Glickenhaus will leave the FIA World Endurance Championship at the end of the current season and as a result, the outfit’s 007 LMH will no longer be racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans or other premier endurance races.
Privateer sportscar racing team Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus owned by Jim Glickenhaus announced last week that it will not compete in the 2024 World Endurance Championship after three seasons in the WEC.
The American performance automaker confirmed to Racetrackmasters last week that the change will allow it to resume its efforts on producing road cars, particularly the 004 supercar and Boot off-roader which was inspired by Steve McQueen’s Baja buggy.
A road-legal version of SCG’s successful 004C (for Competizione) endurance racing sportscar that was raced in the Nürburgring 24 Hours will evolve to be the 004 S (for Stradale). It’s likely that SCG will compete in the N24 again after the outfit withdrew from the endurance event in 2022 to focus on Le Mans and the WEC in 2023.
The custom twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-8 engine that powers Glickenhaus’ 007 LMH was created by France’s Pipo Moteurs.
Ryan Briscoe who is one of the team’s drivers will compete in the Hypercar class with a new LMH for the 2024 season with a new outfit, Vanwall, joining Jacques Villeneuve.
Glickenhaus was the first team to sign up for the Hypercar class in the World Endurance Championship, which had its inaugural season in 2021. The most recent generation of LMH race cars made their debut during that same year.
Toyota was the only other team at the time that had an LMH race car, the GR010 Hybrid. Alpine was also present, albeit with an A480 LMP1 race car that was grandfathered to race in the category.
Glickenhaus was attracted to make an entry in the endurance series by a €20million budget cap for development. Since then, costs have skyrocketed as more factory-backed teams from manufacturers like Porsche, Peugeot, Ferrari, Lamborghini, BMW, and others have entered the series.
Glickenhaus hasn’t had a lot of success in the sport, but it was poised to win for the first time at the Monza round in 2022 until a turbo on its 007 LMH failed in the middle of the race, ending any hopes of victory. It also managed to place third overall at the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans, the first podium for an American marque in decades and also achieved two pole positions.
The squad announced its exit from the series, citing greatly increased development costs as well as the need to focus on its road car project. Glickenhaus previously stated that the company will only begin production if it receives a minimum of 24 orders.
