2025 |
Pebble Beach Auctions1966 Cheetah GT Coupe
Register to BidEstimate
$700,000 - $800,000
Chassis
029
Car Highlights
The Final Cheetah Built at Bill Thomas Race Cars in Anaheim, California
Exceptionally Original and Unrestored Time Capsule
Fully Documented History with Period Photos and Correspondence
Just Four Devoted Owners from New
Chevrolet’s Unofficial Answer to Carroll Shelby’s Cobra
Awarded Second Place in the Postwar Preservation Class at Pebble Beach in 2008
Technical Specs
327 CID OHV V-8 Engine
Rochester Ramjet Mechanical Fuel Injection
375 BHP at 6,200 RPM
4-Speed Manual Gearbox
4-Wheel Hydraulic Cerametallic Drum Brakes
4-Wheel Independent Suspension
Edward King, Hamilton, Ohio (acquired new via Bill Thomas Race Cars in 1966)
Peter A. Holowczak, Parma, Ohio (acquired from the above in 1968)
Mark Boen, Carmel, California (acquired from the above in 2007)
Current Owner (acquired from the above)
Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®, 2008 (2nd in Class)
The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, 2019 (1st in Class)
Conceived in secrecy following GM’s 1963 ban on corporate racing, the Bill Thomas Cheetah was Chevrolet’s unofficial answer to Carroll Shelby’s Cobra. Developed by Corvette performance specialist Bill Thomas, the Cheetah was a no-compromise sports racer – an audacious design with a front-mid-mounted 327 cid V-8. Weighing under 1,600 pounds and capable of over 180 mph, the Cheetah was a fearsome competitor in SCCA racing, setting speed records at Elkhart Lake and winning 11 races in 1964. But the dream was short-lived. By 1965, new FIA homologation rules increased the production minimum from 100 to 1,000 units. Only about two dozen Cheetahs were ever built, and only 12 were fully completed as turnkey cars by Bill Thomas Race Cars; chassis 029 is the final example completed.
Commissioned in late 1965 by Edward King of Hamilton, Ohio, this Cheetah was intended as a street car. Construction began in December, and the car was completed in April 1966, making this the final Cheetah built at Bill Thomas Race Cars in Anaheim, California. Upon delivery, Mr. King made a handful of road-going modifications to satisfy state requirements, including the addition of mufflers, a windshield wiper, and driving lights. He also installed a Vertex magneto, favoring it over the standard Corvette distributor.
Mr. King’s ownership was brief; after just two years of careful ownership, he sold the car to Peter A. Holowczak of Parma, Ohio, in July 1968, trading it for a 1963 Split-Window, Fuel-Injected Corvette and a $4,500 loan. Mr. Holowczak recalled working two jobs to pay off the debt, and so began an extraordinary 39-year period of preservation. During his ownership, from 1968 to 2007, the car was sparingly driven and carefully stored, retaining its original paint, interior, mechanicals, wheels, and even the same Firestone Indy tires it wore in 1968.
Mr. Holowczak’s passion also led to fastidious record-keeping. He documented his ownership with period photographs, detailed notes, and correspondence with fellow enthusiasts, including one admirer who would pursue the car for nearly three decades. That admirer was Mark Boen, who first contacted Holowczak in 1980 after seeing a classified ad in Autoweek. For 27 years, Mr. Boen maintained contact through letters and phone calls. Finally, in 2007, Mr. Holowczak agreed to sell, and the car was shipped to Mr. Boen in Carmel, California, the following month. Over the next 15 years of ownership, Mark and Veronica Boen would go on to carefully preserve the Cheetah, showing it at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®, where it received an impressive Second Place in the Postwar Preservation Class, and The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering until selling the car to its current owner in 2022.
Today, this extraordinary Cheetah remains in highly original condition, thanks to the stewardship of just four devoted owners, offering a time capsule example from one of the most ambitious chapters in American motor sports history.