[Houses]

Hi all, at the '17 Vic Fair I bought this couple of Cheetaracha bodies

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Yes, they aren't exactly mint, but taking in account that the tags on the bodies show their prices in euros, they may qualify in a contest for the cheapest cheetaracha body ever. Seriously, I thought that, for that prices, maybe there was a possibility of doing something decent with them. To me, the Cox Cheetaracha is the nicest looking (even if far from accurate) of all slot cheetahs and I always wanted to have one. Building some kind of special with one ot these, using whatever parts, was my initial idea.

The bodies sit in a box for one year: I was having a look on them from time to time, only to put them back in the box. Last winter I was lucky enough to get a wrecked standard Cheetah with almost all parts I needed (many thanks for it Pete!). It is shown here, with the parts, together with the cheetarachas

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Starting the job, I realized that the green body, besides being split in two pieces by two wrongly repaired cracks and having important parts missing, was too brittle to work with (I have seen a number of cracked dark green Cheetarachas, maybe its plastic is more brittle than other colors). So I decided to use its left front corner to easily repair the missing one on the red body. I located a correct driver and made repro headlight covers and a front spoiler from originals borrowed to a friend. Here are all the parts

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and, after cleaning, sanding, painting, mounting and decaling, here is the final result:

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IMG_3754 by Eduardo Casas-Alvero, en Flickr

As they came to me, the chromed parts were rather "unchromed parts" (see the pictures), so I was about to paint all of them in black and give the car a somewhat sinister look. Fortunately, after the advice of a friend, I tried a new (at least here) chrome marker (brand is Molotow) with excellent results. Now it's time to look for a decent chassis...

 

[dgersh]

Nice restoration Eduardo! Do you have the correct chassis, etc. for it? What kind of glue did you use on the body - is it regular plastic or Cuc type?

I just discovered Molotow last year, and even though it reminds me of Molotov cocktails every time I see it, it works very well!

Don

 

[munter]

Can someone define a Cheetahracha body....? is it vac formed to fit the Cuc chassis?

 

[Houses]

Nice restoration Eduardo! Do you have the correct chassis, etc. for it? What kind of glue did you use on the body - is it regular plastic or Cuc type?

Thanks Don. Haven't yet a chassis, should get one from a friend, but not sure. Body seems regular plastic type, not the Cuc type. It glues ok with solvent type glues (I used Humbrol liquid poly this time) provided the parts are trimmed to fit together with no gaps.

Can someone define a Cheetahracha body....?

A Cheetaracha body is a modified version of the standard Cheetah body that fits the Cucaracha chassis, still hard plastic. It's lower and has some simplifications to make it faster, or at least to look so (cardboard inner tray, no side exhausts...).

Eduardo

 

[dvd3500]

Thanks Don. Haven't yet a chassis, should get one from a friend, but not sure. Body seems regular plastic type, not the Cuc type. It glues ok with solvent type glues (I used Humbrol liquid poly this time) provided the parts are trimmed to fit together with no gaps.

A Cheetaracha body is a modified version of the standard Cheetah body that fits the Cucaracha chassis, still hard plastic. It's lower and has some simplifications to make it faster, or at least to look so (cardboard inner tray, no side exhausts...).

Eduardo

Stripes ALWAYS make you go faster..

 

[Houses]

Stripes ALWAYS make you go faster..

Will put some...after getting a chassis. Otherwise I'm affraid they will have little effect.

 

[dvd3500]

Will put some...after getting a chassis. Otherwise I'm affraid they will have little effect.

They have to go front to back. Side to side makes you slower.

 

[TSRF]

Can someone define a Cheetahracha body....? is it vac formed to fit the Cuc chassis?

Hello John,
in the last trimester of 1965, Cox issued a 1/24 scale slot car kit of the Cheetah, a contraption designed by ex GM engineer Bill Thomas and built by Don Edmunds, made of a weak tube frame in which was shoehorned a 327 CI Corvette engine. A rather wild but aerodynamically inefficient body made of fiberglass topped the car. The car did not do well even against standard Corvettes, and of course the all-conquering AC Cobra cars.
The Cox kit had a magnesium chassis, a Mabuchi FT36D (Cox TT-X250) and an injected body made of red plastic.

A RTR version followed, built in Hong Kong from Cox parts shipped from Santa Ana, California.

In 1966, the kit was re-issued in what is today a rare version called "Team Modified". Same body, new motor (Cox NASCAR 3500) and new magnesium chassis with adjustable gear ratio.

Comes 1967 and Cox issues 4 new kits using the same "Iso Fulcrum" ("IFC") chassis as that of the "Super Cucaracha", with a longer drop arm with a choice of two guide locations. One of the kits is that of the "Cheetah IFC", that receives a new body molding (still red only) with lower sides, a front spoiler/valance and with side holes to mount it with 4 self tapping screws on the chassis. This body was made of the top of the original mold with a new bottom that had all the modifications, saving on new tooling.

