The Cheetah was a Chevrolet supported and Bill Thomas spearheaded effort to build a car that could take on the mighty Shelby Cobras that were making a huge impact on the international road racing scene of the mid 1960s. Thomas worked with Don Edmunds and Don Borth to create a car that would have the necessary capability to take on the Cobras and win. Their final product was damned good, but flawed in a few ways that made a worthy challenger but never a threat to the Cobras. They did haul ass though, running over 185mph at Road America and a shocking 215mph on the high banks of Daytona with small block Chevy power. Some Cheetahs ended up being converted into drag racers as well. They were light and the eyeball aero said that they’d slip through the wind pretty well, to boot. Sadly, after only about 30 cars were produced at the Thomas factory, a fire destroyed the whole place and all of the cars that were being produced. Just before the fire, Chevy pulled the plug on helping fund the project so once it went up in smoke, the Cheetah was all but dead. In a twist of fate we didn’t know about, it turns out the Bill Thomas licensed a continuation series before he died in 2009. He signed 67 letters of authenticity for the 67 cars that can be built using his name (bringing the total number of Cheetahs up to 100). This car has one of those signed letters and we’ve seen photos of Thomas actually signing them, so this is not some sort of scam deal.

Judging by the photos, it is a beautiful recreation of what the Thomas factory was cranking out in the mid 1960s. They admit to updating some modern safety features (brakes, belts, etc we’re guessing) but the car looks deads nuts on like an original, it has a small block Chevy engine, that oddly neat shape, the gull wing doors, etc. This one has proper Torque Thrust wheels and side pipes as well. We want this car badly! The sale price is $85,000 bucks which is not cheap but we think it is in line for a brand new car that was essentially scratch built. If we had the dough, this thing would be ours. We’re pretty sure it could be registered and street driven. Check your local laws on that.

Scroll down to see more photos of the car and the link to the eBay ad with more info!

eBay Link: A Bill Thomas continuation Cheetah!