On the Racetrack or on the Street, the Mongoose Motorsports GTP Lives up to its Inspiration, the Corvette GTP

For the past 15 years, the designers and engineers at Mongoose Motorsports (http://www.mongoosems.com) have been fine-tuning their powerful Grand Sport Replica. Recently, this team unveiled their newest endeavor – the GTP replica. And is she ever hot. This GTP kit car is Mongoose Motorsports’ homage to the super-rare Corvette GTP race car (only seven were ever built), and its looks are spot-on perfect. In fact, I’ve read that Corvette GTP aficionados have to look closely – two or three times – to be sure that the Mongoose GTP isn’t actually one of the extremely scarce originals. Of course, the Mongoose GTP has something the original GTP race cars never had – air conditioning. But this sleek beast isn’t just for the racetrack. The folks at Mongoose Motorsports designed their GTP replica to be street legal, so it could even be your favorite daily drive. Pulling up to work in that would be enough to send co-workers into a frenzy of envy, don’t you think? Make no mistake, though, the Mongoose Motorsports GTP can and does certainly fit right in on any racetrack. Its aerodynamic, low-slung body makes it perfect for hugging tight curves and leaving its competition far behind in the dust. It’s just that it looks so incredibly good while doing it. In fact, at the recent 2007 Run N’ Gun event (http://www.runngun.net) held at the Gateway International Raceway in St. Louis, Missouri, both the GTP replica and the Grand Sport Replica blew the doors off of the competition. Mongoose Motorsports driver Aaron Quine brought home the “Top Dog” award while fellow Mongoose driver Jon Krolewicz scored several class wins of his own. The Mongoose GTP is available as a turnkey build with a Z06 427 505hp crate motor, Corvette suspension and transaxle and, as I mentioned earlier, it even comes with air conditioning. This beauty weighs in at a svelte 2,500 pounds, which is around 700 pounds lighter than the new Corvette Z06. I don’t know about you, but I could be seriously tempted to give up my next paycheck (or my left arm) for a chance to take this baby out for a nice, long spin.