Karmann Cheetah by Italdesign

Introduced at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show, I was first thrown off by this car's wheels, which are 4-bolt Mahle designs straight off of the Porsche 914.

Then, I was thrown off by the strange publicity photo that I used at the top of this article. Is she a prisoner? Did she just escape and is now waiting to peel off into the sunset, freeing her from a lifetime of imprisonment? I don't know. 

But I do know that the Karmann Cheetah by Italdesign’s wheels are a strong indicator of something I've learned over the years: if you can spot one Volkswagen Group part on a car, it's rarely the only Volkswagen Group part on the car.

With a wheelbase too short to be a Porsche 914, I hate to tell you this, but the Cheetah could be considered a Volkswagen Beetle-based smoothie.

Its big brother is the earlier Porsche Tapiro by Italdesign, a creased 914-based car with sporting aspirations. Giorgetto Giugiaro's follow-up to that car is this, an even lower-cost sports model that could be a downmarket companion for its larger, faster sibling.

Despite its looks, the Cheetah is more of a fat house cat. With a Beetle's bones and heart, the 1.6-litre flat 4-cylinder engine is quoted at just 50 horsepower. If reviewers were often left bored at the performance of the 914 and Fiat X1/9, a production Cheetah would have been smack-dab at the bottom of performance car lap times for years to come.