US car to win the 24h of Le Mans?

Remember our Ford GT Heritage article from last week, where we mentioned the 2006 edition to be a celebration livery of the classic Ford GT40 that managed to win the grueling 24 of Le Mans race not once, but four times in a row between 1966 and 1969 … unfortunately that would mark the last time a car made in the USA won the French endurance race.

But all that might be changing for the 2021 edition of the 24h of Le Mans, Glickenhaus Racing already has a car on the test track, called the SCG 007 LMH, and they intend to enter two of these new generation hypercars into the most famous endurance race in Europe … and things get even better, Glickenhaus also has at least one customer put in an order for an SCG 007 LMH too, so we might be seeing three or more of these cars battle it out on the Circuit de la Sarthe in June this year.

The SCG 007 LMH is powered by a 3.5-Liter, twin-turbo V8 engine, and what is really amazing is the fact they only started this new engine for the first time in early February, and only a few weeks later it’s fitted onto the first SCG 007 chassis, and driven on the famous Vallelunga track in Italy for initial testing and fine-tuning.

Both Romain Dumas and Franck Mailleux took stints on the Vallelunga track to prepare the new SCG 007 LMH to be entered into the 2021 FIA Endurance Championship, but it seems they will have to pass on the first race of the season on April 4: the 8 Hours of Portimao in Portugal. According to Dailysportscar, Glickenhaus will probably not be able to get the SCG 007 LMH homologated in time for Portugal as they can’t get the required 30-hour test-run done before April 4, and this is a final requirement for homologation to compete, and the worst part in this is … it isn’t even due to the cars not being ready, but due to the current regulation because of COVID-19, it is impossible to get the required parties together in time.

But Jim Glickenhaus made it abundantly clear when he stated: “there will be two SCG 007 LMH cars at the start of the 24h of Le Mans on June 12, no question about that”

The first chassis that performed the initial shake-down testing in Vallelunga after Podium Advanced Technologies developed and assembled the car at its facility in Italy will undergo further high-speed testing on the Monza track over the next days, and the second SCG 007 LMH is already being built at this time, Glickenhaus intends to have their second car ready for testing at Vallelunga by mid-March.

If all goes well we’ll be seeing at least two cars entered by Glickenhaus Racing, and possibly a third one from a private party, into the 2021 edition of the 24h of Le Mans, where these SCG 007 LMH will compete against the new hybrid LMH from Toyota, the V8 powered A480 from Alpine … it won’t be until 2023 before Ferrari joins the LMH ranks with their entry.

And the best is yet to come … as part of the homologation process, Glickenhaus will have to build a street-going version of this SCG 007 too, and rumor has it, the SCG 007 Stradale, with a similar powertrain to the racecar, will be available soon too, listed at a $2,100,000 base price … I for one can’t wait to see one of those drive up at a local Cars and Coffee event.