Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus can never be accused of lacking ambition. It was the first manufacturer to commit to the 2020/21 FIA World Endurance Championship and its new LMP1 ‘hypercar’ regulations. And with it, Glickenhaus aims that in 2021 it will be responsible for the first American car to win the Le Mans 24 hour race overall since the Ford GT40 in 1969.
Glickenhaus has just given us a first look at the car it aims to do it with: the SCG 007 hypercar, with computer-generated images released online. It looks well in keeping with Glickenhaus’s usual way of doing things, as it’s an elegant retro-inspired design with homage to other major marques. A few have noticed Ferrari and Alfa Romeo influences—it may not be a coincidence that the car’s livery is red!—as well as from classic 1960s endurance machines.
It will be powered by a 3-Liter twin-turbo V6 and Glickenhaus has confirmed to Petrolicious that this will be a non-hybrid engine. WEC’s new rules allow for hybrid and non-hybrid units with a Balance of Performance system intended to keep them closely matched.
“We always study the rules carefully. There are always trade-offs,” Glickenhaus managing director Jesse Glickenhaus told Petrolicious. “At first, we determined the advantages of the hybrid outweighed the advantages of the non-hybrid. However, after further analysis, we are deciding on a strategy of non-hybrid.” There’s no official word yet though on who will be Glickenhaus’s engine supplier.
“For the hypercar, we have several exciting announcements that will be coming out over the next few months,” Jesse Glickenhaus said to Petrolicious. “We have been speaking with some of the top drivers, engineers, and project managers in the world of motorsports, as well as some top suppliers for certain components. Our goal for the hypercar is to be testing a car in July 2020.”
As well as racing with factory cars, Glickenhaus also intends to sell customer cars to other racing teams. It has said in recent months that it plans also to build up to 30 road-legal versions of the hypercar—which is intended to have the same horsepower and look virtually identical—offered at $1,955,000 each with profits going to fund the racing program.
Aston Martin with two works non-hybrid Valkyrie hypercars and Toyota with its hybrid-powered prototype based on the GR Super Sport have since followed Glickenhaus’s lead and confirmed their participation in WEC’s new hypercar era from 2020, and various other manufacturers are being linked. And Le Mans is not the only 24-hour race Glickenhaus is taking on as it is also building the 004S/CS/C and will be racing the 24 Hours of Nurburgring with a factory 004 in 2020.
As usual, Glickenhaus isn’t lacking for activity more generally, as it is also right now testing its SCG Boot off-roader SUV. This is a modern high-performance homage to the famous 1960s Baja Boot that was piloted by Steve McQueen. This November Glickenhaus will drive the race version from the factory to the Baja, race the revered Baja 1000, the longest continuous off-road race in the world, and then drive home. There also is to be a road-legal two-door Boot available.
“The Boot testing is going very well,” Jesse Glickenhaus added. “We are testing in extreme environments and learning things that need fine tuning. We are heading back out to California next week for two days of shock tuning for the Boot, and a few weeks after that we will be back testing the second Boot that will have the Baja trim and will be racing the Baja 1000 in November.”
Images courtesy of Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus and Shai Haray
