James (almost universally known as Jim) Glickenhaus has developed quite a reputation. The New York based ex-film maker turned trader turned petrolheads world wide with a series of projects from his stunning original, one-off, 2005 Ferrari Enzo based P4/5 by Pininfarina through the subsequent 2011 P4/5 Competizione, based on Ferrari 430 Challenge (and GT2) underpinnings and later to feature a hybrid system too, and two-years-ago to the simply extraordinary pair of SCG (Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus) 003s that have raced in VLN, in the Mugello 12 Hours and in the Nurburgring 24 Hours.
He’s a one-off himself, a maverick of the sort beloved by real enthusiasts, but not for him the roped-off exclusivity of the concours set – given the choice he’d much rather be in a racing paddock, with his team around him, getting his extraordinary machines ready to race and happily chatting to the usual hordes of interested public and media.
As with anyone involved in delivering a racing programme he’s seen and heard more than his fair share of hype – and he’s not afraid to tell you what he thinks of it. So before we get on to talking about the present and the future of his cars, and his race programmes, he’s keen to unload on the state of the racing nation:
“The thing about motorsports is that it has changed so very much. There’s now so much content available to people that it’s very hard to slice the pie any more.
“It’s serious – look at the ratings for the last NASCAR race, and for Formula One too, they’re a disaster.
look at the ratings for the last NASCAR race, and for Formula One too, they’re a disaster
“Formula One is coasting on gigantic momentum but it could change completely if just a very small number of people decided not to spend 400 million Euros to do…what?
“The idea that some financial service or Wall Street firm is going to pay $100 million to have their name on a Formula One car is over, the television ratings are abysmal and the show is just terrible.
“If you look at smart people who advertise they ask only – “Are we reaching someone who is going to buy this product?”
“Take my wife as an example. She can, and has, responded to an ad in a fashion magazine for clothes that she likes, but the fact that the same ad appears on Facebook and is seen by 20,000, or even 20 million people means nothing if those people aren’t interested, motivated or capable of making a purchase. The obsession with big numbers is smoke and mirrors.”
And his views aren’t confined to the racing stratosphere either!
“When I first started racing, not as a driver but helping friends who had some cool cars, Can-Am Lolas etc, a normal human being could buy an older Corvette, get together ten friends, take it apart in his garage, go get new parts, rebuild the car, tape the headlights, go to Bridgehampton or to Lime Rock and go racing for the weekend. Everybody had a good time, you stayed in the Holiday Inn and nobody went bankrupt!
“Now we get to the stage where you see GT3 budgets running sky high – And beyond that are people going to be able to spend $3 million a year to buy a seat to race at Le Mans?”
So what about the SCG 003?
“As for our project (the SCG003), I’m lucky enough to have taken this this far. The worst that’s going to happen is that I, or more likely my kids, are going to end up with a pretty cool collection of cars, the GT40 that Bruce McLaren and Mark Donohue drove at Le Mans to 4th place, and the Ferrari that Lorenzo Bandini drove on the Targa Florio, what’s not to like about that?
“And the SCG003s and the P4/5 Competizione, 30 years from now will be worth something! They have some history, some provenance, and in the case of the P4/5 it’s a unique road/ race car.
“Monetising this though is just becoming harder and harder and the major problem is this.
“There are a lot of people that would like to buy a roadgoing SCG but I’m not the kind of guy that’a going to go out there and take 20 deposits and then go out there and find that it costs me $20 to make something I can sell for $16!
“Also, a list of everyone who will tell you that they want one is a lot different from this September when I will actually have one (the first road car spec SCG), hand them the key for a test drive and actually get them to pay money for us to build their car!”
So two years on, is there still a sustainable business case against the initial vision for the car?
“It’s a question that will be answered really quickly, meaning that as we speak we are making a road car, a road legal car with bumpers, new lights, a proper road car interior, more luxurious than the race car with a (yet to be announced OEM) high performance engine (in baseline spec c.800 bhp and 800 nm of torque, not the same unit as in the race car (currently equipped with the LMP2 spec HPD twin turbo V6).
