SCG’s Jim Glickenhaus: “We want to win Le Mans”
As Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus’ beautiful and brutal 003C enters its final year of SPX endurance competition in 2019, the boutique automaker shared its plans for several of its future models, including its new flagship and the off-road-ready Boot. On top of that, Jim Glickenhaus says his goal is to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“A car made in America hasn’t won first overall at Le Mans since the Ford Mk IV in 1967. We think it’s time an American team wins again,” Glickenhaus said in a press release.
SCG will enter the FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar class for 2020–21 season by producing “no more than” 30 copies of its road-legal 007 hypercar. Built with the engineering lessons learned from the team’s eight seasons of endurance racing, the 007 will offer 1000 horsepower by way of a 200-hp electric motor driving the front wheels and an 800-hp gasoline engine driving the rear. Price is $1.95M.
The 007 is the flagship model of the brand and looks to be a major evolution of the SCG 003, the company’s successful endurance racer that spawned road-legal versions, itself an evolution of the SCG 001, the brand’s aptly named first model. The 003S, the street-legal version, will continue production in 2019.
A sleek and curvaceous three-seater, the SCG 004, is in the prototype phase, readying for Nurburgring endurance competition beginning in 2020 in both GT3 and GT4 classes. Their final street and race car in development is the 006, a classically styled front-engine GT car in the vein of a Ferrari 275 GT or Shelby Daytona coupe. The 006 will be available in coupe, spider, and competition models.
The company also announced that its off-road scrambling SUV, the Boot, a modern take on the Vin Hickey-built Baja Boot raced by Steve McQueen and Bud Ekins, is being manufactured. The two-door models will be first, and customers can expect delivery in time for the 2019 Baja 1000 in November. Four-door models will follow.
Jim Glickenhaus tells us that the off-road and street versions of his creations will be powered by Chevrolet Performance V-8 crate engines and that they “have secured our official GM dealer relationship, and have put in a substantial order for 7 LT1, LT4, and LT5 engines as well as transmissions, etc., to be used in 004 and Boot prototypes and Founders 2019 Boots.”
The company has yet to break ground on its second factory in Danbury, Connecticut, but planning is underway. SCG hopes to be ready to start production there by mid-2020, an expansion which is expected to increase capacity by 750 cars per year.
