Grotti Cheetah in GTA 6: the Testarossa returns to Vice City

No car is more tied to a Miami-styled setting than the Ferrari Testarossa, and GTA has had its own version since the beginning. The Grotti Cheetah 95 is confirmed for GTA 6 from the first trailer, and Charlie INTEL listed a Grotti Cheetah among the vehicles spotted in that footage¹²³. The 95 suffix marks it as the period-correct classic rather than a modern Cheetah, the same distinction GTA Online drew between the Cheetah and the Cheetah Classic².

Real-world inspiration

GTABase reads the Cheetah 95 as a Ferrari Testarossa with 512 BB elements, which is the same recipe Rockstar has used for the Cheetah since the PS2 games². The strakes down the flanks and the wide rear track are the details that make it unmistakable even in a short trailer shot².

Series history

The Cheetah has appeared in GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas, Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories and GTA Online, making it one of the longest-running supercar nameplates in the franchise². Grotti is the Ferrari analogue, and the badge also covers the Turismo, the Carbonizzare and the Furia, at least two of which community lists place in the GTA 6 trailers³⁴.

The Ultimate Edition wrinkle

Community trackers list the Cheetah 95 as tied to the game's Ultimate Edition rather than being generally available at launch². Treat that carefully. Rockstar has published edition contents, but the mapping of specific car names to specific editions is community reconstruction, and the car names themselves are not officially published²⁴.

What we do not know

• Whether the Cheetah 95 is edition-exclusive, time-limited, or normally purchasable²
• Price, stats and handling. Rockstar has published nothing²
• Whether a modern Cheetah also appears alongside the classic⁴
• Which Grotti models make the final roster⁴

Where it appears, scene by scene

GTA Wiki narrows down the Trailer 1 sighting considerably: the rear of a white 1995 Cheetah is visible parked on Shore Drive in Vice Beach at the 0:33 mark, wearing a green Leonida license plate reading "CH33TAH"⁵. Separate official screenshots tied to the Ultimate Edition show a customized version of the same car in white with a red retro-futuristic livery, which GTA Wiki treats as edition-exclusive bonus content rather than the standard paint options available to every player⁵. No outlet covering the August 27, 2026 Extended Look flagged a Cheetah sighting in that footage, including a detailed Jalopnik scene breakdown that named dozens of other cars, so as of now the car's only confirmed appearance remains the single Trailer 1 shot⁹.

The real car behind it

The Cheetah 95's primary reference, the Ferrari Testarossa, launched in 1984 as a replacement for the problematic Berlinetta Boxer, styled by Leonardo Fioravanti's team under the internal code F110⁷. Its signature side strakes, autoevolution explains, exist because regulations in several markets banned large open-body vents, so Pininfarina's designers turned the cooling intakes into the "cheese grater" slats that became the car's defining visual trait while also helping it reach a drag coefficient of 0.36, notably better than its rival, the Lamborghini Countach⁷. Ferrari built fewer than 10,000 Testarossas across the model's 1984 to 1996 run, powered throughout by a naturally aspirated 4.9-liter flat-12 with dry-sump lubrication, and the car's Miami Vice television exposure turned it into one of the most recognizable Ferraris of the decade⁷. GTA Wiki's more granular design read adds several other donors on top of the Testarossa silhouette: a front splitter grille from the Ferrari 328, bumper lighting from the BMW M1, pop-up headlights shared with both the Alpine A610 and the first-generation Honda NSX, triple round tail lights from the Ferrari 365 GT4 BB, and an engine cover echoing the 512S Berlinetta Speciale⁵.

Brand history in the GTA series

Grotti has stood in for Ferrari since the HD Universe began, and its logo has changed with the times: GTA Wiki traces a sitting horse in GTA IV, a tilted Maltese cross in GTA V, and a leaping hare visible on the Cheetah's rear badge in the GTA 6 trailer, which mirrors a badge Grotti actually used back in the 3D Universe games⁶. Most of the brand's lineup maps onto real Ferraris, though GTA Wiki notes two exceptions worth knowing: the Brioso city cars are Fiat-based rather than Ferrari-based, and the Visione hypercar borrows more from McLaren than from anything in Maranello⁶. Alongside the Cheetah, Grotti's other long-running names, the Turismo and the Jetmax boat, round out a catalogue that has appeared in some form in essentially every 3D and HD Universe GTA game⁶.

What earlier GTA games did with this model

A Testarossa-styled Cheetah is not a new idea for the series. GTA Wiki's older-universe design notes describe a "genericized" Testarossa F512 M look in GTA III and Liberty City Stories, a mid-1980s Testarossa reading in Vice City and Vice City Stories, and a Ferrari 512 TR-influenced version in San Andreas, meaning some form of this exact car has been in the franchise continuously since 2001⁸. San Andreas even used the Cheetah as one of the target vehicles in its Import/Export side missions, with a completed delivery paying out $105,000 in that game's economy⁸. That two-decade run makes the Cheetah 95 less a new addition than the latest coat of paint on one of the series' oldest running jokes about wanting a Ferrari without calling it one⁸.

What we expect in GTA 6

GTABase's features guide confirms the Ultimate Edition bundles an exclusive collection of vehicles alongside weapons and apparel usable throughout the story, and explicitly lists the Grotti Cheetah among the vehicles shown in that edition's promotional screenshots, which lines up with community trackers' read that the car is tied to a special edition rather than sold to every player¹⁰. Whether that means the Cheetah 95 is completely unobtainable outside the Ultimate Edition, unlocks later for everyone through story progress, or becomes purchasable with in-game money after a delay has not been detailed anywhere in Rockstar's own material, so treat any specific claim about its unlock path as unconfirmed¹⁰.

Community theories

The biggest open question is simply whether a second, non-classic Cheetah exists alongside the '95 for players who want a modern Ferrari analogue rather than a retro one, since GTA Online has offered both a modern Cheetah and the Cheetah Classic side by side for years². A smaller debate concerns the badge change GTA Wiki flagged, the leaping hare replacing GTA V's Maltese cross: some trackers read it as confirmation the whole Grotti catalogue is getting a visual refresh for GTA 6, while others see it as specific to this one throwback model rather than a brand-wide change⁶.