Ever wanted to own your own classic American sports car company? Well, today might be your lucky day.
The right to produce a bonafide classic, the Cheetah, is up for grabs – with all the tools and resources you’d need included in the deal.
And the price for rights to the Cheetah Evolution name and all associated materials? A mere $200,000.
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The company has gone up for sale after 15 years. Owner Craig Ruth says he wants to move on to something else.
The new owner of Cheetah could hit the ground running, with all but a shop and a fibreglass supplier ready to go. That means everything from the molds and tooling, to the contact book for suppliers, are included.
Ruth claims there’s even enough raw material in stock to build two frames.
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Though it resembles something you might find in a Hot Wheels own-brand box, the Cheetah name has a near 70-year history.
It goes back to one Bill Thomas, who was keen on giving the then-new Cobras of one Carroll Shelby a bloody nose during America’s golden era of circuit sports car racing.
The principle: mate a lightweight diminutive shrink-wrapped sports car body with a Chevrolet Corvette V8.
As with the range of Cobra replicas you can still buy, the original concept for the Cheetah is almost unchanged today, save for the more powerful modern Chevy V8s.
The Cheetah has been the subject of a number of disputes over who has the rights to produce a car in that image, and use that name.
These have died down, and Cheetah Evolution is locked and ready to go.
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$200,000 doesn’t seem like an awful lot for your very own sports car company. Could someone like Jay Leno or Richard Rawlins pick it up and pump in some investment?
Maybe, but commenters on Facebook that have suggested pitching it have been shot down by Ruth, saying: “I don’t chase anyone.” He’s in no rush to move it on, either, concluding that it can “sit and rot” if it doesn’t sell.
To our mind, it’s a worthy get. This 1950s underdog is the ultimate antidote to a fast-approaching electrified autonomous future. If we could, we would.
