Bill Thomas Cheetah, the Cheetah that would have eaten the Cobra, but eventually couldn't.

What's in a name? Heritage, expectations, maybe even destiny?
If a product or a car has never really made to be successful, it's name isn't worth much. Which is way most of you never heard of Bill Thomas or the Cheetah pictured above, unfortunately.

So what's a Cheetah, and who is this Bill Thomas person anyway? (Book reference her, come on it's easy!)
Summarizing the quite good articles you can find over wikipedia or ultimatecarpage, or even what you can get out of the one-model website dedicated two this car,  Cheetah Cars, Bill Thomas was a Chevrolet tuner and race car driver, with a taste for fact cars and thrilling projects. It was right when one Carol Chelby was setting the world in fire with his Ac Ace turned Shelby Cobra race cars that Thomas decided it was time for a unique creation of his own. Thanks to his connection at GM and the help of designer Don Edmunds, he started working on a project car to impress GM, something supposedly almost all go and no show, but when Edmunds was already creating the car, Thomas decided there was no better way to impress people than racing the car on various race tracks. The ambitious project was in for a twist.
With GM involved and Thomas past glories on the track with the Corvette, the engine of choice was actually pretty obvious. As far as I know many versions were used, tuned to various stages, but the heart was mainly the Chevrolet Corvette 327 Small Block engine from the Chevrolet Corvette C2 Series. Sometimes even the 427 Big Block engine was used.

Unfortunately for them, there is a good difference between a show car and a race car. While the clever inboard position of the front mounted engine allowed to directly connect it, via the gearbox, to the rear differential without any driveshaft, it also meant the engine was so close to the cabin the exhaust pipes were actually passing right over the driver's legs and feet. While racing cars from back in the days were no strangers to extreme heat in the cabin or even fumes and fuel vapors, the Cheetah took the matter a step further and various measures were taken the vent the car. You can indeed notice the amount of holes and vents sculpted into the bodywork to try and get some hot air out of the cabin, and the engine bay too. One owner even chopped off the entire roof.

The second main issue of the car was its chassis. Cars from those days weren't exactly engineered as they are right now, meaning that only a small fraction of the notions already available back then were actually applied to projects and cars. Planes were around since the beginning of the century or so, yet aerodynamics was a part of the automotive industry only from the late 60s at least, and mostly in race cars too.
The Cheetah though had things a bit worse because its chassis suffered from the change in target Thomas enforced midway into the design. The structure simply lacked the necessarily stiffness to cope with the high and variable loads typical or race conditions. The bending and twisting of the chassis meant the suspensions were continuously varying their position resulting in a very tricky behavior of the car. Modification to the chassis arrived in the form of gussets and additional tubes to properly triangulate the structure.
Of course the more power the car was provided with, the more difficult the job was for the chassis was.

A few victories arrived on the race track, though they weren't as highly profile as those earned by the Shelby Cobra or the Shelby Daytona, and additionally the way of the future was quickly arriving in the form of truly mid engined race cars like the Ford GT40, the Ferrari 330 Ps and the various mid engined Porsches.

Eventually, GM withdrew its "covert" funding of the project in the form of spare parts and the likes and a fire destroyed the facility were the cars were built. That was the end of the Cheetah. It's unclear how many cars were built, probably something like 23 untis between 1963 and 1965, two of which with an aluminum bodywork while the others had a fiberglass bodywork built by Contemprary Fiberglass. A company initially evaluated for the production of the fiberglass body but then discarded, Fiberglass Trends, built a few Cheetah-look-alikes using the plywood molds they received for the evaulation, but the chassis of this car was strictly intended for drag racing.
Later on, various replicas were built with and without the official blessing of the Thomas family.

So much for a summary.
What I can say about the car is that it has weird proportions for a car of its time. Back then there seemed to be the idea that a car had to be sleek and flowing to fend the air and be fast on the track, indeed most race cars from those days are also dead beautiful. The Cheeath, not so much. It's aggressive sure, but it's not exactly a work of art. The short overhangs are exasperated by the cabin basically seating on top of the rear axle. The styling also takes cues from various cars from the era but I wasn't there to say who took references from who. It surely is a mean machine and it was almost untouchable on a straight line, leaving most cars Cobras included behind to hear the sound of its thundering Corvette tuned engine.


The car in question though was not exactly a real Bill Thomas Cheetah but a great replica built by Matteo Panini and his team of former Maserati technicians. It was exhibited in Modena in 2010 by the Museo Panini collection, in collaboration with the Circola della Biella (Club of the Connecting Rod)

Thanks to the members of the Cheetah Cars forum for helping me to identify this car.

 

All Pictures and Words Copyright: Damiano Garro for The Italian Junkyard
This article can be linked to from other websites but its content and the pictures can't be reproduced on any other website without my written permission  

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2.4 Pure and Simple

There isn't much more to say. The Project M is a rebodied Corvette ZR1, and so what?
Besides some fanboys engaging another war about what's the better car, the Corvette ZR1 or the Nissan GT-R, the choice of the car is surely smart. It's a light chassis, very well done, it demonstrated to be capable to fight with high power engines without loosing it's natural friendly drive, and it's even pretty compact, allowing for more freedom in the external shape knowing you are not going to became embarrassingly long as a Faralli & Mazzanti Antas, for instance, which isn't huge, but definitely looks like it is, especially in the flesh (yes, I saw it!).

