Nice chopper, is that yours?
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Show us your Cars
- Thread starter W2S
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At least the dogs did not have to hang their heads out the windows to get a breeze & fresh air.
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Kblade
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Easily what a beautiful color
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Gave her what she wanted...smooth paint.
marauder64
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I once seen one of those hitting the road, they are so bigger than our classic european car, even bigger than an Audi A8, I was astonished.
Because. back then, we typically had a spouse & 3 children & their friends to haul around.
So it was handy to have a 9 passenger station wagon.
How many average European cars would it take to deal with that many people? Having one big vehicle was a saving time & money strategy.
The other choice was to ride all the children in the bed of a pickup truck with one adult back there to keep them from doing stupid stuff.
I was concieved in Charleston, SC & born in Salzburg, Austria. Growing up I was in Austria for 9 summers visiting my grandparents.
But my mother was an only child and I am an only child, so we never had a car that big.
But growing up in the 60's & 70's, I have seen both sides of this.
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This was Italy's answer to the Ford... 600cc engine, 6/7 seats
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But doesn't seat 9 plus carry luggage or other items.
And the top speed on the Autostrada? Could it make 140 KPH?
Normal cars here could carry 6 adults + luggage for 2 weeks comfortably.
The Ford wagon could handle 9 adults + luggage for 2 weeks. COMFORTABLY!
| Ford (USA) catalogue | 1969-1974 Ford Full-Size 8th generation (Custom, Galaxie, LTD, XL) all versions catalogue | 1971 Ford LTD Country Squire versions |
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And the rearmost seat was very similar to the middle seat>
Hey DAD, can I borrow the car? It's Saturday afternoon & Billy from next door & I have dates for tonight.
Yes. I very much like the Mazda red.
I have a 2004 Chevrolet SS Silverado extra cab (back seat area with 3/4 length suicide doors). This truck was originally Chevy Sport Red Metallic.
But when a repaint was done (the cab off of the frame, and dis-assembled, same for the bed) we repainted with Fords similar (but of course not the same) Troubadour Red Metallic.
When I run into people that are Chevy oriented people, they are aghast that I have a Ford color on it.
I wasn't expecting that. But now I have fun with it.
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I can't truly capture the color in the garage with this camera. But she's a beaut anyway.
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I love that color!
I don't know why but certain Mazda's remind me of this 1963-1966 Chevrolet Cheetah:
Recently confirmed as car number four (conflicting reports indicated it was the third or fifth), this vehicle was sent to Daytona for performance benchmarking, where the 1510-pound Cheetah hit a reported 215 mph. Officially, a Cheetah posted a 185-mph trap speed in the quarter-mile at Elkhart Lake in June 1964; it did it again in September of the same year to prove it wasn’t a fluke. The design employed 1.0- and 1.3-inch diameter 4130 chrome-moly tubing for the frame, a fully independent front suspension, and a modified 1963 Corvette setup in the rear. The wheelbase was 90.0 inches with a 59.0-inch front and 57.0-inch rear track. Brakes were drums all around behind 15-by-7.0-inch American Racing magnesium wheels. The heart of the diminutive beast was a fuel-injected 327-cubic-inch Chevrolet V-8 a highly modified 470-hp Corvette 327 with Thomas-designed dual-air-meter Rochester fuel injection mated to an aluminum Corvette four-speed. Due to the Cheetah’s compact dimensions and the rearward mounting of the powertrain, there is no driveshaft; the output shaft drives the rear differential directly through a single universal joint.
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That is a sweet car but no one is doing a 185mph 1/4 mile with less than 1000 HP. What was the output of the motor?I don't know why but certain Mazda's remind me of this 1963-1966 Chevrolet Cheetah:
Recently confirmed as car number four (conflicting reports indicated it was the third or fifth), this vehicle was sent to Daytona for performance benchmarking, where the 1510-pound Cheetah hit a reported 215 mph. Officially, a Cheetah posted a 185-mph trap speed in the quarter-mile at Elkhart Lake in June 1964; it did it again in September of the same year to prove it wasn’t a fluke. The design employed 1.0- and 1.3-inch diameter 4130 chrome-moly tubing for the frame, a fully independent front suspension, and a modified 1963 Corvette setup in the rear. The wheelbase was 90.0 inches with a 59.0-inch front and 57.0-inch rear track. Brakes were drums all around behind 15-by-7.0-inch American Racing magnesium wheels. The heart of the diminutive beast was a fuel-injected 327-cubic-inch Chevrolet V-8 a highly modified 470-hp Corvette 327 with Thomas-designed dual-air-meter Rochester fuel injection mated to an aluminum Corvette four-speed. Due to the Cheetah’s compact dimensions and the rearward mounting of the powertrain, there is no driveshaft; the output shaft drives the rear differential directly through a single universal joint.
It says 470 HP. Although I suspect 550 HP would be closer to accurate.
Do you think that the factory is going to tell people the truth about how much HP that they have so that the competition will know?
