DREAM LAND

JIM GLICKENHAUS'S SCG 007 LE MANS IS A HYPERCAR FANTASY FULFILLED, FOR HIM AND US.

- TRAVIS OKULSKI

Things like this don’t happen. This is the Glickenhaus 007 LMH, the car that finished third overall at the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans. Not third out of three, and not at some off brand enduro run in a Nebraska parking lot. This car is royalty.

For reasons I still can’t comprehend, the Glickenhaus team and HK Motorcars (this 007 owner and Glickenhaus’s dealer partner) are tossing me the metaphorical key just months before the car returns to Le Mans to take on the world.

I couldn’t believe any of this would happen, that Circuit of the Americas (COTA) would let us onto an empty track, or that our insurance would approve a request involving a $6 million car. When I got off the plane in Austin, Texas, the day before, I figured I’d eat some breakfast tacos and go home, that the plan would inevitably have fallen apart. But the car was right there, alone in a garage at daybreak. It was all ours for a few hours.

I was a mess.

The 007 was built and designed by Podium Advanced Technologies, an Italian outfit that has partnered with Glickenhaus on everything from road cars to the Baja-dominating Boot buggy. Pipo Moteurs, a French firm known for rally engines, constructed the 007’s twin- turbocharged 3.5-liter V-8. That’s linked to a seven-speed Xtrac sequential gearbox. The 007 wears Penske dampers and Michelin slicks. Sauber honed the car’s aero. Yes, that Sauber.