The Cheetah

[Jerry Entin]

My Cheetah at Riverside in 1965
This isn't the greatest photo it is out of focus slightly, it shows the color of the car which was Corvette Nassau Blue.

Hi Steve: I hope this doesn't bore some of the forum members. I had been running Ol Yeller 2 and I thought the Cheetah was built with better technology. I thought it would be a more modern quicker car. When I bought it the engine was blown up. I got the heads and a set of Weber 58 side draft carbs with it. I asked Bill Thomas to make me a fresh engine. He said he was behind schedule and it would take around 3 months to deliver the engine. I then went to Earl Wade, I knew him from working with a fellow named Don Nicholson. They had helped me in the past and their engines were very good. Earl used Mickey Thompson Aluminum rods in this engine he made. They were for drag racing and they proceeded to snap in half while warming up the engine at Riverside for a club race. I then put in a stock Corvette engine, this was about 360 hp. This made the car way underpowered. I never had a good engine in the car the whole time I owned it.

[Jerry Entin]

Me with Ol Yeller 2 around 1964
This was the first race car that I ever bought. It had finished 2nd in the 1960 Riverside Grand Prix and I was there with my schoolmate Spencer Stillman. He took me to the races with him. I bought the car in 1963 when I turned 21. Max Balchowsky who built it got it in an Elvis Presley movie for me called Viva Las Vegas. I was paid $4,000 for the movie and they wanted to wreck it and would have given me another $4,000 and the remains. I said no I didn't want it wrecked. It was after I had raced this car for a year that I bought the Cheetah.

Here is a good story on Max Balchowsky that I think the forum member will enjoy. I am in this story at the 7:33 mark and do the driving of the car at the 12:09 and 17:47 and 29:37 and 33:50 scenes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ourvuotFuY

[Oldfart]

Jerry, thanls very much for the link. Dr Ernie was such an ambassador with the car at the NZ meetings 2 years back, what a car, what a story!
I was priviledged to see his NZ diary, even contributed a recipe.

[Jerry Entin]

Jerry Entin in the Cheetah at Stardust Raceway with Max Balchowsky looking in

Old: Ernie Nagamatsu is trying to keep the Spirit of Max and Ina Balchowsky alive for this generation to see the work they did.

Back to the Cheetah. Everytime I drove it my little toe on my right foot got cooked. The exhaust headers came across that area and kind of cooked my toe medium rare. I had taken the Cheetah to Max Balchowsky to see if he could fix it's handling. He thought it was basically a sprint car that was designed to be run on dirt and that it wouldn't ever handle for road racing and if you wanted to road race it, drive it like a sprint car. I never found anyone who could come up with the solution to make it handle better. I took it to Las Vegas for the first race held at what was called the Stardust Raceway. The Stardust was a hotel in Vegas and they sponsored the building of the track. Max came with me as did Bill Thomas, he was the one who built the Cheetah with the help of Don Edmunds, a sprint car builder and very good welder. The car won against local club racer competition.