jmc14
Reader
9/15/19 9:50 a.m.
Hello Everyone, Most of you know about my build that I've been posting here for a few years. I finished the car to the point of being able to drive it in early June. It took 3 months to go through the NY registration process. Pretty frustrating. But, the reality was that I had a foot injury this summer and was in a cast for most of it. I couldn't have driven the car while it was on.
Last week was the first drive. I put about 100 miles on it. I'm in the Adirondack Mountains of Up State NY. Pretty driving.
Everything worked as it should. No problems The car drives really well. Unfortunately I'm away for my business until Oct 1st. I can't wait to drive it more this fall.
The body is not finished. In fact I'm going to be replacing it with one that is in Red Gel Coat this fall.
Robbie
UltimaDork
9/15/19 9:51 a.m.
I'm honored to be the lucky guy to be the first to +1 your post.
759NRNG
UltraDork
9/15/19 1:29 p.m.
Holy crap!!! wasn't paying attention to who the author is here and was expecting some latest small Buick suvthingy write-up...........THIS IS WAY BETTER by far.....Congrats!!!!!!.......Looks great in white
Don49
Dork
9/15/19 2:59 p.m.
It really looks great!! Congratulations on getting it on the road.
Ransom
UltimaDork
9/15/19 3:00 p.m.
Congratulations, that's awesome! Fantastic to see it out in the wild.
jmc14
Reader
9/15/19 3:53 p.m.
Thank you Robbie and all of you for the positive support. I love this forum.
The Wildcat uses C4 suspension in my dedicated space frame. The body is inspired by the 1963 Cheetah. It has a 93 inch wheel base and is 42 inches to the top of the windshield. With the iron head SBC it weighs 1840lbs. (with gas and fluids). It's 71 inches wide at the front tires and 74 inches at the rear. The body is 2 pieces. The front flips up for access and is removed by removing 2 pins.
My son is sitting in the car. He's 6'2". The seat can be moved a couple of inches lower.
I was trying some different stripe ideas with duct tape. I like this one.
1840# with an SBC. Good lord. That thing will pound on liter-bikes.
NOHOME
MegaDork
9/16/19 5:24 a.m.
That is awesome. So how doe it perform when you push it? Or is it early to start exploring the performance envelope?
Pete
That is not a car. That is ART.
Well done it is a beautiful piece of engineering. Glad you were able to get some drive time in it.
Awesome, I've been checking in on the build over the years and it turned out at least as great as I could've imagined! Now when can we expect videos of driving beyond the driveway?
Please come to Vermont and drive the App Gap. Only 15 minutes from me!!
jmc14
Reader
9/17/19 12:01 p.m.
In reply to vwcorvette :
Thanks for the invite! I had to look up what the Vermont APP Gap was. It ends up that I've driven it one time. It was years ago. My teenage son (at the time) was racing a Sprint Car at Bear Ridge Speedway. After the race we drove back to Elizabethtown through fog, during the middle of the night through the Gap. What a road! It will be fun to drive it in my Wildcat.
I love the face of the Cheetah. Nice work.
jmc14
Reader
9/18/19 8:31 a.m.
Thanks Keith. I love the face of the Cheetah too. I wanted something different than a Cobra. I'm happy how it turned out.
SkinnyG
UltraDork
9/18/19 9:54 a.m.
I absolutely LOVE Cheetahs.
Medchin
New Reader
9/18/19 10:05 a.m.
10/10 Planning, 11/10 execution.
Congrats on having a driving project; that's a huge milestone!