[DeTomaso] Great Mangusta TV coverage

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/7/11 7 42 38, MikeLDrew at aol.com writes:

And Mike - you are on task: Who's car is this?


> >>>I just wrote, "Just got a Youtube link from French Mangusta owner 
> (fanatic) Laurent
> Bouzelak,"
> 

I always wreck his last name.   It's actually Laurent Bouzoulouk.

This is an extraordinary Mangusta, by the way.   It was restored by Roland 
Jackel (he owned it for awhile but sold it because he said, "Mangustas are 
for 'oldies'!") and he did a top-notch job of it.   Laurent bought it and had 
a motor built for it by Roush Racing.   It was basically their 342R crate 
motor, but John Christian was working there at the time, and he personally 
'massaged' it a bit to deliver even greater performance.

I got to spend the better part of a day driving Laurent's Mangusta from the 
Nurburgring to Le Mans a few years back, and the experience was quite 
extraordinary.   It is a LOT faster than a normal Mangusta, and yet, unlike the 
other Mangustas I've driven, it didn't feel like it was constantly trying to 
kill me.   The chassis felt secure, buttoned-down, and, well, almost like a 
Pantera.   None of the twitchiness or nerveousness that I've encountered on 
some other examples.

Laurent uses the heck out of the car, running it at track days etc. and 
he's a real proponent of the Mangusta.   He built a beautiful website dedicated 
solely to his car, which is well worth a look too:

http://mangusta-ma1266.blogspot.com/2007/07/ma1266-history.html

Cheers!

Mike