America's Most Secret & DANGEROUS Sports Car Ever Built!

America's Most Secret & DANGEROUS Sports Car Ever Built! In the early 1960s, a talented mechanic named Bill Thomas created one of America's most unique race cars in a small workshop in Anaheim, California. The Bill Thomas Cheetah was Detroit's secret weapon, designed to challenge Carroll Shelby's dominant Cobra on the race tracks. With support from General Motors, Thomas and his team took an unconventional approach to building this revolutionary machine. What made the Cheetah special was its radical design. Instead of following traditional car layouts, Thomas placed the powerful Corvette V8 engine so far back that it connected directly to the rear wheels. This meant drivers had to position their legs beside the engine, with hot exhaust pipes running just inches above them. The design was sketched right on the workshop floor with chalk lines, showing that sometimes the best innovations come from simple beginnings. The first two Cheetahs featured lightweight aluminum bodies, but later models switched to fiberglass to make production easier. The car's unusual engine placement created some serious challenges. Drivers had to deal with extreme heat in the cockpit, and the car's frame wasn't stiff enough for high-speed cornering. Despite these problems, some Cheetahs found success on the track. The most famous was the Cro-Sal Cheetah, which won 11 races after its roof was removed to help solve the heat problem. Unfortunately, the Cheetah project faced several setbacks. When racing rules changed in 1964, requiring manufacturers to build 1,000 cars instead of just 100, General Motors had to withdraw its support. The final blow came in 1965 when Thomas's factory burned down. Production ended in 1966 after only 19 to 23 cars were built, making the Cheetah one of the rarest American race cars ever made. ____ We do not own the footages/images compiled in this video. It belongs to individual creators or organizations that deserve respect. By creatively transforming the footages from other videos, this work qualifies as fair use and complies with U.S. copyright law without causing any harm to the original work's market value. COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. _____

Added 29 May 2026