By Dean Larson

Photos courtesy of Cheetah Evolution

Bill Thomas’ iconic Cheetah race car from the 1960s garnered a huge following for its radical looks, backdoor inception at General Motors and its near arrival as a Cobra killer on America’s race tracks. Yes, if the Cheetah had been born earlier, or had General Motors not imposed a competition ban in 1963, the fuel-injected 327-powered Cheetah may have met or exceeded the universal popularity the Shelby Cobra enjoys today. In short, people celebrate the Cheetah today for the radical machine it was, along with the sensation in could have been. But thankfully, a select group of individuals at Cheetah Evolution were not content to leave the latent legend rest, and have spent years developing the car into a fire breathing LS-powered monster, with modernized chassis and suspension systems to help it hold its own against modern cars. Today, the business is now up for grabs, along completed parts, jigs, lists and more.

Back in 2005, Craig Ruth and his father Bob were immersed in the Corvette performance hobby, from racing and performing restorations, to building their own hop-up parts. Much like Bill Thomas himself, Bob and Craig leaned on their Corvette aptitudes and began dabbling with the design of an updated Cheetah racer. They started with a round-tube chassis with an original 90-inch wheelbase, which made use of GM/ALCOA suspension components, a Winters Performance rear axle section and a custom designed radiator and fuel tanks. From there, they made subtle modifications to the body, such as the incorporation of real A-pillars, a DOT laminated glass windshield and the whole body was made wider to accept more modern wheels, tires and brakes.

While they continued their work on Corvettes under the names Ruth Engineering & Racing as well as Ruth Restorations, the Ruths formed Cheetah Evolution for the project, completing many cars and catapulting the Cheetah to heights that Bill Thomas would never have imagined. In addition to small and big-block Chevrolet powered cars, Cheetah Evolution has also produced various LS-powered cars, and even a V12 LS Cheetah that we saw firsthand at the 2018 SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

Now in 2020, Craig has decided to sell Cheetah Evolution in order to better serve his Corvette restoration team. The sale includes the Cheetah Evo entity, domain names, social pages, contracts, client lists, spares and more. There’s also an extensive list of jigs, tooling and molds, along with completed parts, and Craig estimates that two rollers could be built with these spares. See the complete list of items included in the sale below, and contact Cheetah Evolution for more information.

Cheetah Evolution | 216/244-0338 | www.cheetahevolution.com

Complete body mold set- 14 pieces plus extra big Ls9 bump hood mold

— main body, hood, dash, rear cover, LH and RH step plate, LH and RH rear inner fender, LH and RH inner door, LH and RH outer door, LH and RH hood laterals

Complete chassis fixture

Complete set of CAD drawings for cut and folded and assembly components

Complete set of tubing bend drawings

Front DOT glass mold and supplier (Guardian)

Rear acrylic window mold and supplier (Airplane Plastics)

Side window molds and supplier (Fast Forming)

Misc. assembly fixtures and spacers

Hood bonding assembly fixture

Parts lists

Supplier lists

All social media formats - domain name

15 years of digital and face to face contacts.

20 ft shipping container to store body molds

Enough raw tubing to cut and bend two chassis.

Two sets of plasma cut parts

3 windshields

6 rear windows

2 pair of side windows.

Patterns to cut aluminum sheets for close out panels

Multiple sets of CNC door handles

Multiple sets of CNC door gullwing hinges.

Radiator

Fuel tank