Duncan Fox was rebuilding a Cheetah
Duncan Fox was rebuilding a Cheetah
So, that may have some relationship to what I have been told, which was only a small part of what the teller knew.Originally Posted by vette8
Will have to go and see if I can loosen up some lips.
Got anymore info on that Steve? By the way, good to see you on here.
Yes, Duncan Fox did bring back a lot of Cheetah parts from the US approx 25 years ago, with the intention of building up a Cheetah to race here in NZ. But unfortunately he simply didn't have the time to devote to the project.
At the beginning of this year I persuaded Duncan to sell the whole project to me, and we are currently building the car to race in classic / historic events. The goal is 'NZ Festival of Motor Racing' 2013.
Thanks John, that explains the little story I heard. I don't think there would be any objections if you put some in progress build photos on here for us to see, please.
It must be a popluar name for sports cars. I see on my list that I have two Cheetahs listed. No 001 to Bruce Wooten and No 002 to Bruce McCoy.
Can't believe how much more work I have got done over the last weeek this site has been down!
Kiwi285, the Cheetah/Cheaters of Wooten and Bruce McCoy (recently sold) are Formula Fords built by my brother Donald and me in 1974/5. At the time any FF which went well was automatically labeled a cheater so we though we would get in first. The name has morphed into the more PC Cheetah over the years.
001 was driven my me in the FF championship 1974/75 then sold to Norm Lankshear May 1975. 002 was sold as a new car early 1975 to Bob Donaldson.
Howard thanks for the info and history. I remember now that they were single seaters.
I'm currently redesigning my website so that I can document the entire build of the Cheetah, and will provide a link once it is up and running. I've also created a couple of Albums on my forum Profile page - check them out.
We intend to build an exact period clone of the 1963 Cheetah for historic racing (it's not a restoration because the parts we have are not all from one of the original 16 Cheetahs, but it's not a typical replica either because all the parts will be period correct - hence the term clone). Here's what it looks like now (don't worry we won't be using those wheels!)...
It's certainly going to be a rare beast - only approx 16 Cheetahs were built before a factory fire ended production. And it should be quick! The original 1510 lb (685 kg) Cheetah used the modified running gear from the 1963 Corvette, but the 327cu.in V8 was stroked to 377cu.in. with 500+ hp. It was clocked at 215mph (346 kph) at Daytona in 1964 - with drum brakes!! Our Cheetah will be built to the same specs. It should look something like this...
Last edited by John B; 12-22-2011 at 03:43 PM.
That car will certainly be a great addition to the historic fields when it is completed. Do you have any approximate deadline. When you talk about the same spec - do you mean still using drum brakes !!!!
Can't decide about the brakes. As you know the Cheetah was based upon the 1963 Corvette, and GM wanted Bill Thomas to use as many Corvette parts as possible (even the Corvette tail lights). The 1963 Vette didn't has discs, so the Cheetah didn't have disc brakes. Thomas finally opted for 11" Chevrolet passenger car drum brakes, as used in NASCAR at that time. Apparently they were very effective because the aluminium bodied Cheetah was only 685 kg (the fibreglass only bodied cars were slightly heavier).
However, in 1965 the Corvette was finally fitted with disc brakes as standard equipment, and some of the racing Cheetahs were then upgraded to discs. So we may construct our car as a "1963 Cheetah as raced in the 1965 season".
As for an approximate deadline, we would love to have it on the track for the 2013 NZ Festival of Motor Racing, but maybe that is a little optimistic. We have only just started on the project, having spent the last 12 months doing research, CAD design, and collecting parts. If we had the money I believe 12 months is do'able (the Cheetah is a very basic little machine), but we need to sell another race car to fund this project ... same old story!!
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