Glickenhaus Working On Engine Modifications for New Fuel

Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus and its engine supplier Pipo Moteurs are working on “modifications” to their LMH engine to suit the FIA World Endurance Championship’s new sustainable fuel.

Company owner Jim Glickenhaus has confirmed that his organization and Pipo have been making some changes to the Glickenhaus 007’s twin-turbo, 3.5-liter V8 unit to make it “run a little better” on the Excellium Racing 100 biofuel produced by TotalEnergies.

The new fuel is being introduced to all classes in the WEC, European Le Mans Series and 24 Hours of Le Mans this year.

According to Glickenhaus, the WEC has yet to confirm if the modifications will be taken as one of five Evo ‘joker’ technical changes that LMH manufacturers are allowed to make between 2021 and 2025 inclusive.

If taken, it will be the first Evo joker for the Glickenhaus non-hybrid LMH, which made its WEC debut last year with appearances at Portimao, Monza and Le Mans.

The changes come after Glickenhaus worked with Bosch to install a brake-by-wire system. That was not considered an Evo joker because it was conceived bilaterally with the FIA and ACO, through discussions related to the 007’s Balance of Performance.

“We don’t know the logistics of whether it will be considered a joker, but yes, we have made modifications to the engine, mostly because of the e-gasoline,” Glickenhaus told Sportscar365.

“We find that we can make it run a little better on that and we want to make a few modifications to it. We’re not in time [to run it] now [at Sebring].

“But it’s really a result of going to e-gasoline, so I don’t know if they would consider that an Evo or not.”

It is understood that the modifications are being applied for use in the second round of the WEC season at Spa-Francorchamps in early May.

Glickenhaus confirmed that French engine supplier Pipo Moteurs is currently putting the tweaked LMH engine through dynamometer testing.

He added that no changes have been made to the engine’s capacity.

“It’s the ignition, fuel pumps and delivery. Stuff like that,” said Glickenhaus.

“It’s the whole responsiveness and range that we think we can improve, the fuel efficiency with some different spark plugs and so on.

“We spent a lot of energy and dyno time adjusting it for what we had, and we ran very well at Le Mans last year. So we want to get back to where we were, because you’re given a finite amount of fuel.

“It’s not an issue if they consider it a joker. Whatever they decide… I’m not militating that it shouldn’t be a joker.”

The LMH technical regulations permit manufacturers to make “modifications requested for performance reasons” and these are defined as the five permitted Evo jokers.

The rulebook states that “applications must provide all necessary supporting information including the targeted performance improvement, its evolution and, if relevant, an updated datasheet.”

Toyota has used up part of its joker allowance to make updates to the GR010 Hybrid while Alpine Elf Team is not permitted to modify its grandfathered LMP1 car.