Back in the 1960’s when the Shelby Cobra was dominating race tracks, Chevy tried to answer with a small V8 roadster of its own, the Cheetah. Unfortunately the Cheetah, despite being a proven, hearty performer, never caught on. Exact numbers are known, though estimates place the number of Cheetahs built around 21 cars. In the past few years BTM of Arizona built continuation models to the same spec as back when they were first on the road in 1963. Or at least they did.

Up on eBay right now are the rights, jigs, and tooling for the 327-powered Cheetahs. Basically, everything you need to build and sell these beastly rides.

Back in November of 2001, BTM of Arizona signed an exclusive deal with Bill Thomas to build a continuation of the original 1963 Cheetah. These were not kit cars, but built to the original spec sheet using all old school parts. The eBay auction includes the molds, tooling, jigs, and plans for building these cars from the grounds up.

We can kind of understand why they might want to get out of the business. The original agreement seemed to be along the lines of a 100 car production run. Whether that includes the first 21 or so cars, we’re not sure, but at any rate in ten years BTM has only sold between 12 and 33 cars, with 9 of the last 10 going to Europe, which is where they want this business to go. So there is still some demand for the $120,000 Cheetahs…but perhaps not as much as a few years ago.

Worry not though, as BTM has plans for another Cheetah model, this one powered by a big-block 427 V8. Hopefully that one will meet with more buyers than the baby 327 did.