[Video] On board a rare, shouty Bill Thomas Cheetah
There’s a very strong chance you’ve heard of cars like the AC Cobra, Jaguar E-Type and Aston Martin DB4GT, but what about the 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 75th 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.