F7F DUH, I had a mental block on the multiple of 2 with Grumman.

And yes, Lefty Gardner was the guy I was trying to think of.
Wildcat seems like a poor choice for a race plane, IIRC the Zero could outrun it in level flight.
I believe there was a company in Waco Texas that was going to build full size reproductions of the FW190 and the Me 262.
A quick google did not turn up anything though.