New York-based Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus (SCG) released a set of renderings to preview the 008 Baja Dakar Buggy. Announced in early 2020 as the Boot’s smaller sibling, the race-ready off-roader will land as a kit car positioned at the bottom of the company’s growing range of enthusiast-friendly models.
Posted on Facebook by company founder Jim Glickenhaus, the images depict a model that puts an unabashedly sporty spin on the decades-old concept of a dune buggy. Its front end is characterized by a low nose, pronounced fenders, four spotlights, and a beefy skid plate. Our favorite view is the open rear end, which is dominated by a pair of spare tires and two horizontal exhaust pipes that poke out from above the body, like on the Boot.
SCG developed the 008 around a tubular frame, but we don’t know what its body panels are made with. It’s fitted with a long-travel suspension, and it rides on massive off-road tires tucked under fender flares. Whether it will be as quick as it looks will depend on the buyer, because the kit will not include an engine. Enthusiasts will need to build it themselves, Ikea-style, and source an engine to install directly behind the passenger compartment.
Most of the hard work is already done, however. While technical specifications weren’t published, SCG revealed in 2020 that it planned to design the buggy around a General Motors-sourced 2.2-liter EcoTec four-cylinder engine and a Sadev transaxle. If you can find an EcoTec, it’ll bolt right in. If you want to use, say, Ford’s Godzilla V8-based Megazilla crate engine, you’ll need to plan at least a few hours of crafty fabrication work.
Rear-wheel-drive will come standard, and four-wheel-drive will be offered at an extra cost. And, the kit will be sold in stages, so off-roaders will be able to save money by sourcing some components themselves. Pricing information hasn’t been announced yet, though SCG said it will sell the 008 directly through its website.
What’s in a name? Glad you asked! SCG assigns most of its cars a number, so 008 is likely little more than the vehicle’s internal designation. Buggy is self-explanatory, but Dakar is intriguing. We’d be surprised if the firm calls one of its cars Dakar without sending it to the Dakar Rally (which no longer ends anywhere near Dakar, Senegal). Racing is in SCG’s blood, after all, and it’s given bigger companies a run for their money on and off the track. Baja suggests an entry in the Baja 1000 (which SCG recently challenged Tesla to race in).
We’ve reached out to the firm for more details, and we’ll update this story if we learn more.
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