Yahoo Autos 1981 Teledyne Continental Cheetah is the Humvee that could have been
Better known as the Humvee, the AM General M998 has been a symbol of the U.S. Army for nearly four decades. It wasn't the only prototype that government officials tested in the early 1980s, and a rare example of a competing High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) prototype built by Teledyne Continental is scheduled to cross the auction block in Kissimmee, Florida, in January 2023.
Teledyne, AM General, and others designed their proposals by following the same basic guidelines so the resemblance between the Cheetah and the M998 shouldn't come as a major surprise. Officials needed an off-roader with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of less than 7,200 pounds, a 2,500-pound payload, a top speed of over 60 mph, a diesel-burning engine, and the ability to accelerate to 30 mph from a stop in six to eight seconds, according to the Online Tank Museum. Companies hoping to secure the lucrative contract also needed to take length, width, and height limitations into account, and the prototypes had to offer a basic level of body armor to keep occupants safe.