To be honest, somewhere over the internet someone already had that feeling, and compared a ZR1 chassis picture to a teaser shot of the Project M and there were quite some similarities. Without talking about my idea of that tail recalling a Stingray which could still be one of the wrongest guess in automotive history.

A more important fact is again Jason and his smile, his idea of the car being functional and not just a weird sheet of metal while still being a masterpiece, and his vision of a complete project, or product, not just a flashy and pointless concept.
There are just a few words in his speeches which aren't enlightening on his vision about cars, or even art. I couldn't express, obviously, better those ideas than what he already did.

Simply enjoy the video and be sure to collect all the images available when the car will be unveiled.

This guy has a potential, he's going to do something important in his life...

Follow the jump for the sixth episode: Project M, the chassis.

Post header source: Inside Porject M
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2.2 Make your choice

For as regards the question we are given the opportunity to answer, I should know which kind of a vehicle we are talking about before of saying which color is the best for it, or which could be the more suitable chassis to adopt. As a concept car, the color would be much more important than the chassis obviously, basically because the car could do even without the latter, and considering it isn't likely going to look conventional or easy to judge, the wrong color could simply ruin the whole car, at a first, superficial, glance. On a side note, this is meant to be a one off, not a concept, so the chassis is there and it is another point to discuss.

I chose green. First of all because it isn't the first color that comes to mind talking about concepts, and it's not even one of the more diffused on production cars, still it can bring an elegant touch to the car without reducing it's sporty appeal. Think of Jaguars, Aston Martins or even the huge Bentleys, modern Continentals included.
It was also used on the last Bertone's creation, the B.A.T. 11, and it looked great, perfectly continuing the theme of the older three B.A.T. cars, avoiding a clear reference to them or to their style, but just refreshing, or better evolving the theme behind theme, as if it was the natural son of a very peculiar family. Exactly like those would have looked now.

About the chassis, I went for a Maserati one. There is a technical reason behind it, and an emotional one too, I must admit.
The first is that it would be a steel chassis. It may sound old, but it's easier to work with, and the results aren't really worst in first place from the rigidity or safety point of view. The main aspect is that it allows for a smaller structure, less thick parts, and also easier to manufacture, therefore there is more space for the mechanical parts, being it the engine and gearbox, or the suspensions or even the exhaust, and even for the interiors, and also more freedom in designing them. That means more freedom in the creative process in first place, and perhaps a more interesting and groundbreaking result at the end of the day.
It also proved to be a good platform, regardless of how the GranTurismo, or the 8C Competizione, directly perform on a track. There is much more than the chassis in the final results, being the settings, the marketing decisions, homologation's issues and so on.
Besides, even the B.A.T. 11 was based on this chassis.



I would have also go for the Aston Martin's modular architecture, allowing for a car which isn't dimensionally bound to recall strictly an existing one, but it's made out of aluminum, and that's the reason why I went for the Maserati.

The emotional reason is behind a very simple fact: how many supercars, or even concept cars, which left a deep sign in the car history or even in our hearts, are from Italy or Italian designers?
'm not a nationalist, or proud to be Italian, but I recognize, or think, the marriage between an Italian coachbuilder and an Italian underpinning is one of the best things you can have, proved both are up to the competition. I've already said what I think of the platform, let alone the lovely sound a Maserati V8 can create, but also Bertone never disappointed, even in recent years, just think of the B.A.T. or the Barchetta Concept, which is simply special.

At the moment only a couple of shots of the cars are available, but the only thing you can see there is a moke body covered with a blue fabric or the rear part in camouflaging paint. It looks quite low, as a supercar should be, but nothing else can be said about it. Looking at the drop shaped rear window/end, it remains me of a Corvette Sting Ray now that I think about it...what if there is a C6 under that body? It could be, and it wouldn't even be the first, following SpadaVettureSport, and n2a Motors, just to say a couple of them.













On the other hand, I could speculate about its nature, mainly considering what we see in those released videos. Basically what I would like to underline is how Jason is seen walking inside the Bertone's museum, looking at the concepts or production cars, or rather to their details, and most of all, he is smiling, he is enjoying what he is doing and what he sees.
So I'm expecting something that could really embody the idea of concept, while still looking great, not only designed to to cover the underpinnings but rather dressing them. In one of those videos he says the car will be honest, meaning its shape is going to follow a precise function, wrapping the mechanical parts, rather the just being a piece of abstract art without a precise reason for being what it is.
He also continuously recall the racing references, being the interiors or the performance it will be capable of.

Looking forward for some new updates about this project, another two teaser videos to go, and then the unveiling at the Shanghai auto show in three weeks.
Stay tune.


post header source: Stile Bertone
photos sources: B.A.T. Concepts, SVS Codatronca TS, n2a Motors Anteros XTM
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