forum with engines far more powerful than mine. Very few of them can put all that power to the ground. And as youtube shows, more than a few novices have lost control while trying to accelerate hard. .... The bottom line is that most people would rather have too much power available than too little. It is exhilarating, but you really do need to go to a safe place, like a race track, to learn how to manage it.

I haven't decided what engine to put in my Cheetah build, but it will based on a small block Chevy to look period correct. It's tempting to look at the the big cube and boosted engines making 600+ HP, but I know this car will be lighter than my Cobra and I won't be able to use much more than 400 HP at the wheels. I find that big HP engines in street cars are mostly good for bragging rights with other guys who also don't take their cars to the track.

sahhas

i know the cars are light, and was sort of wondering what kind of engine the gearz guy would put in his. I figured he'd put some 400HP engine in it, I know i heard some of the originals had some 500hp engines, and they just look like small cars compared to scale pics of people standing next to them. but when he says he's putting the 620hp 454 in it, i was like: WOW. that is quite an engine.

i guess i base all this on last fall i rode in an 85 vette that the guy had pulled the original L98 engine and put some 405 that was supped up to close to 600 hp. i mean this thing could launch -it felt like the rockin' roller coaster (aerosmith ride) at Disney. i mean i was scared. we would be driving down the street and he was burning rubber the whole time. the pull of that car...it was frightening, honestly! and of course I'm sitting here debating: i want this car (but knew my wife would hate it!, didn't get it). but I'm thinking the power of an engine like that and the cheetah is smaller/lighter than the '85...whew, that would be scary, but probably fun!!!!

cheetah66

A couple of Cheetahs at the Hawk.

Trabuco Fred

Fred Yeakel & Allen Grant with the Alan Green Chevrolet Cheetah that Allen Grand drove in 1964.

TCracingCA

Trabuco Fred

The picture is of the Hurst Performance Bill Thomas Cheetah when it is being dug out of the cow s**t in a barn in Oklahoma. The owner at the time (early 1990s) had put it in a barn for storage. During the winter the cows broke down the plywood enclosure and there was body damage as well as manure all over the Cheetah.

TCracingCA