When is a £24,000 Corvette not a Corvette? When it's a souped-up, 600-horsepower, 200-mph Callaway 'Vette. Let the senselessly risky road show begin.

The modern Chevrolet Corvette is an astoundingly capable sports car for the money. At £24,000, it has a 6.2-litre engine that produces 430 horsepower and 423 pound-feet of torque, and can launch the car from zero to 60 in 4.3 seconds. That's 0.3 seconds faster than a 355-hp Porsche 911...and for thousands less.

Still, there are pockets of enthusiast engineers who see the 'Vette as merely a platform to build upon, a work of art just a few parts short of a masterpiece. These guys tweak Corvettes to higher standards of performance, amping up engines and beefing up suspension and exhaust systems, creating rare, semi-custom and thoroughly unique bespoke sports cars. The Corvette is by no means the only vehicle to receive this sort of treatment; Ford Mustangs have been famously souped up by the likes of Carroll Shelby and Saleen. But it takes a special kind of audacity to tinker with a car that's already as capable as a Corvette.

Such is the chutzpah displayed by the most legendary Corvette modifier: Callaway Cars. When I was recently offered the chance to perform due diligence on a Callaway 'Vette, then, my strategy was obvious: I leveraged to the hilt, inviting ABN Amro emerging-market bond salesman Brennan Albano along for the ride.

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