That would have been my suggestion, separating the object so you don't have to "mask" parts through extension. All good, then!
N°48 is supposed to be the Le Mans '69 car driven by Lalonde and Burton, which ended in a DNS. It is the first proper rendition of the GTR in competition, which started in 1969 (the car was designed and built from late 68). The livery is part of the car's package.
There was a previous car, a prototype made by Henrotte, based on the chassis of an Austin Healey Sprite, which he did race several times for what I understood, before handing the car company to Brian Sherwood. That previous car was dubbed the Piper GT, but has been regularly mistaken as "Piper GTR", probably because the Piper GT is also the name of the actual road car they made later on. Naming things doesn't look like their strongest feat, I guess.
Racingsportcars.com is probably mistaken by that naming problem. There is no reason the actual "Piper GTR" would have existed prior 1969, it wasn't even conceived on the drawing board. I have actually no idea what the "original Piper GT" looked like, there is close to no information of it.
Those info comes from the actual mechanics who made the car back in those days, I had a bit of a chat with some of them when modelling the car (for those who are still alive...), so I believe they are pretty legit.
Hopes that clears it out, a bit