There are plenty of stories out there of devoted auto enthusiasts who take some beat-up daily driver and turn it into a competitive racer. Hell, there is a whole racing series, the 24 Hours of Lemons, devoted to this concept. It takes a lot of work to convert a production car into a race car, often rendering them illegal for operation on public roads.

Carscoop reports that a German company called Zakspeed has taken the opposite approach, converting their Viper GTS-R race car into a street legal driver.

Why? Well, why not? The 1998 Viper GTS-R spent much of its life on the racing circuit before being acquired by Zakspeed, which turned to Heurich Classics to convert it from racing duty to commuter status. But that wasn’t all; the new owner wanted the Viper to look just like the Hasseroder Viper that won the 24 Hours of Nurburgring in 1999.

It was a tall order, but Heurich Classics was up to the task. Among the many modifications they had to make was the installation of a new brake system (including adding a handbrake), eliminating the rear diffuser,adding a passenger’s seat, and re-wiring most of the car. But they were able to keep the 600-horsepower 6.2 liter V8 and six-speed transmission.

Furthermore, the road-going version of this racing Viper still only weighs around 2,800 pounds, about 500 pounds less than it weighed in normal street trim. It is, in many ways, a street legal race car.