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Corvette racer Bill Thomas wanted to build a car that would compete with Carroll Shelby’s Cobra that was dominating racetracks in the 1960s. He called it the Cheetah, but very few were made, so it’s fair to say getting your hands on an original car would be a tough proposition. There is a solution: the Cheetah Evolution.
Using Corvette components, Thomas planned to build 100 copies of his race cars for SCCA homologation. The Cheetah had a 90-inch wheelbase, lightweight chassis, Corvette rear suspension, and 11-inch drum brakes. The engine was a Corvette 327 stroked to 377 cubes, fed by a Rochester fuel injection setup, and backed by an aluminum Borg-Warner four-speed. The injection-fed 377 produced between 460 and 550 horsepower and weighed just 1,550 pounds. The engine was pushed so far back in the chassis that it was considered a mid-engine car, and it was connected to the rear differential with U-joints; no driveshaft was necessary.
According to Mecum Auctions, Shelby owned this 427 Cobra one of just five originally painted in Charcoal Gray up until his death in 2012. It was sold by his estate in 2016, and underwent a full ground-up restoration in 2019, brought back to its original specifications by Legendary Motorcar Company. The block features aluminum heads and dual four-barrel carburetors, getting power to the rear wheels via a Toploader four-speed manual transmission. There are Sunburst knock-off wheels, and chrome bumpers on either end. It looks absolutely fantastic.
While the car didn t go for as much as the first-ever Cobra, which sold for $13.75 million in 2016, $5.94 million is still a lot. It s not surprising considering this is Carroll s personal car.