Yahoo Autos Glickenhaus Ready for Possible Legal Battle with IMSA
Glickenhaus wants its 007s to race in the US-based IMSA GTP class next year, but says that IMSA won’t allow, citing the sanctioning body’s insistence it sell a minimum 2500 cars in the US to be eligible.
The Sleepy Hollow, New York-based automaker is considering litigation against IMSA, saying the series is in violation of US antitrust laws.
Glickenhaus sells a street exotic called the 004, an off-roader called Boot, and the 1400-horsepower 007 supercar, which you can buy as a street car—or turn into a Le Mans race.
When we last left Jim Glickenhaus, he was about to make his first pilgrimage to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, two cars in tow, both running—optimistically, even he agrees—in the very top class against the two indomitable Toyota Gazoo cars.
“I heard other teams took bets on how long our cars would last, and the longest guess was two hours,” he recalled this week. “We finished fourth and fifth; later on we finished the FIA World Endurance Championship race at Sebring on the podium, and at Spa we got the pole. I think we have a real car.”
Indeed he does. Glickenhaus is a cowboy-hatted 71-year-old New York native who is a businessman, car collector, filmmaker (he wrote and directed the 1980 cult film The Exterminator, made for $2 million, which grossed $35 million), and presently a car builder, selling the Glickenhaus 004 street exotic, the Glickenhaus Boot off-roader, and the 1400-horsepower 007 supercar, which you can buy as a street car, or turned out as a Le Mans race contender like the two Glickenhaus 007s.
He races at Le Mans, in the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring, and, with his Boot, in the Baja 1000. He may be the last man who believes in the philosophy, “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.”
“The problem is, we are a tiny privateer fighting giants. My shareholders look at me and say, ‘Jim, this is great, in fact it’s amazing, but how does this turn into money for the company?’”
He answers: Publicity. Credibility. Proof-of-concept engineering. Plus, it’s fun. His investors hope he’s right.
Speaking of the company, Glickenhaus is full of other ideas besides off-roaders and sports cars. He wants to build a full-sized, hydrogen-powered pickup, and a kit-car version of the Boot that can be raced in the Baja 1000, then converted to a car that could compete at the Nürburgring. Starting price: $100,000.
At the top of the agenda, though, is to sell racing versions of the 007. “Our cars are the least expensive Hypercar. We’ll sell our car for 2.5 million Euros ($2,676,677). You can buy the spares you want, and if you race in our garage next to us, we will split the cost of racing equally with you. It’s a helluva deal, and there are several teams that are interested in what we’re doing. I think we have brought back the spirit of Jim Hall, Briggs Cunningham, and Carroll Shelby as Americans, and I think people really respond to it.” Several teams, he says, are very interested in racing a Glickenhaus.
Glickenhaus would like to race the 007 next year in the US-based IMSA GTP class, its version of the WEC’s Hypercar, but so far, IMSA doesn’t seem that interested. “The only crazy wrinkle in this situation is IMSA. They originally told us that Le Mans Hypercars would be able to race in IMSA equally in the same way that LMDh would be allowed to race in WEC equally, and at Le Mans,” Glickenhaus says.
“They’ve told us that because we don’t sell 2500 cars a year in the United States we’re not eligible to race in IMSA. Quite honestly, we feel, and our lawyers feel, that this is just a stupid violation of US antitrust laws. We may very likely sue IMSA for antitrust.
“This is not something I want to do, but why wouldn’t they want us to race? We’re an American company. Last year we had a social media reach of over 100 million, and this year we’ll have over 200 million. Why wouldn’t you want those fans to come to races? It’s just completely idiotic.”
Autoweek reached out to IMSA for a comment.
“Based on current IMSA Sporting Regulations, in order for an entrant to be eligible to compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, their manufacturer must be an IMSA Official Automotive Partner pursuant to a separate commercial agreement with IMSA, and have an annual production of 2500 or more vehicles for public consumption and public road use,” says Nate Siebens, IMSA communications director.
“With the new LMDh regulations and the combined GTP category (LMDh and LMH cars potentially competing in the same class) starting in 2023, IMSA has had this same philosophy.” All that said, “2023 Sporting Regulations have not yet been finalized and the entry process for the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship has not yet started.”
Don’t sell Glickenhaus short. “We’re concentrating on trying to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year, and I think it’s fair to say we have a real chance to do that, but I’m not saying in any way that it will happen.” In testing, the Glickenhaus cars were very close to the Toyotas in lap times.
“We’re going to try as hard as we can, and we’re going to try to get some additional investment so we can build out our production capacity to meet the demand. We have sold over 300 of our 004 road cars and our Boots, and we have nowhere near the capacity to turn them except in a couple of years but we are trying to accelerate that.”
Racing at Le Mans isn’t cheap, and it never has been. “When the top class at Le Mans was the LMP1 car, it was kind of like nuclear warfare,” he said. “Manufacturers were spending 300 million euros a year to try and win the race. Our entire budget, to design, engineer, and build two cars, was about $12 million. I think Toyota is outspending us 10 to 1. So the fact that we can even compete with them, much less get the pole at Spa, shows that it can be done, and I think that resonates with fans.
“Who knows?” Glickenhaus understates. “It’ll be an interesting weekend.”
