It looks like the Cheetah continuation project, started in 2007 by BTM of Arizona, is closing its doors. Everything is up for sale, all of the tooling and rights, a couple of bodies, numerous parts, everything someone will need to pick up where BTM left off.
The Cheetah, was a tube frame race car powered by a small block Chevy built by Bill Thomas in the early 60s. It was a pretty sexy looking thing getting ready to do battle with the Cobras when the factory burned in 1965. BTM put together a continuation project with the blessing of Bill Thomas and, to this point, they’ve produced 10. According to the listing, the last 9 of those 10 sold in Europe, so they believe a buyer there would be better placed to continue on from where they stopped.
In 2007 the economy was still booming and building a company to produce non road legal retro racers might have looked like a better bet. The starting bid for the company’s production assets is $120,000, but I would expect any serious buyer will be willing to run that up quite a ways. I hope someone does pick this up and get production rolling again. The Cheetah is too cool to let it fade away.
UPDATE: It looks like the sale here was for the 1963 1st generation version of the Cheetah and that is being sold, however, there was a 1965 version, the 427 Super Cheetah, and plans are for this 2nd generation Cheetah to go into production in January of 2012. Stay tuned. We’re trying to get clarification.
Link: Official Bill Thomas Cheetah
Link: Cheetah Continuation