24H Nürburgring
Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus’s brand‐new SCG003C finished the 43rd ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24 hour race in 35th place, after relentlessly climbing from 24th to 11th position in the first half of the race, and achieving the 8th best lap time overall in the second half.
One of the most exacting car races in the world, the 43rd edition of the ADAC Zurich 24‐Hour Race at Nürburgring saw only 102 cars crossing the finish line, out of the 151 lined up on the starting grid the day before.
Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus is not a newcomer to this race; our P4/5 Competizione finished 39th, nearly where she had started, in the 2011 edition. We went back the following year, adopting a new powertrain combining a 4.0 liter V8 and a Formula 1‐style KERS system, and adding the letter M to the name (for Modificata, i.e. modified). P4/5 Competizione M finished the 2012 edition race in a remarkable 12th place, the best result ever attained by a hybrid car.
This year Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus challenged the Ring with the new SCG003C, which premiered March 5th 2014 at the Geneva International Motor Show.
The project’s speed of development has been astounding. The team led by Paolo Garella designed and engineered SCG003C in a record‐breaking 22 months from conception to her first track test, in the Vairano (Italy) proving ground last December.
Two SCG003C’s were built, and went through the Qualifying Race at the Nürburgring on April 12th, 2015. Both cars made it into the 24 Hours “Top 30”: driver Lauck qualified “MacchinaUno” (Car 1) in 6th position, and Mutsch qualified “MacchinaDue” (car 2) in 4th position.
For these exceptional results, just before the race on May 15th the Nürburgring organizers awarded Jim Glickenhaus, the visionary owner of the Scuderia that carries his name, a special trophy for “Extraordinary achievement in engineering and development.”
During the Thursday night qualifying round, “MacchinaDue”, owned by Christopher Ruud, suffered a spectacular 120 mph shunt crashing into the guardrails, and the yellow no. 40 Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus SCG003C had to withdraw from the race. American driver Ken Dobson, who was behind the wheel at the time, was protected from any injuries by the robust chassis safety structure design.
After making it through to the final 30 qualifying round on Friday afternoon (and earning the most distinctive flashing blue light), drivers Marino Franchitti, David Jahn, Manuel Lauck and Franck Mailleux started the black no. 9 Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus SCG003C, owned by Jim Glickenhaus himself, at 24th place in the grid.
In the first 6 hours of the race, SCG003C fought her way up from 24th to 15th position, until a second speeding offence in one of the speed‐limit zones at 21h57 hit the team with a 3:32 minute time penalty, which resulted in the car moving down to 18th place.
SCG003C no. 9 picked up the pace again, chasing her way to an astonishing 11th place, when at 3h12, after more than 11 hours of continuous racing, an alternator V belt failed, forcing the car to lose an hour in the pit. After the stop, the car rejoined the race in 29th position.
At 07h00 and 85 laps the car was in 26th place, when the alternator V belt idler pulley locked, as a consequence of the previous breakdown, and the car returned to the pit. After losing a second hour to repairs it rejoined the race in 39th place.
At 15h15, 45 minutes to the end of the race, after a never‐give‐up comeback to 30th position, and notching the 8th best overall lap time of 8:26.480 on lap 95 at an outstanding average speed of 180.384 km/h, the car was back in the pit. A third alternator belt breakdown caused power steering failure and no battery voltage.
At 15h53 the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus team members succeeded in push‐starting the car with their last bit of strength, so that SCG003C no. 9 was able to cross the chequered flag at 16h03 in 35th place. As the team rejoiced, the entire pit‐lane applauded.