This little beauty is the Cheetah, an all-but-stillborn rival to the famous racing Cobras that briefly hit the streets and circuits of America in 1964, and has now been brought back to life as a stunning 'continuation' project.
The sixties Cheetah was the brainchild of Bill Thomas, a racing car builder and Chevy fan who wanted to take on the Ford powered 'Snakes'. Initially supported by Chevrolet, he built fewer than 25 examples before the Cheetah factory was destroyed by fire in '65.
Without ongoing support from GM, which was anyway developing successful racing versions of the Corvette, the Cheetah simply disappeared. History has not always been kind to the car either, which developed a reputation for being a bit of a handful. It has a very short wheelbase because the propshaft was eliminated to save weight, and the gearbox output bolts directly to the rear differential because the engine is set so far back. It still recorded 215mph at Daytona, though...
Now, a US company called BTM is offering what it calls an 'authorised continuation' version of this fabulously evocative car. For a mere €88,500 they'll deliver you a brand new Cheetah, built from the original design specs and drawings - and the only changes from original are the updated safety mods, they say.
The Cheetah has a spaceframe chassis, a 350 Chevy V8 with twin four-barrel carbs and a fibreglass body built to the same specs as the original. It also comes with a signed certificate of authenticity from Bill Thomas himself.