The Shelby Cobra, which is one of the most famous racing cars ever made, helped American automakers become serious competitors on the tracks. That being said, you might have yet to learn about the Bill Thomas Cheetah, a car that Chevrolet helped make to compete with the Cobra. Not only is it much less common and popular than the Cobra, but you can now buy an early prototype Cheetah that was once owned by John F. Gordon, President of General Motors. People who like Chevrolets know Bill Thomas well. In the early days of sports cars, the driver helped the Corvette become well-known on the track. In the end, General Motors hired Thomas and his team to make cars like the Chevy II and Corvair run better and to work on engines like the Chevy 409 and fuel-injected Corvette models. After its first race, Thomas built his own sports car to fight with the famous Texas chicken farmer, especially since the Cobra was starting to do better than the Chevy sports car. Thomas and Don Edmunds worked together to make the car known as the Cheetah. The car has a chrome-moly tube frame body that supports its 90-inch wheelbase. All four sides have an independent suspension, and the drum brakes on all four wheels come from Chevy’s NASCAR stock. Up front, there is a 327-cubic-inch V-8 engine from a 1963 Corvette. It has a compression ratio of 11.25:1 and Rochester mechanical fuel injection. The Cheetah’s strong V-8 engine made 360 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque. It weighed 1750 pounds at the curb. On the back axle is a Borg-Warner T-10 clutch with four speeds that are operated by hand. The car has three fuel tanks with separate filler caps because it wants to be a race car. The serial number for this car is 126364002. It was Thomas’ second prototype. The body of the next production cars was made of fiberglass, but the skin of this prototype is made of aluminum. General Motors bought the car to be a test mule for Chevrolet Engineering. It was registered to John F. Gordon, who was President of GM. Between December 1963 and April 1964, the car was used at the testing center. Right after that, it ran in a few races. This is the first time the car has been for sale since 1969 when it is listed in Hemmings. In 1963, Thomas and Chevrolet would have had to build 100 Cheetahs to meet homologation standards. However, in 1964, the rules were changed, and they had to build 1000 units. General Motors finally dropped out of the project because it was too big for the company to handle. There were only 16 of these cars ever made, so they are very rare. Because of its past, it makes sense that this car is being sold for $2 million right now. This is, without a doubt, the nicest Cheetah you’ll see, but it could also be Cobra money.
