Glickenhaus: 004C “Massively Faster” This Year After Updates

Jim Glickenhaus says that his company’s updated 004C Nürburgring 24 challenger is “massively faster” now than when it made its debut in last year’s edition of the enduro.

Glickenhaus told Sportscar365 that he believes the current GT racer from SCG is the “fastest car” the American constructor has ever brought to the Nürburgring grid, while the modifications since 2020 have made the 004C a more competitive proposition.

The 004C is being driven by Thomas Mutsch, Felipe Fernandez Laser and SCG Hypercar drivers Richard Westbrook and Franck Mailleux, who also formed the quartet last year.

“We’ve massively modified the car year over year,” said Glickenhaus. “We’ve moved the engine two inches forward and one inch down. We have a much bigger rear wing.

“We have much more elegant front aero with canards and a combination splitter.

“In the first year we found that we had terrific rear downforce, but not enough at the front. So we suffered from understeer. Now we balance the car much more and are able to use much more of the aero.

“We probably have a good 500 kg of downforce, which is pretty massive for a GT3 car. We look forward to a great race.

“It’ll be an interesting race because it looks like it’ll be raining 100 percent of the time and we feel that is an advantage to us because, frankly, Michelin stands alone on rain tires.”

Glickenhaus described the 004C as “massively faster” in its upgraded form. The car follows on from the P4/5 Competizione and the SCG 003C which last raced in 2019.

He explained that SCG has introduced a ‘GT3-style’ rear wing since last year’s N24 edition, which he feels will give the team a better package to challenge the front-runners.

The 004C, which is not an FIA GT3 car, ran consistently during its maiden N24 outing but didn’t trouble the leading SP9 class cars from the major GT3 manufacturers.

“In the qualifying race we were not anywhere near the configuration that we are in today,” said Glickenhaus. “The quali race was a wing that was bigger, but it was not for GT3.

“Because of the crash we had in testing, we did not have a spare splitter that incorporates the downforce canards in the nose. So we were really running a very unbalanced car compared to what we’re going to be racing with this weekend.

“This weekend we’re going to be racing with the fastest car that we’ve ever had at the ‘Ring. We’re now faster than 003C.”

Although Glickenhaus claimed that he believes the 004 has the capacity to take pole and win the race outright, he said that the former achievement is not a priority.

The SCG 003C took pole for the 2017 edition with a time of 8:15.427 from Jeff Westphal, while its successor’s best lap across the mixed-weather practice sessions that have made up the 2021 event so far has been an 8:27.743.

Glickenhaus reckons that the 004C will come into its own in wet conditions.

“If you start in the first 25 cars you could have no problem winning the race,” he said.

“The other advantage is that with the Michelin rain tires, the times are going to be completely different anyway. You have the top cars that are not on Michelins, that in my opinion aren’t going to have a chance.

“We’re massively faster than we were last year. The car is equally as reliable. It was just that last year we had way too little downforce, so if we pushed we would have lost the car.

“But this year I think we can put on a really good fight. And in the rain we can put on a tremendous fight.”