NEW BUILDS: Cheetah Cheetah, Open Wide!

God Bless Dash Motorsports! They really do make some superb bodies for Thunderjets! I’m happy to say that, at long last, I have finally acquired a copy of the rare, elusive Cheetah roadster, one that has escaped me ever since I started in this hobby! And even though it wasn’t cheap, it still seems like I got it pretty reasonable, although even at that I was a little hesitant, because initially I wasn’t fond of this dull shade of “blah blue.” Well, I’m glad I got past that, because once the car arrived and I saw it under the lights it was far better looking than I expected! I wasted no time striping, decaling, and detailing it, and picked a hot chassis I had set aside a while ago for something special to mount it on.

Truth be told, it wasn’t as easy to put together as you might think; it required some modification to the screw posts and the underside of the car to get the chassis to fit right, which is something I don’t normally have to do with Dash bodies. I also took some time choosing a set of wheels – there were 3 worthy contenders – but I’m happy with the RRR #816 “Slots” I decided to go with. And I also considered clear coating it, though I’m a little gun shy about that with my recent experience with one of the ’55 Chevys, so in the end I chose to forego paint and clear coat and just keep it in its moulded-in blue. I thought I wouldn’t like the color, but once I customized it, I realized I was wrong!

I mean, just look at the results! In spite of the tight chassis fit there’s plenty of room for those big RRR silicone tires to turn free, and turn free they do, as this car does the track with lightning speed and takes the hairpins nearly as well! The Cheetah has always been a handful of a car but has a reputation for rewarding drivers skilled enough to tame it. Legend has it that the Cheetah “roadster” was never an “official” version of the car, but rather the result of a couple of professional racers who decapitated their cars due to the extreme heat build-up inside the coupe’s cockpit due to the driver sitting inches behind the engine, essentially in between the transmission and the headers!

The Lore had to come down hard and fast! It is believed that only 11 Cheetahs were completed before the company closed its doors after Chevrolet pulled its support in late 1965, and with only 2 known exceptions, all were built for competition. This little blue jewel is named Leilani, a Hawaiian name meaning “heavenly child” or “royal child,” and is an early 1964 model powered by a 375 horsepower version of Chevy’s small block 327 V8, IMHO the best small block V8 ever made. Sitting behind the wheel beneath his metal-flake red Bell helmet sits owner Amal “Launch-Control” Lang, the California-born son of escapees from behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany. Raised with a respect for all the bounty offered by his adoptive nation, Lang is now the well-healed owner of a Chevrolet dealership in Poway, and races both the Cheetah and a Corvette Stingray coupe in vintage events all over the state. The car’s exact progeny is unknown-though it is not the original Ralph Sayler racer, it is an original Bill Thomas-built car, so exactly when and how it became a roadster is unknown. Regardless, that is how Lang acquired it in 1979, and following an extensive rebuild using the best of everything, he’s been racing it ever since! Having made the rounds to tamer circuits, Lang is now entering the fray at Drag City! How this mean car performs against stiff competition on this notoriously difficult track remains to be seen, but you can bet you’ll get all the progress reports right here at thunderjetheaven.com!