A "Vanishing Point" redux could fly...If they stick to the Original Script....

Someone asked me the other day if I thought a "Vanishing Point" remake would be a good Idea. I said both yes and no. No because the original was so freakin' good. Barry Newman and Cleavon Little were awesome as Kowalski and "Super Soul". The action-choreagraphed by Carey Loftin-( stunt coordinator of "Bullitt"-the grandadday of all car-chase flicks ) still looks good today, and the soundtrack featuring music by Mountain, Jerry Reed, Kim Carnes, Rita Coolidge-( then in Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, before she met Kris Kristofferson ) Big Mama Thornton and more-would be almost impossible to improve on. Also because a 1997 attempt starring Viggo Mortenson was horrible. They totally changed the story-I've gone over this before-so I'll be brief for those who don't know-instead of trying to get from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours to win a bet with his drug dealer, they had Kowalski racing home to his pregnant wife who was dying from Lupus and childbirth. 1st off gag me with this cutesy supposedly heart-wrenching plot. Secondly, park the car and get on an airplane, stupid!! Thirdly, they implied that Kowalski somehow bailed out of the car at 100 mph before hitting the bulldozers and survived to raise his kid happily ever after. Again-Gag. Now if someone wanted to do it right all you'd have to do is stick to the basic storyline. Kowalski could be a Iraq or Afghanistan vet ( instead of Vietnam ) who busted out being a cop, dabbled in auto racing and now had a job as a delivery driver for a high-end car dealer. He could bet his drug dealer / buddy the tab for some weed or speed that he could make the trip in 15 hours. He could be driving a 707 hp Hellcat Challenger, or a 470 hp R/T. The race with the Jaguar would fly-you could use a 550 hp F-Type. "Super Soul" could still be a blind, black clairvoyant DJ running an outlaw station in the Nevada desert-who feels a real connection to Kowalski and genuinely wants him to make it. ( As long they don't cast freaking Kevin Hart!! Like Alan Arkin said in Grudge Match-he's short and annoying. ) His life could be shown in flashbacks like the original-including his wife dying in a surfing accident, him fighting the war, dealing with a corrupt partner as a cop, etc. And let's have the naked motorcycle rider that offers Kowalski a joint and a roll in the hay be actually naked-( like the original, not in a t-shirt and shorts and combat boots like they did in the awful remake. )  And forget CGI-do the finale the way Loftin did the original-tow a car with explosives under the hood behind the camera car with a quick-release cable and really smack it into the bulldozers at 80-plus. Kowalski dying in a blaze of glory was poetry. Leave it at that. No room for a sequel. If they do that-they might have a big hit on their hands. But if they sissify the story or try to leave room for a sequel it'll flop. With Hollywood you never know-they butchered "The Mechanic" a few years ago-and even though Arthur Bishop and Steve McKenna both died in the original-they made it look like Bishop survived and now their doing another one. Stop. Please. I personally like Jason Statham as an actor-but no one should have attempted to top Charles Bronson as a morally conflicted Hitman. Just like Jeff Bridges is a good actor-but shouldn't have tried to match John Wayne in the True Grit remake-which sucked-by the way.  We can hope for the best.  Mastermind