THE FUTURE ACCORDING TO GLICKENHAUS
14.07.2022
Sporting a brand new, distinctive blue livery, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus proved to be a force to be reckoned with at the recent 6 Hours of Monza. Setting pole with nearly a second advantage, the Hypercar was enjoying a strong lead and proved it had unbeatable pace until three hours in a problem ended the team’s race. We had a chat with Jim Glickenhaus just prior to the race to talk about the future of his racing team, his views on zero emissions and why road cars are his key focus.
Jim, you believe strongly in zero emissions road and racing cars. Where do you see Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus in this future?
We can convert our Hypercar to zero emissions. And we can convert our SCG004 to run on zero emissions with our existing engine or a new one that we manufacture. Our goal is still to be the first company in the world to run a zero emissions Baja 1000 and a zero emissions 24 Hours of Nürburgring or Le Mans. To continue in WEC and develop a zero emissions Hypercar that could one day win Le Mans would be amazing.
You had an incredible start at Monza and, sadly, a disappointing finish due to circumstances beyond your control. As more and more manufacturers come into WEC, what are your plans going forward?
First and foremost, we can’t just race the WEC because it’s there. It has to make economic and logical sense. And we’re optimistic that we will be able to keep it all going. We have some teams that are possibly interested in buying our cars, and some OEMs who are perhaps interested in partnering with our whole company and using what we’ve developed with our hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen ICE to really keep the future of transportation to zero emissions. It’s going to take a while to digest what we can and can’t do. I’m not going to endanger the core company, which is very strong and doing well, just to keep racing.
Motul has been your partner throughout your incredible journey to the WEC. What are your reflections on the partnership?
We are very happy with our partnership with Motul. Its products are fantastic and the promotional activities that it does around the race are great. Motul makes spectacular products that work really well and stand up to massive abuse at Le Mans and the Nürburgring. The lubricants and all the Motul products have been an integral part. We would love to continue with Motul.
What does Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus need to keep racing?
The future is completely dependent on us raising enough investment capital to fully accelerate our liquid ice, hydrogen motor project and our hydrogen fuel cell product. We have the cash flow and profitability to keep building our road cars indefinitely, so if we wind up being a small boutique company building and selling 300 cars a year and promoting them through racing, that would be a spectacular success beyond my wildest dreams.