1965 427 LeMans Cheetah EXP Aluminum body proto-type 1of1 Bill Thomas Chevrolet (2024)

FAQs

How many Bill Thomas cheetahs were made? ›

This estimate is based on the number of fiberglass bodies produced by the chosen manufacturer selected by Thomas and by the documented production number of the last known original Cheetah. Bob Auxier of BTM Race Cars places the number at 19 chassis and 33 bodies.

Chevrolet withdrew support, and the last Cheetah was completed in the fall of 1965. The exact number of cars built is still unclear, but it is somewhere around 15. At least one was a roadster, and prices ranged from $7,500 for a street car to $12,000 for one of the race-prepped monsters.

In race trim, the Cheetah was capable of over 210 mph (338 km/h), which was insane for the 1960s.

The wheelbase was 90.0 inches with a 59.0-inch front and 57.0-inch rear track. Brakes were drums all around behind 15-by-7.0-inch American Racing magnesium wheels. The heart of the diminutive beast was a fuel-injected 327-cubic-inch Chevrolet V-8 mated to an aluminum Corvette four-speed.

For reasons dating back to a catastrophic 1955 sports-car race, the all-American Cheetah never got its chance to fulfill Chevrolet Division's not-so-secret mission: upset the upstart Cobra that was upstaging – and outrunning – Corvettes on SCCA's national stage.

Chevy Corvette Z06: Pushing the Limits of Speed and Power

The 670 horsepower it generates gives the Corvette Z06 a top speed of around 195 miles per hour. For comparison, a Boeing 777 plane takes off at around 165 mph.

Now that the online configurator is up, we know the traditional high price also comes along for the ride: The 2024 Super Snake starts at $159,995 before destination for a coupe fitted with a manual transmission.

Thomas created the Cheetah in 1963, from a tube-frame chassis with Corvette-derived suspension, small-block V-8, and a lightweight body. The entire exercise was clearly designed to put the Shelby Cobra on notice, but things didn't go entirely to plan.

The chevy crowd likes to go after the Cobra, first it was the Grand Sport Corvettes that were dubbed Cobra killers then it was the Cheetah that is today dubbed the Cobra killer, the truth is neither one killed the Cobra.

Chevrolet Cheetah 1964, also known as (Killer Cobra)

Is a Cheetah faster than a Mclaren? ›

Yes cheetahs do not reach higher speeds than modern supercars which can hit 250 kph. They can get to 100 kph in 4 seconds which is marginally quicker than older cars.

An ultra-rare Cheetah sports car from the 1960s has been sold for a record price. The red 1963 coupe, believed to be the most original of the handful of surviving cars, went for $718,750 at a Guernsey's auction event in New York City on Thursday night.

Unfortunately, no good deed went unpunished back then. GM's upper management squelched Chevy's back-door tech assistance to Bill Thomas' Cheetah program, and his Anaheim, California, shop suffered a fire, trashing his production tooling after only 21 cars were built. (13 of those are known to have survived.)

Shell Valley sells Cheetahs in kit and turnkey-minus form. The latter versions are assembled at Shell Valley East, and start at $26,900 painted in your choice of colors and striping. All you add are the engine, tranny and driveshaft. Kits start at $15,990, so the choice is up to you.

The power to weight ratio of this beast was phenomenal as the car was small and lightweight (Almost 500lbs lighter than the cobra!). The V8 was pushed back as far as possible leaving the engine almost in the center of the car. Some examples were tuned as high as 520HP.

In addition to small and big-block Chevrolet powered cars, Cheetah Evolution has also produced various LS-powered cars, and even a V12 LS Cheetah that we saw firsthand at the 2018 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Now in 2020, Craig has decided to sell Cheetah Evolution in order to better serve his Corvette restoration team.

063-inch wall thickness, 4130 chromemoly tubing, while the suspension consisted of coil-overs on each corner, with a Corvette-type IRS and differential in back. All told, once built, the Cheetah weighed in at around 1,500 pounds.