OBSERVATIONS ON THE SCG 004S

Weight

We can start with dimensions and the looks of the car. It has an Immense presence when you walk up to it. It’s almost 4” wider and about 18” longer than my 12C. My 12C probably weighs around 3,250lbs (curb weight) and this SCG 004S was confirmed (by Nat Mundy who is a great guy and the sole authorized dealer/seller of SCG cars at HK Motorcars HK Motorcars) to weigh 2,750lbs (curb weight with all fluids). I’ve seen a lot of misinformation about the weight of this car, in part I think with folks at SCG wanting to under promise and over deliver, so it was good to get a more definitive weight and some additional information.

The prototype will be different than the final build, for example, the final doors will add about 15lbs, the magnetic ride suspension option will add about 30lbs, upgraded speakers will add 5-10lbs of weight, however, deleting the 6-way electric seats may save 20-30lbs. As SCG nears final production, there may be additional weight savings and changes. As such, the final version has a good chance of coming in at just under ~2,800lbs depending on your options.

To put this in perspective, a Lamborghini Abentador SVJ roadster weighs ~3,950lbs, the McLaren 720 weighs ~3,150lbs, the Mclaren 765 weights ~3,050lbs, a Mazda Miata RF weighs ~2,500lbs, the GMA T.33 weighs ~2,400lbs, the GMA T.50 weights ~2,175lbs, and almost all other super cars weigh well over 3,300lbs (these are all curb weights with fluids). The 004S is a crazy impressive light weight for a modern supercar.

Aero

The car has some really serious looking aero work. It remains to be seen how effective it will be, but just the front splitter is enormous, with aero work that has opted to forgo a frunk. Honestly, it looks like it could take a fair sized dog for a ride in the cavity above the splitter. And there is this clever front wing (see the canard nose with the SCG logo) which satisfies US requirements for “front bumper” height.

It’s a clever work around. I’ve heard downforce may be around 500kgs-600kgs and the 004CS was reported to make around 600kgs of downforce at 300kph These are really good numbers although not quite in the realm of the McLaren Senna’s claimed 800kg of downforce in race mode.

Aesthetics, External

Aesthetics are of course very personal and subjective, but I really like what SCG has done with this car.

It’s somewhat in the same spirit as the GMA T.33 where it has some lines from cars from the 60s.

The car is clearly and homage to the Ferrari P 4/5 (which in many ways seemed to spur on the existence of SCG as a company), which itself was an homage to the original Ferrari P racing cars from the 60s.

Further, the car comes apart like some kind of cool transformer. The doors are proper billionaire doors. They are dihedral and work electronically with the throw of a switch to open and close (there is an emergency manual release as well). The rear panel tear drops into a very Le Mans style shape.

There is no rear view window at all as the engine occupies the entire bay. The back clear hatch opens up for easy access to the engine.

Also, I’ve been told the final model will allow the entire back of the car to open up like a giant clam to give even more access, and will look super cool doing it.

The car has flying buttresses, and just a lot of interesting curves. Depending on how you spec it, it can look very busy and muscle’y or very refined and elegant.

Visibility

So the side mirrors are a nice way to dovetail from aesthetics (I think they look really good) to visibility. Normally I loathe cars with side view mirrors placed at the fender flare because the visibility is usually garbage. You could probably do better with compact mirror held by hand than some implementations of this. But here, SCG knocked it out of the park. I was impressed by how fantastic they are, in that they give a really great view around the car. Also, they are right at the top of the fender/tire, helping position the tire to an apex.

Not only were the side mirrors great from the central seat, they gave you amazing views if you are in the passenger seats as well.

However, since this is a 3 seater car, and there is no rear window, the rear view “mirror” is really a screen. And that screen doubles as your infotainment system. Before I get into that, I’m going to first describe overall visibility in the car to put this screen in better context.

So, the overall view from the car is very good. The scuttle view is exceptionally good. However, this car has some serious fender flares and that do take up a little bit of the view. The dome design of the cabin puts the A-pillars in a different position than my 12C, and the A-pillars are a bit thicker overall for the dome cabin.

The 12C, and McLarens in general, have some of the best visibility of any cars I have driven. I’d say the overall scuttle with the 004S is about on par with a modern McLaren, and the visibility out the side windows, is better. It’s a surprisingly good panoramic view.

However, the top of the windshield is a bit more cutoff than the 12C (or modern McLarens). I’m not sure this has any practical effect other than you see less sky. So for the hopefully rare occasion when a plane is crashing down from above, the McLaren may have the edge, but for seeing everything on the road, visibility is roughly on par with a modern McLaren. And in one important way, the SCG visibility is improved over my 12C. While the top of the windshield in the 12C offers a great view, still, if I’m the first person at a traffic light, I often have to peer my head up under the top of the windshield to see the light change. SCG has cured this issue with their little glass roof.

You can just peek straight out of it and see the lights change really easily. Also, the glass roof makes the cabin open up a bit in two ways. First, the atmosphere of the cabin feels more open. Secondly, SCG carved out a physical space behind the glass roof that offers extra space if you want to wear a helmet and gives more room to taller drivers.

