I do not know how it is possible that some cars are "cult" when they are bad and pointless. This time, I'm not talking about the Syrena, but about the car Bill Thomas Cheetah, a 10-year-old American racer from 1963-1965. I am writing about it because a copy with an interesting story, in the possession of one owner for 53 years, appeared for sale. His present owner, Mr. Sam Goins, bought it from a Buddha Buddha Clusserath from Indiana. Mr. Budd ordered a Cheetah car just because it was bought by his friend Ralph Salyer. For a year he raced with his Cheethem in 4 or 5 races, and then discouraged by the general bad behavior of the car sold him as just one and a half year. The buyer, or the aforementioned Sam Goins, put it in the garage and already. For 53 years he has been pestering it with 100 motohours - you do not know how many kilometers, because Cheetah does not have a meter of distance traveled.
The car Bill Thomas Cheetah was created as a competition for Shelby Cobra. You understand - Cheetah faster than a cobra and stuff like that. General Motors did not have its own idea, so it decided to support Bill Thomas from California, who dealt with converting cars for racing. Only in the initial stage Cheetah was not supposed to be a race car, but a rival Cobra in terms of lance and speed. The project was led by Bill with his partner Don Edmunds.
Cheetah at the races in 1964.
How did it happen that Bill and Don got Cheetah? First of all, when they started the project, they did not think that this car would race. This decision came later. That is why they did not specifically apply to the spatial rigidity of the frame, considering that what they drew, is enough to crush after Sunset Blvd. Worse, when the car is as soft as the sausage bends into the corner on the track, you can be surprised how it can "earn" and go a little not where the driver wants.
Secondly, they found out that they liked the dragsters from the 1950s with the engine in the middle. The engine in the middle is a good mass distribution, Bill and Don thought. They scanned the frame, put a V8 Corvette engine with a capacity of about 5.4 liters in the middle, and then they gave a cubicle. It was not necessary to mount the drive shaft, because the bin case was simply connected by a wrist. The front of the car from the engine to the front axle basically did not serve anything.
958/5000
Dragster from the 1950s. Great.
The first finished car was sold to Chevrolet, but then Bill Thomas bought it. The first two cars, actually prototype, had an aluminum body. Then, however, it was considered that glass fiber would be easier to control and copies from 3 to 10 are already made of plastic.
When Chevrolet decided that everything was great, the car was nice, but you have to race, because "race on Sunday, sell on Monday", problems began. The first copy was already broken during the training session for the race in LA. The aluminum body was destroyed and plastic was applied. Okay, it was able to take off on February 1, 1964 in Southern California. On the first lap - an accident. Coolant spilled out and the car skidded on its own fluid. Great design. And so it was with the Cheetahs. Half of the cars built have at least one collision on the racetrack, i.e. talking about those who raced.
My dear Morris Minor !!!
Race drivers had a brief opinion about Cheetah: piece of shit. At high loads, the rear wheels spilled out due to insufficiently rigid suspension, and when they were braking, they were coming off, which meant that it was impossible to effectively make a bend. In addition to the overall softness and cheesiness of the chassis, which I already mentioned, the car was too tight. Pipes from the cooling system ran in the cabin and it was possible to get out of the heat. At least one of Cheetah's pieces was turned into a roadster so that the driver would not get rid of the temperature. But that's nothing. Bill and Don, engineering geniuses, have not realized that in addition to the inlet of cool air to the engine, a hot air outlet is also needed. They just did not do it. On warmer days (and there are plenty of them in California) Cheetah boiled like water on sausages, the boiled liquid got pressure and the snakes fell from the cooling. GOOD JOB, as Obi-Wan said in "Clone Attack".
The interior today ...
The absolute best thing about Cheetah was the racing engine, which was instead thrown in 5.4 (it only propelled the prototype). Bill built a sensational V-figure 6.2 with fuel injection based on the Corvette line. Cheetah brilliantly fell out on the dragstrip, which should not be surprising, because it was designed like a dragster.
Nevertheless, there was a freak who bought one piece for his wife to ride it every day. She must have been delighted.
... and 53 years ago.
The end of the Cheetah project was even worse than the beginning. The regulations regarding the approval of cars in serial cars races have changed. You had to build 1000 pieces. Neither GM had any intention of paying for it, neither Bill Thomas had such production capabilities, and besides, the product was quite weak and required expensive patches. A total of 10 finished vehicles and 23 chassis were built at various stages of "completion". Finally, Bill Thomas's factory burned under mysterious circumstances, Bill took insurance and wrapped himself around.
Everything I described above is a management slap:
- the client did not really know what he wants - whether the car is racing or lance bansu and making noise
- the customer chose a subcontractor from the ass and after acquaintance
- the subcontractor knew on average what he was supposed to do, and yet the client changed his decision in the course
- finally, a pile of hair came out.
BUY CHEETAHA
