Cheetah Classic

The Cheetah Classic is visible on a crowded Vice Beach street at 0:33 in Grand Theft Auto VI’s first trailer. This is the stated GTA VI sighting, placing the Grotti sports car in Vice City.

The trailer version differs substantially from the Grand Theft Auto Online model. Its proportions, rear-end treatment, standard wheels and door mirrors have been revised, while the cabin is described as newer and more detailed. It also carries a changed rear nameplate and a new Grotti emblem resembling the marque’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas-era badge.

The GTA Online Cheetah Classic primarily draws from the Ferrari Testarossa, with front-end cues from the Ferrari 328. Its bumper takes inspiration from the BMW M1, while its pop-up lamps resemble those of the Alpine A610.

Other elements combine several Ferrari references. The flanks resemble the Ferrari FZ93; the three-lamp rear arrangement recalls the Ferrari 365 GT4 BB; and the bumper and exhaust layout echo the Ferrari 288 GTO. Its door handles match Ferrari 348 handles. The engine-cover shape and vents are also linked to an unspecified real-world influence in the available material.

Before its GTA VI appearance, the Cheetah Classic entered Grand Theft Auto Online through the Gunrunning update and became available on July 11, 2017, during Cheetah Classic Week. It is made by Grotti and belongs to the Sports Classics class.

Legendary Motorsport listed it for $865,000. Rockstar Newswire copy described the car as having set trends and records since leaving the factory three decades earlier, implying that it had been among the quicker cars of the 1980s. That wording conflicts with the modern Cheetah’s stated 1970s manufacture, since it would make the Classic the later-built version.

The car is presented as the older Cheetah generation and was designed to evoke the compact, lightweight Cheetahs from the 3D Universe. It is not stated to have appeared as this specific Cheetah Classic model in those earlier games.

On the GTA Online version, the main paint covers the body and the secondary colour forms a broad stripe over the nose, bonnet and roof. An interior trim colour is separately selectable. Standard equipment includes distinctive six-spoke wheels with low-profile tyres.

The nose uses a narrow lower intake and small splitter, both edged in plastic, with a central plate position. A mesh grille and square fog lights sit within the bumper. The bonnet has a central Grotti badge, dual-square pop-up headlamps, a large metal-grille panel and a heat-exit vent behind it.

Its cockpit closely resembles the Turismo Classic’s, including white stitching around the instrument-console area and a GROTTI marking on the passenger side. The Cheetah Classic has a wider centre console, no visible glovebox seam, and fewer controls beside the gear lever. Customisation can make its bonnet resemble the original Ferrari Testarossa and the Cheetah more closely.

In Sports Classics competition, the Cheetah Classic is described as comparable with the Turismo Classic and as that car’s main rival. Both use V12 power, with the Cheetah Classic driving its rear wheels. Compared with the Infernus Classic, it has stronger traction and is less prone to spinning in corners; its braking is also described as effective. Its engine audio is a deeper variation on the Stinger and Stinger GT sound, with extra notes at high revs.

It can appear in Premium Deluxe Repo Work, in the Repo mission “Under the Hammer It” when more than two players are present, as an Auto Shop Service customer vehicle, and among the hundred possible Exotic Exports requested by Brucie Kibbutz. The bumper-mounted lamps do not function. Its standard bonnet grille also appears mechanically inconsistent: although positioned where radiator heat might leave, its form resembles an intake; the material suggests it may instead feed air conditioning.