Glickenhaus Has A Plan For A Third Hypercar At Le Mans But The Car Doesn't Exist Yet
Image: Willy Chanteloup via Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus
The Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus appears to be up to their eyeballs in work these days. The tiny boutique manufacturer is still developing its Le Mans Hypercar 007, as well as the road-going version, the GT3-legal 004 in street, clubsport, and competition versions, the off-road racing ‘Boot’ in two-door, four-door, and hydrogen-powered variants, and the 008, which is a Boot with an 004 body stuck on top. That’s somehow three different race cars in three different disciplines, plus six different street-homologated variants. No other sports car company is dumb enough to even try that.
So when the tiny little shop from Sleepy Hollow, New York says it is going to whip up a third LMH to race at Le Mans in three months, you can certainly color me a skeptic. According to team founder Jim Glickenhaus, he’s been in contact with an existing sportscar team interested in running an additional 007 Hypercar on June 11th in France, bringing the total to three against just two Toyotas and one old-school Alpine.
As it happened, when the entry list was re-opened for Le Mans on Monday following the withdrawal of Russian-backed G-Drive Racing, Jim tweeted that he’d be interested in running a third entry (below).
Glickenhaus later told Motorsport.com about what transpired afterward. “They are people I know and they contacted me after we did that tweet,” said Glickenhaus. “I’m not saying that we have a deal, though it is agreed in principle, or even if the ACO will accept another car from us, but we are working hard on this. I think we have a chance of putting it together.
Glickenhaus and the unnamed team have until 3pm Central European Time on Wednesday to complete their entry procedure in order to even hope the entry is accepted. Then the real work begins.
“We don’t have three cars at the moment, but we can make it happen it by working 24/7 for three months,” Jim admitted.
Glickenhaus already contracts with Joest Racing to run the race operations, so it’s not exactly beyond their purview to field three cars at Le Mans. That said, it’s a monumental task to slam together a technologically advanced car like a Le Mans Hypercar in the space of three months and hope to have it ready to race. Especially considering Glickenhaus is supposed to be running the full WEC season this year, which means the 1000 Miles of Sebring and the 6 Hours of Spa between now and June. Admittedly, those races will only be run with a single 007, so the rest of the team could be focused on prepping the second and building the third for the big race in June.
Is it possible? Who knows, but I honestly hope it happens, because without the debut of the Peugeot Hypercar this year at Le Mans, the top class is going to need all the help it can get.
