Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA)

GMA continues to get everything right.  Production has now officially started on the T.50 and the first customer delivery happened recently in Monterey.  That makes it basically 3 years from the model’s first unveiling to first delivery. Its hugely impressive especially when you consider the Aston Martin Valkyrie took 6 years and the Mercedes AMG Project One closer to 7.  While I am sure there have been internal growing pains, from an outside perspective, GMA has done everything right.  They have provided public progress updates frequently, opened their factory doors to leading journalists, run the cars at major events without any issues, and from what I understand, kept there depositors closely in the loop in terms of development.  In addition, using Dario Franchitti as a spokesman has worked brilliantly as he’s not only engaging and charismatic, but also brings another level of credibility to the endeavor.

Their second model, the T.33, sold out instantly and most of the 100 units of the third model, the T.33 Spider already have homes.  Both appear to be on track in terms of development.  GMA is in the process of building a new Headquarters and Production facility in the UK with Phase 1 completed in October 2022.  The T.50 will be built at GMA’s current location with the T.33 and future models to be produced at the new site. While the T.50 will be imported into the US under “Show & Display” rules, both the T.33 models will be fully homologated.

Back in 2022, GMA announced that they were beginning development of two EV SUVs.  With the recent divesture of the Gordon Murray Technologies division (GMA Technologies Divestment) which was developing those projects, they have now been passed into new hands.  In the divestment announcement, one of the key reasons for the divestment was to “pave the way for enhanced focus on its core automotive business of bespoke build, low-volume luxury supercars”.  Hence, I would expect to see further models added to the GMA line in the coming years.  It will be interesting to see if GMA goes up in price point to the $5 mil. level or comes out with a high production “mass” supercar for around $1 mil.

Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus (SCG)

Following a similar philosophy to Ferrari in the early days, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus is a racing team that both designs and builds their own race cars.  SCG then adapts these race cars for the road and sells to customers to help fund its racing activities.  In only its 2^nd try, the SCG 007 finished on the podium at Le Mans and this  year came in 6^th & 7^th (ahead of both Peugeot and Porsche) in a highly competitive Hypercar class.  To say this is an impressive achievement is a huge understatement.  I hope the works Hypercar team will return to the WEC and Le Mans in 2024. 

In terms of the SCG 004, they have developed two versions for the road, the base 004S (004S Test Drive Report) and the more track oriented 004CS.  The SCG 004 has now passed all of the US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) crash tests.  It is is the first modern car to pass all the mandated FMVSS crash tests without airbags, which speaks volumes in terms of the design, engineering, and quality of the carbon fiber tub.  The SCG 004S will be the first 3 seater, central driving position, fully homologated, supercar sold in the US market.  

In terms of current activities and next steps, three of the prototypes have recently been completely torn down and rebuilt in order to check every single component.  SCG is currently doing final validations and finalizing the production plan.  Once done, it’s expected that the production will start on the founders’ cars.