The Beast Of Anaheim

Mick Walsh braves Goodwood in a Cheetah: the fearsome Chevrolet-powered GT that was quicker than a Cobra but cooked its drivers.

- Mick Walsh

"I could have been a contender,” was Marlon Brando’s famous line as Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront, but it would be just as apt for Bill Thomas, the Californian creator of the Cheetah. ‘Mister Corvette’ was Blue Riband through and through, and it must have really pained him when he saw the new Cobra whip the Sting Rays at Riverside in February ’63.

A plan was hatched, with covert help from Chevrolet, to build a Cobra rival with a target 100 production for homologation. With new premises in Anaheim and teamed with race-car chassis expert Don Edmunds, they constructed the prototype from a basic set of drawings based around the key dimensions of engine, rear end and wheels – all chalked out on the workshop floor. The result was a chrome-moly tubular space frame with fully independent suspension, including a modified ’63 Corvette assembly located by trailing torque arms. NASCAR-spec drum brakes and meaty American Racing five spoke mag wheels gave it hot-rod attitude, while in the middle was a 327cu in Chevy small-block fed by an in-house tweaked fuel injection set-up.

Thomas went for a coupe rather than a roadster because he reasoned that it would be more aerodynamic, so Edmunds knocked up a wooden buck around the first chassis and sent it to Don Borth at California Metal Stamping. The result – hammered out and welded into five sections – was one of the meanest-looking GTs of all time. It was held together by six bolts and Dzus fasteners, which provided quick removal for chassis repair.