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Woohoo Willy. I hadn't the same story about the lm002/ cheetah. I though that lamborghini made the lm002 for a military contract with a countach v12 engine.

P.S. if you want a military real car, I have a 1944 willys for sale with a nos engine etc. I worked on it and I love it.

Hey there,
Thanks for the offer, I have had my share of Jeeps but never a war vintage one, the closest was a 1947 CJ2A.

Since I have been home this evening I did some searching on the Cheetah prototype and found some interesting stuff
artofgears.com/...condition/
www.lambocars.c...eetah.html
www.ferrarichat...lives.html
So it seems a version of it did survive and is currently in Washington state. The stuff on lambocars.com is interesting. But the Ferrarichat thing is just nuts, its over 50 pages! mostly it seems to be 2 exoctic car dealers taking shots at each other over the fact one of them has this one and the other claims he passed on it first because they can't prove it is the prototype, no serial numbers or papers, etc. It seems another company made a few more after the first one and perhaps Lamborghini wasn't the driving force behind the design after all, a lot of sour grapes if you ask me and trying to inflate the selling price or knock it back down, makes me laugh people with more money than sense, it's all very interesting but basicly the XR311 was first, there was this other Cheetah mobile and then the Humvee. I also think if not for Tamiya making a model of it most of us would not even know what it was or is.....
It was far more information than I needed on the Cheetah but some good inspiration to work on mine.
This lot is pretty much what I have now. An almost new build chassis that I picked up years ago from someone who was clueless, The assembly shows a bit of that too. A NIB body kit I traded Robby for a long, long time ago and a box of assorted broken and otherwise parts. Jonny's builds do inspire me to do something with that broken body too, I also think there is an even worse body in the bottom of one of my bins too.....hmmmmmmm

Nice stuffs. And in a blazing blazer body box

I'm sitting here, enjoying the amazing amount of information on the real cheetah! Thanks for sharing this, oldwilly!

oldwilly wrote:

I also think if not for Tamiya making a model of it most of us would not even know what it was or is.....

When I was a kid back in the early 80's I was stunned by a fantastic die-cast car that one of my mates down the street had in his collection of Matchbox cars. It looked like nothing I have ever seen before, maybe a bit in the league of the Matchbox "Moon patrol". The quality of the model was even better than Matchbox (it was Japanese, so it's no surprise really). Back at home I pleaded my mother to get me one if I raised my grades, which I obviously did. It was the 1979 Tomica Lamborghini Cheetah. I knew about the Countach, and it was amazing for me to learn about an Off-roader from the same company. I loved the design, and the color! This is the model car I am talking about. Be prepared to spend a hundred bucks or a near sum if you want to grab a NIB one!

One nice example on eBay: www.ebay.com/it...SwurZZHcop

Detail and photos for the die-cast collector: yihj0750.blogsp...eetah.html

That's how I got to learn about the real car, a prototype if you prefer. It was only about 20 years ago that I got to learn that the same brand of my --beloved- RC truck did a 12th scale RC model of the Cheetah. It looked so far away back in time and out of reach for me. That explains most of my bliss regarding this model I just got in a trade. I'm obviously gutted it is not complete nor possible to bring back to original condition, but what the heck-I have many SRB cars and this incomplete model puts a big smile on my face!

I have been slowly learning about the Cheetah prototype. One of the exciting parts of the "could-have-beens" is the relation of this prototype and DeLorean:

DeLorean was a name associated with integrity and success, and everybody wanted to work with him and his company. Here is an interesting request letter from the wife of an engineer/designer who made an all-purpose vehicle named the Cheetah, made by Lamborghini. Check out the pamphlet that shows the prototype vehicle that was made and DeLorean's response to this project. It is interesting to note that 300 of these were built between 1982 and 1990, and they were very expensive ($130,000). Remember as well that DeLorean was working on his own multi-purpose utility vehicle designed by LMC (Logan Machine Company) at the same time as well.
Taken from: www.entermyworl...-documents If you haven't seen the documents, you're going to LOVE it! Check the scans and the lines over the Teledyne logos to stamp the brochure as MTI. Intriguing to say the least. Also, a copy of the John DeLorean letter!



A couple more interesting bits:

In the manual Tamiya mentions in 1977 that the Cheetah "MAY be used as a military vehicle".



And a couple of small pics of the restoration of the Cheetah found in Michigan:



You all have a good Wednesday!