Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus to tackle automotive altitude record with reborn Baja Boot

James Glickenhaus might be known for turning Ferraris into rarer, more expensive bespoke creations for high-profile clients, but he's also a prolific car collector. His garage is full of cars wearing a Prancing Horse badge, along with left-field automotive relics like the Baja Boot.

Raced by Steve McQueen, the Boot was developed by hot-rodding enthusiast Vic Hickey for the 1967 Mexican 1000, now known as the Baja 1000. Leaning on friends within GM, Hickey shoehorned a 5.7-litre V8 engine into a tubular steel chassis and fitted heavy-duty suspension to deal with the trials and tribulations of desert racing.

It didn't work: the car blew a transmission in its first race. Steve McQueen wasn't deterred, though. After hearing about the car, he bought it and entered it a desert race outside Las Vegas where, shocker, it broke down again. Although the car eventually saw success, it wasn't with the legendary actor behind the wheel.

Above: The original Baja Boot

Glickenhaus bought the car in 2010 and now, eight years on, it appears he's been inspired by the rough-n-tumble classic.

Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus (SCG) used its Facebook page to announce plans for a modern recreation of the boot (a reboot?) in both two- and four-door guise. Power will likely come from a naturally aspirated V8 engine, and the buggy will have 20-inches of suspension travel. Both two- and four-wheel drive will be offered, along with cabin creature comforts like air-con and heating.

The company wants to build 25 examples as a starting point, with pricing to kick off at around US$100,000 ($124,000). It'll be road legal, too.

But that's not all SCG wants to do with the Baja Boot shape. Glickenhaus is aiming high (literally) with a mooted 'Expedition' model. Just two will be built, with the goal of scaling a 7000m volcano in South America in 2019.

Compared to the 'standard' Boot, the 'Expedition' will pack extra hardware to handle the extreme cold – military grade door seals, for example, and an engine capable of hauling four people in the thin mountain air. The current record for driving at altitude was set in 2007, when Gonzalo Bravo and Eduardo Canales took their modified Suzuki Samurai to 6688m in Chile.

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