Speedtail

Make
McLaren
Segment
Coupe

Way back in 2017, we reported on the Glickenhaus 004, a street-legal supercar promising a supercharged V8, a manual transmission, and a three-seat layout - much like the McLaren Speedtail and GMA T.50. In the meantime, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus has been working on insane projects like the 1,400-horsepower 007, but work on the 004 has continued. That work had reached the phase where the prototype 004 needed to be crashed, but before that happened, SCG chose to send it to the detailing experts at Ammo Detailers. This allowed the specialists there to practice on the car to see how impregnated carbon fiber reacts to various methods of correction, something that customers will be very interested in.

It all relates to the differences between carbon fiber that has resin applied by hand and carbon fiber that is pre-impregnated with resin. The latter method greatly increases rigidity without adding much weight and is favored by those in the aeronautics industry; in fact, the narrator rightly says that this method gives the perfect resin-to-weave or strength-to-weight ratio. However, with the resin already in the mix, applying a lacquer to the surface would be wasteful and add unnecessary weight. Thus, customers will instead be able to request the type of polishing and sanding they'd like to see applied to their cars and also select whether the protective film that will be placed atop the panels is in a matte or a clear finish. Regardless of how the carbon is meant to look, it will receive two layers of protective coating before delivery.

For those familiar with the work that Ammo Detailers carries out, it's always great to see that even such established detailers as these will take the time to test various methods of refining the car's appearance without simply assuming that one compound or sanding method will be best. As they say in the industry, "detailing is in the details." That's arguably why Ammo was selected for this job, and customers will be thrilled to know that the long wait will be worth it, especially since their cars will arrive looking better in the metal than they possibly could in photos. Despite the obvious benefits, we still cringe watching a supercar being crashed and hope that none of the production versions meet the same fate.