Wildcat (1998–2007)

The Wildcat replaced the Tomcat in 1998. The first version, the Wildcat 100, kept the Tomcat 100's body style on a new tubular chassis of 100-inch wheelbase; the Wildcat 200 of 2000 had a completely new spaceframe of 106 inches and glassfibre panels. Each steel frame took three weeks to weld. Suspension used Land Rover beam axles on radius arms with a Panhard rod at the front and trailing arms and a Watts linkage at the rear, and customers chose between 4.0, 4.6 and 5.0-litre Rover V8s — the TVR-tuned 5.0 was the preferred option — and 2.2 or 2.5-litre turbodiesels.

Wildcats were raced in the Dakar from 2000, and in the Baja de France, Baja Great Britain, the Scottish Hill Rally and the Rallye des Pharaons; by 2005 Bowler's factory Dakar team was second in size only to the works Mitsubishi team. The car was road-legal throughout. Bowler sold the manufacturing rights to QT Services in December 2007 to concentrate on the Nemesis; QT continued to build and develop it. HotCars puts Wildcat sales at 67, the most of any Bowler.