At 185 MPH it would still be in third gear, so no time or speed lost making a 3-4 shift.
Did you look at the weight of 1510 lbs.? And that the the weight distribution is better than the latest Corvette.
You ever do HP to weight calculations? Traction (100% in this case) to power VS weight and aero considerations?
Drive one before you consider buying. They are rear weight biased because the engine is so far back.
There were 11 built.
Here is the whole article that I pulled this information from:
Cobra Killer! A History of Bill Thomas’s Wild Cheetah
The Bill Thomas Cheetah was designed as a Corvette-powered Cobra killer, and the cleanest example extant is going to auction.Andrew WendlerPublished: Apr 10, 2018
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Guernsey’s Auction House
When talk turns to American V-8–powered, competition-pedigreed 1960s sports-car Cinderella stories, the discussion usually starts and ends with the Shelby Cobra. Shelby was hardly the first to implement the lightweight body/American V-8 strategy—Allard beat him to the punch by nearly a decade—but his success inspired numerous low-volume manufacturers and racing wildcatters to adopt the blueprint for their own projects. Of them, the Cheetah, a.k.a. Bill Thomas’s Cheetah, endures as one of the most enigmatic. With only 11 first-generation examples built and fewer surviving, spotting one in the wild is remarkable enough. Now the sole single-owner, unrestored example is headed for auction on May 10 in New York City.
A Tiny Litter
Born during Southern California’s sports-car-racing heyday, the Cheetah was the brainchild of self-taught engineer Bill Thomas. Nicknamed Mr. Corvette for a string of nearly 100 victories racked up in Corvettes of his creation, Thomas parlayed his success into a contract with General Motors as a performance guru of sorts. After successfully prepping GM products for road circuits, drag racing, and even NASCAR, Thomas in 1962 went about the business of preparing a Corvette Sting Ray for what should have been another dominating season. His plans were foiled, however, when Carroll Shelby appeared and began stealing SCCA podiums and headlines with his Ford-powered Cobra. The following year, GM issued its notorious ban on corporate racing, and the Vette program went dark, although back-room dealings kept some GM product on the track unofficially. Thomas later contacted Ed Cole at Chevrolet and pitched the idea of going after the Cobra with a new Chevrolet-powered vehicle, one that would be produced in small enough numbers that it would be viewed as a rogue project that could fly under the radar of Chevrolet administrators.Once given the nod, Thomas had employee Don Edmunds work up a series of drawings, one of which was reportedly rendered directly on a workshop desk. In a comprehensive 1981 feature story in Automobile Quarterly (Vol. 19, No. 3) about the very car detailed here, Thomas remarked humorously that he kept the drawings because people who joined the team later were “always convinced that somewhere there was a roll of prints that had come from some mysterious place that we were working from.”
View PhotosGuernsey’s Auction House
Regardless of its origins, the design employed 1.0- and 1.3-inch diameter 4130 chrome-moly tubing for the frame, a fully independent front suspension, and a modified 1963 Corvette setup in the rear. The wheelbase was 90.0 inches with a 59.0-inch front and 57.0-inch rear track. Brakes were drums all around behind 15-by-7.0-inch American Racing magnesium wheels. The heart of the diminutive beast was a fuel-injected 327-cubic-inch Chevrolet V-8 mated to an aluminum Corvette four-speed. Due to the Cheetah’s compact dimensions and the rearward mounting of the powertrain, there is no driveshaft; the output shaft drives the rear differential directly through a single universal joint.
Alloy and Fiberglass
After a pair of aluminum-bodied prototypes proved the design feasible and one was sent to Detroit for a secret inspection by the GM brass, the team switched to fiberglass bodies and began limited production. This is where the car now going to auction comes in. Recently confirmed as car number four (conflicting reports indicated it was the third or fifth), this vehicle was sent to Daytona for performance benchmarking, where the 1510-pound Cheetah hit a reported 215 mph. Officially, a Cheetah posted a 185-mph trap speed in the quarter-mile at Elkhart Lake in June 1964; it did it again in September of the same year to prove it wasn’t a fluke.Sadly, the Cheetah never got to go head to head with the Cobra in a high-profile, officially sanctioned competition during its heyday. Because of its low production numbers, the SCCA put it in the virtually unregulated C-Sports/Modified big-bore class in 1963, where it was competing with Chaparrals, Lolas, and McLarens. To add insult to injury, in 1964 the FIA increased the “production car” homologation requirement to 1000 cars, a figure Thomas knew he could never achieve even with corporate support. That essentially eliminated any chance of the production-class sports-car grudge match of the year playing out. When a Cheetah did race a Cobra, it was usually because the Cobra had been so heavily modified that tech inspectors pushed it over into the Modified category. Even against the more serious racing specials, however, the Cheetah managed to win 11 major races in 1964 alone and claimed numerous local- and minor-event victories all over the country over several years. GM was no longer interested if it couldn’t run straight up against the Cobra, though, so Bill Thomas and crew turned their attentions to other projects, including a NASCAR program, Funny Cars, and a Chevrolet big-block Mark IV program. In September 1965, the shop was involved in a fire that destroyed the buck and tooling for the new Long Tailed Cheetah (often identified as the Super Cheetah), as well as several Cheetah parts intended for cars in various states of assembly.
