This American-Made Supercar Could Make History With a Win at Le Mans
The Glickenhaus 007 could be the first Made in the USA car to win the hallowed race since Ford’s GT40 in 1969.
No American-made car has won first overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans since Ford’s legendary sweep from 1966 to 1969 with its iconic GT40s. Former film writer, director and Wall Street money manager Jim Glickenhaus has made no secret that he plans to change that, and the new Glickenhaus 007 from his Sleepy Hollow, New York-based Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus marque might just make it happen.
The FIA Endurance Commission, a joint venture by Le Mans governing bodies FIA and ACO, has announced that racing variants of road-legal hypercars will compete in the replacement of its top LMP1 prototype class starting in September 2020, opening the field to the likes of SCG. Glickenhaus, a world-class Ferrari collector before he got into the manufacturing game, is best known for commissioning the Ferrari P4/5, designed with Pininfarina and unveiled in 2006, one of the most beautiful customized Ferraris ever made. His next venture was the P4/5 Competizione, built in 2010, with no input from Ferrari but with plenty of fans among racing enthusiasts and the automotive press.
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Paying homage to the legendary Ferrari 330 P3/P4 endurance racers of the 1960s, the P4/5s partly paved the way for SCG’s first in-house car, the SCG 003C, launched at the 2015 Geneva International Motor Show, and followed by a street version, the SCG 003S. In 2017, the SCG 003C became the only privately-manufactured race car ever to score pole position at the famed 24h race at Nürburgring, which runs a close second to Le Mans in endurance racing circles. Likewise the Glickenhaus 007 will start out as an LMPH racer to be followed by a limited run of street-legal beasts—which should be eligible to compete at Le Mans in the new hypercar class.
And Glickenhaus seems to be spoiling for a fight. He posted early photos of the Glickenhaus 007 LMPH to social media with the caption, “Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War.” Details on the car are scarce so far, but most notably it will have a traditional internal-combustion setup in the form of a a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6, bucking the hybrid trend, while its curves and red color scheme are firmly in the Italian endurance racer mold. Horsepower for the road-legal version has been tipped at around 750 hp, which, if it seems a bit low, might be limited by the new race rules. Testing is set to begin in this year, giving SCG about a year to get ready for Le Mans in 2021.
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Of course Glickenhaus is likely to face fierce competition from the likes of McLaren, Koenigsegg, Lamborghini and others with plenty of experience building street-legal hypercars that are poised to compete in the new Le Mans class. SCG’s endurance racing credentials will certainly be an advantage. But whether Glickenhaus ends up with a record-breaking win or not, we predict the limited-run Glickenhaus 007 will sell out quickly even with an expected $1 million-plus price tag.
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