Car development and production is not restricted to major manufacturers in the 21st century. Some cars come from racing legends such as Emerson Fittipaldi, some might come from vacuum cleaner pioneers such as James Dyson, and still others from obsessive collectors such as James Glickenhaus. After playing a role in the creation of the Pininfarina P4/5, Glick turned a dream into reality by making his 003C racecar and its 003S road-going variant, transforming from a guy who owned a lot of cool cars into a boutique manufacturer of dedicated track machines. Now he’s focusing on the street side of things, complete with federal certification as a low-volume manufacturer. Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus (SCG) recently announced its 004S road car, complete with three-place seating that puts the driver in the center.
As a low-volume maker, SCG has permission from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to build up to 325 cars that comply with a less stringent set of safety and emissions laws than those that major manufacturers are required to abide by. The plan is to build a running 004S prototype by the middle of 2018, and have 25 Founders Edition cars built and delivered through late 2018 and early 2019. The small-scale production facility is in New York, and SCG hopes to deliver 250 of the cars through 2021.
As has been mentioned dozens hundreds of times before, the McLaren F1 was one of the great driving cars of all time. Part of the reason its feel was so sublime was the seating position. The driver was not forced to one side or the other, because McLaren put the wheel, the pedals, and the throne smack dab in the center of the cockpit, relegating passengers to either side and slightly abaft of the pilot. This was partially to eliminate the pedal offsets but also to give the driver a truly special experience. McLaren itself is bringing this center-wheeled design back for its upcoming BP23 hypercar, but it won’t have the center-seat setup to itself if SCG’s plans come to fruition.
Claimed to weigh about 2600 pounds, the SCG 004S (S for Stradale, Italian for road) will have a carbon-fiber chassis and body housing a twin-turbocharged 5.0-liter V-8 amidships. SCG aims for it to produce 650 horsepower and 531 lb-ft of torque, with a redline at about 8200 RPM. That engine can be paired with either a standard six-speed do-it-yourself manual transmission (with gates!) or an optional automatic with paddle shifters. Olivier Thomas, who previously worked at McLaren on F1 cars (as well as the 12C and P1 road cars), is now stationed in Detroit as chief engineer on the 004S. So we’re thinking it could be pretty special to drive.
One goal here is to build a car that can be homologated to race at Le Mans as a production-based car. It would comply with the GTE/GTLM/GT3 classes for endurance racing, meaning it would compete at the Nürburgring, Daytona, and Sebring races, to name a few. In order to scale, SCG said it plans to build a dealer network with full sales and service staff beginning in 2019, though there is no word where the first dealers might be. With the Founders Edition cars already nearly sold out, SCG is taking pre-orders for the 004S with a $40,000 down payment, or one-tenth of the $400,000 starting price that would put your butt into that centered driving seat.
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