Zoom-Out Puzzle #5 - Cheetah Cartransporter / Moon Transport

[spider]

1961 Cheetah Cartransporter

[Otto Puzzell]

That's it!

Inspired by the Uhlenhaut Mercedes transporter, Norman Holtkamp and designer Dave Deal set out to build one of their own. Using a Mercedes* 300 sedan chassis, they added a Chevy V8 and the cab from a 1959 Chevy El Camino cab and Corvair headlights. This one was completed in 1961, and series production was proposed, but never happened.

Later, this truck was bought by Dean Moon, who added a Moon Eyes logo. It was often referred to as the Moon Transporter after that.

* Mercedes in the late 50's and early '60's, was distributed in the US by Studebaker-Packard corporation, hence my earlier reference to a 'remote Studebaker connection'

Here's a pic of the whole vehicle (which was retouched years ago, probably for inclusion in a print article):

[Allemano]

Great puzzle, nice read!

[sixtee5cuda]

This vehicle was featured on the cover of the December 1961 Car and Driver magazine.  I just found the magazine while cleaning up in my garage.

The Cheetah was also the subject of puzzle M#8 by Metalshapes in April of 2009.

[Otto Puzzell]

As this was a quite different kind of puzzle, I won't be merging them.