James Glickenhaus, he of the semi-eponymous Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus (SCG), has made good on his idea to turn his fledgling supercar outfit into a legit automaker. He had floated the concept to C/D at the Geneva auto show in March. After that, he apparently made up his mind quite quickly: SCG filed the necessary paperwork for low-volume manufacturers with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in April. The company now says it has been granted low-volume-manufacturer status by NHTSA, which means it can now build up to 325 vehicles annually that needn’t fully conform to emissions and safety regulations.
Until now, SCG has dabbled in Nürburgring lap-record runs, taunting other supercar manufacturers, its own race car, and, most recently, getting its roadgoing 003S supercar into the hands of, well, a handful of customers. This NHTSA approval should help SCG sell those cars more easily—depending on whether or not those customers live in the United States—and enable the company to expand to a production cadence of four to six cars next year and eight to 10 in 2019. The cars are currently assembled in Sleepy Hollow, New York, but SCG says it is considering a new manufacturing facility that could produce up to 100 cars annually.
Initially, the automaker’s focus will be on selling the $2 million SCG 003S to U.S. customers. Although its name is more like an internet modem’s serial number, SCG’s 003S is a mid-engined exotic with a 750-hp-plus twin-turbocharged V-8, a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, a full carbon-fiber monocoque, and a pushrod-actuated suspension. Buyers can also look forward to the option of the harder-core 003CS as well as the track-only 003C.
The company is taking orders and planning its expansion, so if you’re in the market for an off-brand supercar, your time has come. We’re always intrigued to see a new proto-manufacturer hit the scene, but now that Glickenhaus has cleared this regulatory hurdle, may we suggest devoting some time to coming up with vehicle names that are more exciting and decipherable than those of modern Lincolns?
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