“We’ll build that simple sports car, with that power, and that torque, weighing around 1200 kilos, the car will look a little different from the current race car, with an integrated rear wing, effectively it will be a ‘Stradale’ version of the current car and on the evidence of the drawings we have I actually think it looks a little better than the race cars!
“No matter what then we’ll build one of them, and I’ll drive that car until I can’t walk!
I’ll drive that car until I can’t walk!
“The bigger question though is whether or not there will be a real market for the car for what it will actually cost to build additional examples of the car? At the moment I don’t know – I sure hope there is, but we’ll only truly find out when we have a car to show, when we know how they will cost to build, and when people start to pay for their car to be built.”
And what area of cost are we talking about?
“I’d like it to be as low as possible but the problem is that because this is so new we will only truly know the cost when we have actually done it, and then how many initial orders I have.
“Obviously if I get two orders it ends up as one price, with 20 orders it’s a completely different price.
“I’d love it if it could be $1.2 or $1.3 million – but at that you get into extremely rarified air – but I don’t think its going to be much below it because something like this takes huge resource, you just can’t do it without that.
“Then you get into the common sense thought that I’d rather have one, than effectively subsidise ten!”
And is there any prospect of additional race cars?
“We’re quoting for race programmes for some people just now. One of the disadvantages we obviously have is that the (GT3) manufacturers do not want us to race in Blancpain, Le Mans does not want us to race at present. There are places we can currently race though (including VLN and the 24H Series).
“Look though at how some of the manufacturers, and their partner teams operate – You can go to them with around $500,000 and they will put you into a factory-backed car for the Nürburgring 24 Hours for a stint and you can say that you raced here for a ‘factory’ team.
“Of course our programme will cost you more, and there are the blood, sweat and tears in parallel, but for some that’s part of the fun! The trick though is finding those people.
As for our race programme the prospect was simple. If we sell some road cars then we’d keep racing.
“As for our race programme the prospect was simple. If we sell some road cars then we’d keep racing. I’d race my car and I think my customer, and maybe some more customers, would follow too. If I could break even on it I’d be happy.”
Where COULD it go?
“When I started, my goal was to go to Le Mans but when I spoke to the ACO they said: “Look, the car you have built is a prototype, it is to GT3 regs but if we let you race then Ferrari, and others, are going to be very unhappy. When you sell 250 of them then please let us know and we’d love to give you a slot!
“So I forgot about Le Mans for a while and then they called me and said “so what do you want to do about Le Mans?” Truly I had discounted it as they wouldn’t/couldn’t let me race the SCGs.
“So they said: ”We think you should do a P1 car.” I thought that they thought I had more money than I actually have! They said “No, no, no, you could do it as a Privateer,” sort of like Rebellion or Kolles but the truth of it is that the costs are just stupid because you need continuous development and all that goes with it.
“I told them that when they were ready to say that they would lock the rules for three years, that you’ll give me more fuel consumption so I have at least some chance to be competitive because I can’t pay to make a 2 litre 4 cylinder engine that can make 1000hp and do endurance too, and I can’t get them to let me get hold of one of those either – so I have to take what is currently out there and work with it – THEN I’d be interested in talking about it.
“Even then though I’d still need a partner with about 20 Million Euros to race alongside me for a Le Mans campaign.
“This is the only currency I have, the things I do get a lot of publicity.
“This morning I drive my Ferrari P4 around the track here, the last person to drive that car here was John Surtees.
“I brought P4/5 Competizione here to race, but also as a sort of performance art.
“The OEMs look at what I am doing and say “You know what he isn’t direct competition, and it’s cool, and it helps the sport so lets try to find a way to bring him into the fold. Included in that is the new trophy for pole position here that I’ve donated, adding something extra.
Le Mans remains an ambition but it’s tough to see how we could do it.
“There are OEMs interested in working with us but that would have to be on the understanding that I’m not writing big cheques any more. Le Mans remains an ambition but it’s tough to see how we could do it. Beyond that, and again maybe with an OEM involved, I’d love to run Sebring and Daytona. We have the talent here to win, and I think we can offer something more than a little different.
“Maybe the age of the maverick might just be on the way back!”
