Baja Fresh

How a monied gearhead rebel beat Ford—and will sell you the buggy that did it.

- By Jesse Will

WHEN THE CLOUDS of grit finally settled at the 2019 Baja 1000, the grueling off-road race through the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico, an unlikely star emerged: the Boot, an all-terrain vehicle from SCG, a manufacturer you’ve probably never heard of. With just 47 seconds left before the 800-mile race’s 34-hour cutoff, the fangy, bug-eyed, scarlet red Boot crossed the finish line, wearing 420 pounds of mud, and defeating the only other vehicle in its class: a prototype Bronco R from Ford. The tiny SCG—Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, a low-volume manufacturer founded and run by the filmmaker and financier James Glickenhaus—had beaten one of Detroit’s Big Three.

“Frankly, I think Ford was a bit shocked that we beat them by 270 miles in the class,” says Glickenhaus, speaking in cogent, animated bursts that belie the builder’s 70 years. Though based in Danbury, CT, Glickenhaus plans to scale up his California facility’s production of the $287,500 4-Door Boot. The 2-Door, currently available for $258,750, is street legal in 49 states (soon, 50, he says) and sold through specialty luxury dealers such as Manhattan Motorcars. It’s just one of an expansive list of projects from Glickenhaus, including the SCG 007, a hypercar he plans to enter in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021—with the audacious goal of gaining the first overall win for a car made in America in over 50 years.