Caccia Custom Cars

Fortunes have been spent entering the auto business. Go ask Preston Tucker, Malcolm Bricklin, or John Z. DeLorean. All of them attempted to start an auto company from the ground-up and realized too late how much capital such an enterprise consumes. Sustaining engineering,
design, marketing, sales and manufacturing is another matter entirely, requiring much more liquid green. Caccia Custom Cars of Indianapolis has a different plan, built on years of experience.

“I have been interested in sports cars since I was a kid,” said founder James Hunt. “When I built my first car in the mid-60s, you really couldn’t buy something from the factory that you could drive hard without spending a lot of money. You had to soup up something yourself. So, I built a car with a fiber glass body designed to fit on an Austin Healey chassis, but instead built my own tubular frame and attached a drag race engine and suspension from an early ‘60s Corvette.”

Over the years, Hunt has been involved in other ventures. Working with Randy Berry, owner of Marauder Kit Cars, IL, he built a replica of a Lamborghini Countach. They used a plywood frame sculpted with Masonite and Bondo for the body panel molds. It had the wide look of the later Countaches, but with the wheel wells more blended into the body. Six copies were sold.

Hunt eventually became friends with Eldon Rasmussen, who not only competed in the 1975, 1977, and 1979 Indianapolis 500 races, but also fabricated his own “Rascar” chassis for the cars. Rasmussen continued to fabricate race parts here in Indianapolis for years and was inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame.

After retiring from IPL in 2001, Hunt wanted to build another car that became the Ghepardo. He and Rasmussen started with a 2002 Camaro body structure, but modified it to accept a mid-engine, 2002 Corvette suspension and “LS6” V8 engine. A Camaro was partly chosen because it offered a steeply-raked windshield. To fit the engine, they removed the Camaro’s rear seat and trunk while fabricating an engine compartment around the Corvette suspension sub-frame.

Scott Chenoweth, who attended the famed Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, was enlisted for styling. Ghepardo’s body is fabricated from fiberglass and is inspired by the Lamborghini Murciélago, but stands as its own design. New door and body skins were formed and attached to the original Camaro panels, giving the car an entirely different look without destroying the car’s structure.

“Our next steps are to get financing and refine the car,” continued Hunt. “We’ll make some changes to the exterior based on a recent viewing and are looking for investors. We would like to sell a short run of cars to individuals who would like to have some say in the final look of the vehicle.”

Hunt and Chenoweth would like to modify the Ghepardo’s front grille, move its passenger compartment forward 4-5”, and modify the wide rear fenders to give it a more balanced appearance. They also want to change the rear hatch, using components from the Nissan 370Z, to reduce visual bulk. Some may not like golden colors, but the “House of Kolor” paint mixture certainly gleams in the sunlight and will get attention at any valet stand.

Anybody wishing to purchase a Ghepardo will have close to $200,000, but that’s a bargain compared to building a very sophisticated car yourself. Hunt and his team would like to sell about 30 worldwide – reasonable ambitions for this type of project. For more information, or to commission a vehicle, contact James Hunt and his team at cacciacustomcars@aol.com.

By Casey Williams - MyCarData