So a little more on the Cheeta Truck built for Lamborghini at the Geneva Show. We have been able to confirm the truck DID come back to the USA after the show. It landed in LAX in late 1977, of course we have documentation for this, both the written and the pics. As we go, I will share with you all on this wonderfull find and it's being brought back to the public world and viewing. So, here we have a pic of the Truck in October 1977, just outside of a "House of fun" in Nevada State. After the truck came back to the USA, it went out to the Deserts of Nevada were a 5 minute commercial was made, (yes we have a copy of it now), it was never aired or released. It was produced for Lamborghini in the hopes of furthering possible sales. After the shooting, the Camera team wanted a little R and R...and these nice lady's were kind enough to come out of the "House" and do a little posing. (of course I had to black out the not allowed here parts-LOL) A little more..the truck WAS NEVER NEVER EVER tested by the USA military as many think and as reported in numerous places (because if it was a Military test vehicle it could have never left the country for Geneva-so it was kept as a "Commerce" test vehicle-only way it could be exported out of the US at the time for the show). IT ALSO NEVER EVER was in the Middle east being tested in the sands..it was tested in the Sands in the Central area of California Coast as well as the Deserts of Nevada. It ALSO was NEVER EVER WRECKED and cut up into little pieces..and NO there was NEVER EVER two of these made either, just the one...when the Company and this One of One truck was sold off to another Company that attempted to take the design further. So I guess let the skeptics start...but I KNOW what I have...More as this fun project goes further, and the history I NOW OWN. LOVING IT!! Image Unavailable, Please Login
Just some "teasers" of the documentation we are getting put together, a real tough job to locate all those involved over 30 years ago..one thing is nice..back then people kept writtten documentation..and nice that so many involved still have these documents today..this is going to be such a fun project. I get exicted a little more each day! "Lamborghini (Italy) contracts ***** (San Jose) to design and build a Cheetah prototype that could be shown off and eventually put into production by Lamborghini once a customer was identified. Lamborghini was having financial problems at the time, so money for this came from a Swiss investor through Lamborghini. After a chain of events, Lamborghini was not able to find a customer for the deal so the project stopped. However, before the Cheetah was returned to the US, Lamborghini showed it at Geneva and copied as much of the design as possible. (they paid **** for the concept vehicle development, they did not own the vehicle or the design... so they had no rights to copy anything. You see the results of this in the LM002 that came out later) Lamborghini held the Cheetah from **** longer than they agreed to have it for display purposes, but once **** got it back there was nothing else to do with it, so it sat for a short period. Then **** was trying to get the contract to build the Hummer for the US Military, however, **** they had no previous similar vehicle experience, which was not going to look good for the US Military / government. So **** purchased the Cheetah project from **** so that they could show and tell the government that they had experience."
What I would give to have been the left front fender back in the day... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Come on guys, no more of this please. I don't know the backstory b/w you two but this kind-of crap has derailed more than a couple threads. Respectfully, Steve
Google's browser Chrome helps tremendously b/c of the built-in spellcheck, but not with words like Pinin. I think we need a separate "Roy" and "Joe" sub-forums with each banned from the other's.
So.... you found the car... you are in the process of purchasing it .... and you plan to restore it back to original glory... : )
Already have it in my poissesion now, paid for it....and will get it back to as it was...but it really wont need much, pretty much as it was in 1977 already.
Very cool, Roy! Great find. Thanks for sharing the back story. It's amazing how these stories of these cars grow over the years.
Chrysler 300 V8, 3 speed automatic tranny, we have already Confirmed the motor number, the tranny number as well as the Carb number and the transfer case number with the orginal Documents from the orginal build provider
Here it is...beach patrol http://www.ebay.com/itm/LAMBORGHINI-CHEETAH-BEACH-PATROL-1-24-MODEL-KIT-OTAKI-JAPAN-/370561186870?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item56472afc36
Well Roy, all I can say is congrats for digging up another piece of Lamborghini's history, and a very important one at that. I'm going to post most of these on my Motor Shows thread as well, but I thought they would be appreciated here too. Anyway, these images are almost all from the Geneva Motor Show of 1977. The first two are from CAR May 1977, the next one in colour is from Auto Motor und Sport, March 1977, the next one is from Modern Motor, June 1977, the next is from Road & Track July 1977 and the large colour and B&W combo is from (I think) Le Automobile April 1977. The final shot is from Classic & Sportscar March 1988 and shows, (not very well I'm afraid), a brochure that was apparently produced in Arabic only. Reports at the time suggested that the Arabs had placed an order for 200 Cheetahs, there were hopes the Americans would eventually order 20,000(!) and that the possible total production could run as high as 60,000 units per year. Eventually the LM Series as it became panned out at a handful of prototypes and 301 LM 002 / LM Americans, ah the stuff of dreams!!! PS Roy, I also have a Cheetah model in fire truck form which I'm looking to off load. PM me if you are interested as it would be better off going to a good home. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login