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by Michael Satterfield
I try not to be one of those guys who just trashes other’s creativity and workmanship… but sometimes cars are just so terrible that it is required that I point this out to the general public. It’s kind of like the “People of Walmart”, you have to ask did they really say “yeah this looks good” before walking out of the house.
Take the Ghepardo, in my opinion after looking at it for some time it is the worst car shown at the 2009 SEMA show. Upon discovering this ghastly car I decided to decipher the name first. My first thought is that it was the combination of the words ghetto and retard with an ‘o’ on the end to sound Italian (Ghepardo), but it turns out it is actual Italian for Cheeta. You learn something new everyday.
So after a quick walk around it becomes apparent that this car is built out of the bones of a Camaro, a Corvette, and lots of chrome mesh. Sculpted from foam and Bondo in the Modena Valley of the Midwestern United States, Indianapolis. Instead of drawing on the inspiration of such storied local companies like Duesenberg or Auburn who really built the top cars of their day, it looks like they decided to flip through the Fiberfab catalog from 1982 for guidance.
The more I look at it, the more I find things that are wrong, from the gaping mouth to the bulbous backside, but upon opening the door I am met by an interior only a Bradley GT owner could love. The fit and finish of the “carbon fiber” and Alcantara is just below that of an entry-level 1990’s Hyundai. It looks as if the hole for the shifter as cut with a dull butter knife and the designer simply gave up and just started gluing material down.
If that the Ghepardo is your style get your order in now, you will be in an exclusive club. Personally I feel that Caccia Custom Cars the builder of the Ghepardo, should be put on some kind of Automotive Hate-Crime Watch List as this car comes close to taking away the title of worst SEMA show car ever from GAS for their Scythe Concept from SEMA 2008.
