Cheetah

The Cheetah is a two-door sports car that has appeared in Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. The Cheetah also appears to be made by Grotti as Grotti is based on Ferrari and in GTA San Andreas, a Cheetah can be found parked in the Grotti dealership.

Description
In all its iterations the vehicle closely resembles a Ferrari Testarossa, with each game's version following the design of the corresponding era. For example, in Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, it looks like a slightly generic-ized F512 M, while in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, it resembles a mid-80s Testarossa, and in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a 512 TR Testarossa (but without the hidden headlamps) with the rear lights of a F512 M. The GTA Vice City (Stories) and GTA San Andreas renditions also feature variations of rear mirrors, either featuring two rear mirrors, one or none.

The Cheetah's acceleration and speed are slightly inferior to other sports cars in the game, but handling and braking are far superior to all others. Due to its low suspension, it hugs the road and is not prone to rolling over or spinning out of control when cornering at high speeds like the Infernus or Banshee. Looking at the shape of the car, its clear to see that it is mid-engined, however when the hood is removed, in Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the engine appears to be at the front, possibly due to programming limitations. This is in stark contrast to the design of the Testarossa in general, which has the engine placed behind the passenger compartment, just in front of the rear axle (mid-engine). However, in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the design is more faithful to the real-life counterpart, with the engine being evidently placed at the rear of the chassis, while the front is empty.

The engine of the Cheetah sounds and looks like a V10. Sometimes it has both side rear-view mirrors and on others it only has the one on the driver's side.

Anachronism in GTA Vice City Stories
In GTA Vice City Stories, which is set in 1984, the Cheetah was based from the first generation Ferrari Testarossa, which started selling in 1984. The first "red head" didn't sell enough until late 1985. For the sake of having no irregularities about the comparison of the two cars, Rockstar Games made the Cheetah scarce in Vice City Stories, spawning only in parking lots.

Locations
GTA III
 * Cartel Mansion in Cedar Grove, Shoreside Vale, Liberty City.
 * In the parking lot of the Francis International Airport near the entrance and across the fire station.

GTA Vice City
 * Parking area near Colonel Cortez's yacht in Ocean Beach.
 * Outside hotel near The Well Stacked Pizza Co. store in Downtown.
 * North of Ricardo Diaz's Mansion, Starfish Island.

GTA San Andreas
 * Spawns in Rodeo, Los Santos.
 * Spawns in The Strip, Las Venturas.
 * Spawns in Old Venturas Strip, Las Venturas.
 * Found parked in front of a house in Prickle Pine, Las Venturas (only when wanted for export)
 * Importable from Easter Basin, San Fierro after completing export lists. Import cost: $84,000 (Monday only)

GTA Liberty City Stories
 * In the Francis International Airport parking lot across the fire station.

GTA Vice City Stories
 * Northernmost road on Starfish Island.
 * Diaz's Mansion on Starfish Island.
 * In front of Lance's hotel in Downtown.
 * In the parking lot behind the hospital in Downtown.

Variants

 * VCPD Cheetah : The police version of the normal Cheetah.

Gallery
Cheetah