Below is a "Ferrari GT IFC" kit, same as the Cheetah IFC, just a different body:

Now for the "Cheetahracha": these were injection molded spare bodies in 6 different colors, sold separately on a large dealer card with a chrome tree, windows and the typical Cox driver fitted in their F1 and "La Cucaracha" models, molded in pink (flesh...) plastic. A portion of the decals in the original kit was supplied with the body kits. This body kit was to be customer assembled and mounted on one of these IFC chassis.
But they never were, as some unscrupulous or ignorant sellers represented theirs at online auctions, actual factory RTR cars, in the same manner as any "La Cucaracha" in any other color than orange are not "real", just body kits customer assembled to a chassis .

I hope that this will answer your question in full.

 

[Quickcars]

Old thread, but I rescued this body from the trash heap.

 

[mattbslotracer]

The PARTSBOX in Oz makes a great resin copy of the Cox Cheetah. Well worth the $50 or so US$ as a source for new parts. The plastic does seem brittle on the Cheetahs which were "regular" molded styrene, not poly like the Cuc's.
The gold color seems to be the worst of the bunch, but the body is just not strong and many have cracks or breaks, especially where the top meets the sides. Not sure how they raced, I've always found the Dinoracha was the best racer in the ISO kits. They do look good on the shelf, though. The gold car is a painted body and parts from the Partsbox on a mag chassis. The red car was a mag body somebody modified to fit the ISO chassis. I restored it best I could and put it on an ISO chassis. It is the darker red, not the red of the real Cheetaracha.

 

[SLOT MART]

Hi guys, while we are on the subject of Cox Cheetahs, I always wanted to do a version that was lower than the standard Cox car but higher that the Chetahracha. Oh yea and I wanted a full interior from the Cox static kit and the Iso chassis with no guide showing. No problem, right?
Fist pic of all 3 heights.
Let me know if interested and I will post more pics?
P.S. no mint bodies were harmed in this build.

 

[mattbslotracer]

That was a good project and you need to show it to the guys here.

 

[SLOT MART]

Thanks Matt,
The first mod was made by cutting the bottom 5mm off the side skirts, but not as much as they did for the Cheetahracha.
I wanted to retain the side pipes, so a added a fabricated area where those pipes would live.
I felt like the side pipes were such a key element to the Cheetah, they had to be there.
Next major mod was extending the roll under at the rear and making it narrower more like the real car.
Still wanting to keep the Iso chassis it had to be made narrower. It now snaps into grooves along the sides. So has to be spread a little to remove body.
Next up how to fit more of a full interior. As the Cox flat versions comes up a bit short
on detail IMO.

 

[Flathead]

Nice work Martin. Two points of note: remember that rear wheels move vertically in rear arches with the iso action, so you'll likely need to restrict movement with the arch/wheel tolerance you have. Also make your interior fairly rigid as it forms a structural member (along with a well glued windscreen) of the Cheetah body, that's why the card interior rachas often show up snapped through the doors.


Just seen that this build was finished back in March so my above comments are moot.

 

[SLOT MART]

All comments are good Lee for folk that have not seen this build.
Picking pics and describing the thought process is like reliving the build for me. If it ever did wheelie? I fit the extra material to the rear under body, to limit droop.
Seen here not yet trimmed to the black line.

so it actually limits the travel there before it touches the tire.

 

[dgersh]

That is nice.

A friend here was able to get a full interior in the standard Cheetah by using one of Cox's aftermarket chassis for the 16D motor (they do pop up occasionally on ebay).

I had never heard of those chassis until I saw a Lotus 40 in a vintage race some years ago, driven by Derek Cooper, and it was cornering much better than a standard Cox. When I asked what his secret was, he told me about the chassis...

Don

 

[Flathead]

Cox's aftermarket chassis for the 16D motor (they do pop up occasionally on ebay).
Don

Would that be the same as the standard Dino chassis Don?

 

[SLOT MART]

What a coincidence Don. I was going through my Cox mag chassis and found this one, "what does this go to" I said.
Yes a mag chassis made for a 16D.
Are those rare Don?
Hey Lee, just saw your post, no the Dino is different again(adjustable) like the 2d chassis but for a 16d.

 

[Flathead]

Well I'll be jiggered, I was totally unaware of that chassis, will have to have a rummage through my cox chassis stash.

 

[dgersh]

See above Lee - no, it doesn't have the long drop arm, nor an adjustable gear ratio, it's really just a 16D version of the standard mag chassis. I'll have to dig mine out, but it may be the same as the first chassis for the 1/24 Ford GT, which had a 16D, before Cox quickly realized it needed more power!

I wouldn't say rare Martin, but you can't find one any old time - and it's rarely labeled correctly.

Don