To meet federal safety standards, new production vehicles must undergo crash testing. For major automakers preparing to sell a gazillon new cars over several years, it’s just part of the development process. For small niche companies like Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, it’s not quite that simple.
Technically speaking, it is that simple. Crashing into a barrier with an exotic carbon-fiber supercar is just as easy as smashing a steel-bodied Dodge into oblivion. Resources, however, make it much harder for smaller companies to prepare for the tests, so yeah, seeing any exotic car sacrificed to physics is tough to watch. Knowing just how expensive it is? That makes it harder, especially for the manufacturer.
SCG recently shared the above crash test footage on its Facebook page. The specific vehicle involved isn’t mentioned, but it sure looks like the road-going 004S three-seater. It’s been a very long time coming – the car was actually revealed way back in November 2017 – but one doesn’t simply crash a carbon-fiber supercar unless real progress is being made. This is an offset test, but it’s not the first crash test for 004S. Back in 2021 a prototype went straight into a barrier at 30 mph and received a passing grade. As the Facebook post says, this offset test was also a pass, so the company is one step closer to production.
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One thing we don’t know is whether SCG repairs and uses the same structure for additional tests. In 2019, we learned that Koenigsegg does this for its certification processes because building carbon-fiber supercars definitely isn’t cheap. By rebuilding a single test vehicle and using extensive computer modeling, Koenigsegg is able to lower development costs. We reckon it’s also a bit less painful for designers and engineers, seeing one car take the beating as opposed to several.
SCG has all kinds of projects in the works, both for the street and the track. With crash tests proceeding well on 004S, perhaps it will soon join the Boot as a production-spec machine.