View PhotosGuernsey’s Auction House
Referred to as the Budd Clusserath car, the Cheetah featured here wearing the competition number 64 is widely regarded as the most complete and original example extant. It has been inspected and certified as such by Bill Thomas III, son of the Cheetah’s creator, as well as a few other Cheetah experts. Featuring a period-original Chevy 327-cubic-inch V-8 with Rochester fuel injection, a Muncie M-20 series transmission, a C2 Corvette differential, stock drum brakes, and a racing tachometer, it stands as a virtual time capsule. Both Thomas and Clusserath, its original buyer, agree that the original highly modified 470-hp Corvette 327 with Thomas-designed dual-air-meter Rochester fuel injection was traded to fellow Cheetah owner and driver Ralph Salyer shortly before this car was sold to Sam Goins of Ohio in 1965. Goins campaigned the car in amateur racing and has been the sole owner for more than 50 years.
Unassailable Provenance, Despite the Rumors
While there is no question that the car headed to auction is a genuine first-generation Cheetah, there is some debate regarding its exact number. As is often the case with low-volume manufacturers, few production records exist, resulting in often wild and inaccurate speculation from collectors and historians. As is also true of the Cobra to a lesser extent, the matter is further complicated by replicas produced by both Fiberglass Trends—which built and sold a fiberglass body popular with drag racers—and later by a short run of Cheetah continuation cars made in Arizona by BTM LLC, under agreement with Bill Thomas Motors, before that license arrangement ended in October 2009. While the Thomas family and Bill Thomas Motors have issued a certificate of authenticity confirming that the Goins car is #4, their former partner at BTM feels otherwise.Also concerning is Bill Thomas III’s assertion that the only Cheetah to be issued an official ID tag and serial number is the car sent to Chevrolet for inspection, although some owners would assign their own VIN tags and numbers to register them for the street. He does confirm the widely held belief that just 11 “first design” Cheetahs, including the prototype, were produced during the original program and that some wrecked cars were later rebuilt using fresh bodies and parts. Bill Thomas III told Car and Driver that while he believes the aforementioned Automobile Quarterly article is “the best piece ever done on the Cheetah, it too has many inaccuracies regarding the timeline and production numbers.” As a side note, the aluminum-bodied car sent—or sold, depending on the source—to Chevrolet for inspection is rumored to reside in a private collection in Michigan.
View PhotosGuernsey’s Auction House
In its 50 years under Goins’s guardianship, the Cheetah has accumulated less than 100 hours of operation. It’s scheduled to cross the auction block on May 10 at Guernsey’s. But first, the car will appear at Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park circuit on May 4 and 5 for viewing. Later it will be moved to the auction location at 93rd Street and Park Avenue in New York City. While the circumstances surrounding the Cheetah, as is the case for other highly desirable low-volume vehicles, may provide a convenient point of entry for unscrupulous sellers, the extensive documentation and two-owner history of the Clusserath/Goins car provides an unassailable provenance.
If the name Guernsey’s doesn’t exactly resonate in the ears of auto collectors as an auctioneer on the level of more famous automotive auction houses, Guernsey’s co-founder Arlan Ettinger is well versed in the subject of vintage race cars, as well as the pop-culture and nontraditional collectibles on which the auction house has built its reputation. It’s worth noting that the fully restored Cheetah #006 failed to meet the reserve at a high bid of $850,000 at Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale auction in 2017 and that the “Alan Green Chevrolet” Cheetah #007 sold for $660,000 at Russo and Steele’s 2018 Scottsdale sale. This new auction is one worth watching.
View PhotosGuernsey’s Auction House
Andrew Wendler
Associate Editor, Buyer's Guide
Andrew Wendler brings decades of wrenching, writing, and editorial experience with numerous outlets to Car and Driver. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Car and Driver, Esquire, Forbes, Hot Rod, Motor Trend, MPH, MSN, and Popular Mechanics, among others. A Rust Belt native and tireless supporter of the region, he grew up immersed in automotive, marine, and aviation culture. A lifetime of hands-on experience and a healthy dose of skepticism provide him the tools to deliver honest and informative news, reviews, and editorial perspective. Of note, he once won a $5 bet by walking the entire length of the elevated People Mover up track that encircles downtown Detroit.It would not bother me IF you can prove me wrong: but until then, I think that you have no idea about what a small amount of power can do in an exceptionally light, traction heavy and very aerodynamic car.
I have been involved the racing world (no F1 or INDY) since I was a kid & there are many myths perpetrated by the general public and I believe that you have succumbed to one or more of them.
EJ3
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