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Curb Weight..........………......1800lb            1.6 ozs
Wheelbase.......………............90.0in         1.4 in
Track, f/r..………..............59.0/57.0in              1.1 / 1.1 in
Length.........………...............140.0in              2.35 in
Width………...........................68.0in             1.1 in
Height..……............................32.0in          .75 in
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Engine.…............…….Chevy ohv V-8          notional
Displacement..……….............383 ci          fits in a cup of water
Horsepower….......472bhp@6000rpm              downhill, or Supercharger?
Torque.....……......436lb-ft@5000rpm           see Horsepower
Transmission.……........4 spd manual           neutral
Fuel Capacity………..............18.0gal         n/a
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Brake system...…..…....drums/drums            any solid object
Wheels...............…...…..15x7f/15x8r       medium 5 spk
Known colors…….....red, blue, brown           red (HW Race Team would be nice)
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For years the British have been notorious for cobbling together automotive bits and pieces, building enough of them to call "production cars" and going racing.  The most successful of them was Colin  Chapman, the father of the Lotus marquee.  In America Carrol Shelby also left a mark on the racing world by dropping a honking Ford V-8 into a little A.C. chassis and calling it a Cobra.  But for each of these automotive icons, there are dozens of lesser known specials.
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One of my personal favorites from the States is the Cheetah.  Unfortunately, researching this make has been a frustrating experience.  But more on that later.  As the story goes, in 1963 a chassis designer (Don Edmunds) and an engine builder (Bill Thomas) got together and came up with a plan to build the Anti- Cobra.  The plan was to use as many stock Chevy components as possible, then build a lot of cars and homologate them as production cars.
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My information is spotty, at best, so bear with me:  There were about a
dozen Cheetahs built, the first two having aluminum bodies, the rest of them fiberglass.  They were all coupes, though obviously at least one was a roadster.  Corvette Stingray differentials and half-shafts, Muncie (or
Saginaw, or Borg-Warner) 4-speed gearboxes, station wagon front uprights and spindles, and Corvette competition drum brakes, all mounted on a tube chassis. The stock 327 Chevy engine was massaged to varying lengths, depending on which car, and in some cases cranked out 520 real horsepower.
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The final product has been described as "too short, too wide, too cramped, too hot, too fast.  Chassis too limber, fiberglass bodies too thin, and aerodynamics that are more than a little questionable".  Ralph Salyer, Jerry Grant, Allen Grant, and the late great Jerry Titus all drove like mad in Cheetahs.  But running undeveloped against Lolas and McLarens left little showing in the results column.  You have to remember that the car was designed to be a GT car, to run against GTOs, especially the Cobra, and not against unlimited racing specials.  The only major victory I can find documented is the 1964 June Sprints at Road America, Wisconsin.
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Information on the Cheetah is out there, but I had a hard time finding what
little I got.  I used to have an article in a Hot Rod magazine about a Cheetah coupe that had been worked over by a rodder in the early eighties.  I also have about 10 photos of a metalflake root beer colored Cheetah coupe that I took at the Monterey Historics in 1983, but alas I couldn't find them.  I also recall a photo of a shiny red one cooking along a piece of asphalt in an old Road&Track from the '60s.  If any reader would like to add a photo or article please email it to the site, to be forwarded to me.
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Perhaps fittingly, the only photos I could muster are of the 1964 Cro-Sal
Special roadster, which is more in line with the Cat-A-Pult's open top design anyway.  From almost any angle, the sleek, almost sinister lines of the Cheetah are close to perfect (in this writers humble opinion).  Just imagine my delight when I first laid eyes on the "Cat" feeling that it was about time someone recognized the Cheetah, and then my shock as I examined it's funky targa-spoiler treatment behind the driver compartment.  You can also tell that the rear end contours are also slightly different, especially with the taillights.
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So why didn't Mattel just make the Cheetah, and not the Cat-A-Pult?  If I
was the owner of the Cheetahs legal rights, I would be flattered to have my car made into a Hot Wheel.  Perhaps the owner wanted too much money just for the right to use the name and likeness.  Perhaps we'll never know.  Mattel is far to secretive.  Pity, because now I'll have to customize one to make it the RIGHT way.
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Many thanks go to Paul from the Space City Hot Wheels Collectors
(www.spacecityhw.com) for the excellent shots of the little red car. And many, many thanks to you for visiting the site.