Video: On board a rare, shouty Bill Thomas Cheetah

The Cheetah was a 1960s GT car, built by American mechanic and tuner Bill Thomas (with backing from General Motors) to compete with the likes of the Cobra, E-Type and DB4GT. Iconic it was not, but with a 5.4-litre Chevrolet engine it was fast and incredibly loud.

At the 75^th Members’ Meeting in 2017 one of the original Cheetahs, built by Thomas in 1964, qualified for the Graham Hill Trophy, a race littered with Cobras and E-types, a Ferrari 250 LM, two Lotus Elans, two Ginettas and a trio of Bizzarrinis, amongst other mid-sixties GT legends. 

Unfortunately it never made it to the grid, missing out on what turned out to be a truly thrilling race, but what we have here is on board testing footage at Goodwood, giving us a glimpse of the Cheetah’s cabin and a taste of that big Chevrolet block.