And this is what the Super Cheetah was meant to look like if the project had been completed...
And this is what the Super Cheetah was meant to look like if the project had been completed...
Last edited by John B; 02-04-2012 at 09:40 AM.
Here is Ralph Salyer's Cheetah before he took the top off.
Ralph ran this car with help from his good friend Gene Crowe.
Last edited by Jerry Entin; 02-04-2012 at 07:21 PM.
Ralph Salyer's and Bud Clusserath's Cheetahs
This photo was taken by the late Richard Macon at Augusta, Georgia during the 1964 USRRC races.
Last edited by Jerry Entin; 02-04-2012 at 07:27 PM.
Here is Ralph Salyers Cheetah with the top removed, now called the Cro-Sal Special
Ralph Salyer and his son Mark in matching jackets
Last edited by Jerry Entin; 02-04-2012 at 07:40 PM.
Jerry, I love this shot of Ralph's Cheetah with tape around the door to stop it from being blown off - as happened to him earlier in the season at Daytona. The door also blew off Jerry Grant's car at Pacific Raceway in 1964.Originally Posted by Jerry Entin
Here is Ralph Salyer's Cheetah before he took the top off.
Ralph ran this car with help from his good friend Gene Crowe.
Do you know how they got around this problem (other than not driving at 215mph or cutting the roof off!)?
Another shot of the 'taped up' door to prevent it from being blown off at high speed! Wonder what happened to the driver's door - this wasn't taped closed.
Last edited by John B; 02-05-2012 at 02:38 AM.
This gives an idea of how far back the driver sat in the Cheetah. Their bum was only just in front of the diff!
Here is the Cheetah driven by Jerry Titus at Pomona. The Kurtis at the side is Doug Hooper in the Alligator, a Kurtis Special run for Doug by Bill Campbell.
The photo in post 48 shows pretty clearly the lack of back support that was commented on at the time! I had always imagined that something like a sprintcar seat would have been fitted, but it's more like a kiddy seat! John you must feel like you are in heaven with Jerry chipping in here!
You're right 'Oldfart', the driver looks incredibly vulnerable! Although we are building our car 'as-originally-raced' it still has to have a motorsport approved cage, so we will add a diagonal bar with padded support behind the driver's head - and hope I don't get from behind by a bloody great muscle car!! We won't fit a high-back seat in a car like this.
Yes, being able to communicate directly with Jerry Entin (we've exchanged several e-mails) is a real privilage. Only a handful of drivers raced the Cheetah, and I've been luck enough to correspond with two of them.
Jerry, thanks so much for posting those beautiful photos. I'd love to hear of your experiences racing the Cheetah.
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.
Last edited by Jerry Entin; 02-10-2012 at 03:32 PM.
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
Last edited by Jerry Entin; 02-11-2012 at 12:31 PM.
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 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.
Last edited by Jerry Entin; 02-12-2012 at 04:47 PM.
Wow, Jerry, I'm loving your recollections! Just fantastic. Keep 'em coming. I watched the first section of the Balchowsky doco. Looks great. I'll watch it in full over the next couple of days. Actually, from memory, doesn't Viva Las Vegas also have a Corvette Grand Sport in it? Its a wonderful thing you did, not selling the car to the studio to be wrecked. Many others would have taken the money and run. That car is so full of character.
Re the Cheetah, many of the reports about the car suggest it didn't really have all the bugs ironed out before examples were sold. Your experiences of having your toe cooked are a good example. The cabin heat and cabin pressure are another. But the potential was there.
When you say you struggled to get the Cheetah to handle, what handling characteristics did it have? My understanding of it was that were was some chassis flex, which in hindsight could have been partially cured by it having a more rigid roll cage, but of course nobody understood the benefits in the early '60s from building a rigid cage.
Out of interest, did you ever race a Cobra, Jerry? Given the Cheetah was created to take on the Cobra, I'd love to know how the two cars compared.
Max Balchowskys suggestions for driving your Cheetah like a sprint car probably could well have worked well had you been able to get your hands on a more powerful motor.
680 hp chevy engine out of Robert Boyce's Cheetah
Steve: I never raced a Cobra. I also never raced against one as they ran production class and the Cheetah was required to run in the modified class.
I went to the race shop of Robert Boyce today. It is located in Michigan City, Indiana and I examined his continuation Cheetah and was given many helpful ideas by Bob. For starters the continuation Cheetah was the idea of Mark Ulinski. He is the President of Harley Davidson of Racine, Wisconsin. He is the one who got Bill Thomas to approve the continuation version and it is Bob Auxier in Tempe, Arizona that actually made the cars. Robert Boyce got his Cheetah from Mark Ulinski after driving it for him in about 2004. He then installed this 680 hp engine in the chassis.
Robert Boyce has made many changes to the car. Most were to make it easier to drive and other changes were for safety reasons. I will explain them to the forum members in a bit.
Last edited by Jerry Entin; 02-12-2012 at 12:26 AM.
Robert Boyce with his Watson Roadster
This is the ex Leader Card Roadster built in 1960 for the 1961 Indy 500. Rodger Ward drove it in that race and finished 3rd. Robert is the owner of the continuation Cheetah and this is inside his race shop yesterday.
Stub axle showing snap ring
This is a stock 1965 Corvette part. It is also a very weak link in the Cheetah drive train. If this snap ring ever is knocked loose the wheel would go under the car in the stock setup. Robert Boyce had this happen to him twice.
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