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Meet the SCG003, a $2.6 million American supercar that's racing back to the future

Meet the SCG003, a $2.6 million American supercar that's racing back to the future

New York car collector Jim Glickenhaus loved the days when racers would drive their race cars to the track, compete for victory and then drive them home in time for supper. Those days, of course, are long gone, but they don't have to be — not if Glickenhaus' plans to become the 21st century's version of Enzo Ferrari hold true.

This is the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus 003. It's a modular supercar, where key components like the engine and suspension can be interchanged easily so the car could compete in, say, the Nurburgring 24 Hours, and then drive home the next afternoon. In fact, Jim Glickenhaus plans to do just that later this year, just as bespoke race car builders like Ferrari and Briggs Cunningham did in the '50s and '60s.

Visually, there's lots of Ferrari Enzo in the design. That's not surprising, as Glickenhaus was responsible for bringing the wild Enzo-based Ferrari P4/5 to market. Glickenhaus told Yahoo Autos a short while back that he envisaged a world where many of the top racing series competed using the same vehicle platform, making it technically possible for a car to compete in NASCAR, German touring racing and Le Mans GT events -- and at low cost, since the cars would share the same fundamental architechture and rules.

That world seems as far away from reality as Doc's Delorean and Marty's self-drying jacket, but according to Glickenhaus, the desire for a movement such as this stretches far beyond just his wishes.

The track-only version of Jim Glickenhaus' modular supercar
The track-only version of Jim Glickenhaus' modular supercar

Back to the present: The SCG003, revealed here ahead of its official unveiling in Geneva next week, has a carbon fiber chassis and carbon fiber suspension pickup points located on a rear frame allowing for easy interchangeability. The engine in the race version of the SCG003, the Competizione model, is a heavily reworked twin-turbo Honda 3.5-liter V-6. Power levels are contentious, with some publications pointing to over 600 hp, while others state it will be more like 530 hp. Regardless, with a weight of 2,976 lbs., either will be enough to push you back into the seat. That mass will be distributed 49:51 front:rear.

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We don't yet know any technical specifications on the street-going SCG003 Stradale. Glickenhaus says the road car can be fitted either with a twin-turbo Honda V-6 or one of Volkswagen's earth-turing W-12 engines; while the W-12 would produce more power, the twin-turbo may make for a better balanced machine.

What we do know is that the Glickenhaus SCG003 won't come cheap. It will, in fact, cost roughly $2.59 million. And if you really do want to drive the car from the racetrack back to your garage at home, you might want to employ an army of mechanics to help turn the car from Competizione (race) mode to Stradale (street) mode, and ask the hotel for an especially late check-out. Deliveries begin late this year.

Most people in this league of racing lust would likely just buy two cars, but we applaud Jim for his ingenuity, and we can't wait to see the SCG003 tearing up the racetrack in Germany later this year -- and one day, maybe, Le Mans.