At long last, I present the 6th and final car from the Winter Road Trip treasure hunt! I had to think long and hard about this before adding this almost pristine Aurora original to the numbered racing fleet and mounting it on an Ultra G chassis. How things do change! 2 years ago I wouldn’t have given it a second thought, but I’m collecting original T-Jets now (kinda), and although the Mangusta in red is not rare, it is a very popular car and always brings a premium price.
In addition to the fears about damaging it doing competitive racing on the track, there was another consideration: the structure of the Mangusta body is odd in having a very short front screw post-too short, in my opinion, as it gives the car a “raked” look even sitting on a stock chassis which is inappropriate in comparison to the real car. In order to mount an Ultra G chassis on this body and provide enough clearance for the front wheels, it is necessary to extend the front screw post a bit. I was able to do this-slowly and carefully-using a very short piece of styrene tubing as I’ve done with the other 2 Mangustas in the racing fleet. While its true that this post extension can be removed later if I choose to do so, it won’t come off easily, so there was definitely some sacrifice involved in putting this car in the racing fleet.
Fortunately, the lengthened front screw post was the only modification needed; I used Vincent low profile tires on Vincent wheels because I was determined not to shave a single ounce of plastic out of this body, and especially not on the fender wells or anywhere else a modification might show. Had I been unable to get the chassis to fit with these restrictions, I would have given up and left the car stock as a member of The Road Crew. But, I need some more sports cars to get 3 groups of 32 cars, and since I’m still a few cars away from that goal, there was a place for this one to race!
I also needed a racing number and thanks to a previously purchased decal sheet I bought for my “Pantera Party” from the now sadly defunct Road Race Replicas, I had decals for a number I’d never used, making this only the second 3-digit racing number in the fleet. As for those Vincent wheels, I used a style that I have largely avoided on other cars: the all-chrome “Alpina.” I’ve removed these from the few cars I’ve tried them on over the years, but I specifically wanted them for this car because I think they look really good on it, having a sort of early ‘70’s flair to them that matches the era of the real car. Of course I needed something to dress up the long blank front end, and another decal from that same set was perfect: the addition of the Italian flag doubling as racing stripes graces the long sloping nose.
The Vincent tires are inferior in quality to the Road Race Replica silicones, but, oh well; I’ve only got a couple of sets of those left and I now have to treat them like gold nuggets since I’ve fitted them to a great many of my racing cars and I will need them as replacements when others wear out (how I’ll replace worn tires when those are gone I have no idea, but I can’t lose sleep worrying about these “first world problems”). The Vincents will suffice, I picked the best set I could find from my stash, and a track test indicated the car is going to perform very well! Sitting on a brand new chassis that was removed from the package and set up just for this car, it took off like a rocket from the starting line and hugged the curves more than well enough to be competitive!
Due to the stormy day on which I built this car I had toyed with the idea of naming her “Pineapple Express” but that just sounded a little too “Third World” for an Italian exotic; thus, owner/operator, Israeli-born Simon “Cyclone” Cygan, heads to the 1986 season qualifying rounds with “VALKYRIE,” a 1968 NA-spec 302-powered beauty which he restored for club racing, removing the unnecessary features like air conditioning and power windows and fitting it with custom made seats with shoulder harnesses in an attempt to alleviate the notoriously bad driving position. The Mangusta has a reputation for being a difficult car to handle, but the film producer turned racing driver seems unfazed, and turned in some good times racing against the clock, enough to ensure inclusion in the upcoming sports car racing season. Italian style with Detroit motor-vation is a compelling combination, and soon this eye-catching low slung beauty will be able to show the crowd what she can do!
That extension method was a master stroke and a great idea to make this work and look more like the real deal as well as performance! Another very cool model with great wheels. The Italian colors on the hood was a nice touch!