Cheetah

The Cheetah is a sport 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 may be considered to be manufactured by Grotti as Grotti is based on Ferrari.

Design
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 GTA III and GTA Liberty City Stories, it looks like a slightly generic-ized and modernized F512 M, while in GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories, it resembles a mid-80s Testarossa, and in GTA San Andreas, a 512 TR Testarossa (but without the hidden headlamps) with the rear lights of a F512 M. A hood scoop is also present on these renditions.

Looking at the shape of the car, its clear to see that it is mid-engined, however when the hood is removed, in GTA III and GTA 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 GTA 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.

During one point of game development of GTA III, the Cheetah was known as the Rocket.

Performance
The Cheetah's acceleration is slightly inferior to other sports cars in the game, but handling, speed 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. However, GTA III's Cheetah has stiffer suspensions than those of the Banshee, Stinger and Infernus, making its incapable of handling bumps, and curbs without compromising stability. From GTA 3 to Vice City Stories it was made the fastest car, but its top speed is bit lower in GTA San Andreas.

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, the developers of the game made the Cheetah scarce in Vice City Stories, spawning only in parking lots.

Variant

 * VCPD Cheetah : The police version of the normal Cheetah, meant to be a reference to the Ferrari Testarossa's appearance on the 1980s detective show Miami Vice.

Trivia



 * The GTA Vice City (Stories) and GTA San Andreas renditions feature variations of wing mirrors, either featuring two on both sides, one on the driver's side or none. Unusually, for some Cheetahs without rear mirrors in GTA Vice City, a blacked-out dashboard strobe light used by the &quot;police&quot; Cheetah may be seen.


 * When first entered in GTA San Andreas, it may play SF-UR as its default radio station.
 * If the player bought it on Easter Basin Docks, it may have a vanity plate reading "IMY AK".
 * The bus in Saint's Row, a GTA clone, is also named Cheetah.
 * The Cheetah shares a similar engine and horn sound with the Turismo in GTA San Andreas.
 * Among all other supercars and sports cars, the Cheetah owns the widest range of modifications in GTA San Andreas.
 * When respraying a Cheetah in Vice City Stories, the paintjobs will cycle through either of two sequences. The first one is dark blue -> dark gray -> dark red -> cherry red, and the other is green -> silver -> gold -> white. This means that you want a cherry-red Cheetah, don't bother respraying a white one. No matter how many times you respray it, it will never turn out to be red.

Special colors
In the GTA: Liberty City Stories race Wi-Cheetah Run, you race against three Cheetahs, two of which have special colors (brilliant red and sky blue), fireproofing and also tipproofing. They can be obtained using this trick: Start the race as usual, but remain in the starting line until the end of the race. Wait for the other racers to cross the finish line. Then blow it up using your car you can't touch these vehicles or the car lose their unique traits. Then push that car with firetruck or tank into your garage.

Locations
GTA III
 * Cartel Mansion in Cedar Grove, Shoreside Vale, Liberty City.
 * In the Francis International Airport parking lot across the fire station.
 * Can be seen during the mission Chaperone.
 * Used as a trap for Claude in the mission Last Requests.
 * Used as the opponents' cars during the missions Turismo and Bling-bling Scramble.

GTA Vice City
 * Parking area near Colonel Cortez's yacht in Ocean Beach.
 * North of Ricardo Diaz's Mansion, Starfish Island.
 * One of the competitors for Sunshine Autos's race.

GTA San Andreas
 * Spawns in Rodeo, Los Santos.
 * Spawns in Market, Los Santos
 * Spawns in The Strip, Las Venturas.
 * Spawns in Old Venturas Strip, Las Venturas.
 * Spawns sometimes in Doherty, and its surrounding areas.
 * 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 (Thursday only).

GTA Liberty City Stories
 * In the Francis International Airport parking lot across the fire station.
 * Cartel Mansion, Cedar Grove, Shoreside Vale (may not always spawn).

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.

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