Which gets us back to the rear view screen. First, this screen is still an early prototype. It’s a ok sized screen considering it sits right at your face. I’m 6’3 and 235lbs with pretty wide shoulders. Despite this, even with this taller comfort seat positioned very upright, I still had two or three inches of space above my head. I usually like to lean the seat back more, and when I did that, I had significantly more head room. But in all these positions, the screen was right above my face, which means the screen appears more prominent in your field of view if you choose to glance up at it.

It is a surprisingly brilliant placement. Most times it is easy to ignore, but if you just glance up you get this slightly jumbo-tron feel from it because it’s so close to your face. Nat Mundy told me they are still exploring another option for an even bigger wider screen there, one that will offer split screen views, where half of the screen has an always-on rear camera view, and the other half can be the CarPlay infotainment system. So while it’s not clear what the exact configuration will be in the final car, it shows promise.

A few prototype niggles. The current glass roof is pretty clear, and the final version may need a little more tint. The current prototype back camera position is too low (there are plans to use a better camera and change its position to a higher/better vantage). Also, there is currently no front camera view. There are some plans to add a front camera as well, which will certainly help with parking.

Aesthetics, Internal

So this is as good a place as any to switch inwards. The car has some good, some bad, and some ugly. The overall dashboard area, kindly, could be considered basic in it’s aesthetic design.

Of course this is a prototype, and here they are trying to show off a truly wild style to highlight some of the really crazy options to personalize. This particular color scheme, both inside, and out, while I can appreciate it, is not my cup of tea. So below is a slightly more tame and less eye bleed inducing (black and white) mockup that should make things easier to see.

I wouldn’t call this minimalist. My 12C is very minimalist inside, and I love it. This might be more spartan, brutalist, and/or utilitarian. The current switch gear might not be final, but it’s something you might find in a 1960s race car or a Cessna. You have several round gauges, to the left and right of the steering wheel, as well as the rudimentary, yet totally functional, center dash with an electronic screen in the middle. Something about this dash strikes me as the design team just running out of steam with regard to their attention to design detail.

And while I’m at it, the gearbox just looks, not great. It looks like it came out of a truck and was slapped in place.

Other cars like older Pagani’s or the new GMA cars open up the manual gearbox to show the mechanics like jewelry. Here, under the leather wrapped gearbox, from what I understand, is a basic steel box. Some of this seems likely because SCG is a new company, and it just takes some time, and frankly crazy expense, to get bespoke parts for these types of aesthetic flourishes. And at some point there must be some decisions made on “do we want to put in jewelry here that will be a crazy increase in the price of the car and sourcing of such parts”? This early in SCG’s life cycle, it seems reasonable compromises are being made, at least that is my supposition.

Which is a shame because the external design really is a beautiful work of art. The 004CS model comes with an upgraded digital dash, and I like the look of it better, but nonetheless, it still just looks not up to par with the rest of the car’s really brilliant and artistic design strokes.  All that said, there are at least 2 or 3 saving graces even if you agree with my subjective view on the interior design.

So first, above I focused on the most negative impressions, however, the overall rest of the cabin comes off as very high quality. The leather materials can be almost any crazy thing you dream up. The faux giraffe print is on leather and shows you can basically put in almost any color scheme combination you’d like. Further, the materials seemed very high quality. The Alcantara roof liner was nice. There was some leather finishing material put atop the carbon fiber dash that had some gap alignment issues, but such is understandable considering this is an early prototype (frankly I will probably just keep the dashboard bare carbon fiber and save on weight from any leather trim).

Secondly, you can customize basically everything in the cabin. Almost any color for any part. For example, you can have the air vents made to almost any color. The fabrics. So there is room to really make the basic interior become your own in many beautiful ways.

Third, everything you want inside is inside. The car comes with the air conditioner from an Escalade. It works great! You have Apple CarPlay (something McLaren still hasn’t managed to put in the the 720 and 765, despite earlier promises). You have defogging with some really great tech. A front lift. An option for magnetic ride with different driving modes. Ability to turn traction control/ABS on/off. Mirror adjustment. Electric telescoping steering wheel. Electric 6-way adjustable drivers seat. Nothing is missing. Everything is laid out clearly. The switch gear is instinctively placed as are gauges. Everything feels good, is super tactile and easy to engage and adjust. That said, those that are looking for Pagani level switch gear jewelry, they will likely grumble. By the end of my seat time, I came away with a feeling of being charmed by the car in its sheer clarity. And I was further surprised by just how everything feels solid.

I was ready to hear all kinds of rattles and carbon fiber creaks etc., but this car felt solid even though this prototype is not complete. Now this might be because it’s a 1-of-1 build so they made sure everything was very bolted down, but still, I was super surprised at how tight and well put together the car felt.

Again, all aesthetics are very subjective, so as always, your mileage may vary. That said, I came away with a really good feeling about the interior of the car being a really good place to be, as my overall take home impression.