SCG’s new LMH racer barks to life
Your head might still be spinning trying to keep LMH and LMDh regulations straight, but if you’re a fan of endurance racing, welcome to a moment of zen. Glickenhaus has finally awoken its 007 hypercar, and the video, while visually a bit disappointing, whets our appetites for some wicked late-night battles at Circuit de la Sarthe.
Though most of the 007’s rivals will be hybrid-powered, the Glickenhaus entry will be internal-combustion-only. Why? Quite simply, Glickenhaus can hit maximum legal power output without a hybrid system—and, more importantly, have the capacity for four-figure horsepower on a street-legal homologation special. Judging by the intricate regulations surrounding the hybrid powertrain, as shared by Peugeot, the ICE-only solution is likely cheaper, too.
Though Glickenhaus could eventually battle it out at Le Mans with LMH and LMDh cars from Porsche, Audi, Toyota, ByKolles Racing, and Peugeot, it will run as part of the LMH class (along with Toyota). Why is that important? Only LMDh cars, and not LMH entrants, are allowed to run in IMSA. (We say “eventually” because different outfits have committed to the 2022 and 2023 Le Mans runnings.)
The two 007 Hypercars debuting at the WEC season opener—held April 2–4 at Portimão instead of Sebring—will each run a twin-turbo V-8 built by French racing shop Pipo Moteurs, an outfit that established its reputation building rally powerplants for Hyundai, Peugeot, and Subaru. For Glickenhaus, Pipo Moteurs machined out a custom block and, essentially, combined two four-cylinder heads with a flat-plane crank to create one screamer of a V-8.
Glickenhaus has some serious muscle behind its Le Mans effort. Joest Racing, which has won the 24-hour race 15 times—11 with Audi, 4 with Porsche—is now affiliated with the American team via a partnership with Podium Racing, which manages Scuderia Glickenhaus’ endurance-racing efforts over in a little German town called Nürburg.
Its driver lineup is no less impressive: Glickenhaus will assault the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship with Pipo Derani, Romain Dumas, Olivier Pla, Richard Westbrook, Frank Mailleux, Gustavo Menezes, and Ryan Briscoe. Between that group, you’ve got drivers with multiple overall Le Mans wins to their name; endurance-racing victories at Daytona, Sebring, and Road Atlanta; and experience in prototypes and GT cars.
While you wait, flick your way through the slideshow below and ogle Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus’ race shop—and that stripped-down beauty of a race car sitting in the middle of it.
