Is Glickenhaus’s hydrogen Baja Boot the future?

News from the world of Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus. Boss Jim Glickenhaus has revealed new images of the car he intends on deploying in November’s arduous Baja 1000 endurance race.

“You are seeing a cryogenic supercritical hydrogen fuel cell electric Baja 1000 race vehicle,” Glickenhaus said. It’s the latest concept for his hydrogen-powered Boot (first previewed in the summer of 2021) that in Jim’s words marks “the beginning of the future of transportation”.

The silhouette has changed somewhat since we last saw it (there’s a whopping great hydrogen tank slung out back, for starters), but it’s a cool looking concept. And while there aren’t any new technical details we do know SCG is targeting a range of over 600 miles for the hydrogen Boot.

SCG wants the truck to be able to drive to the Baja 1000, race the 1,000 miles, and simply drive back home again. “When people see this vehicle race the Baja 1000 and finish, with zero emissions, [that] it can be safely driven over the most intense landscapes and refuelled in the middle of the desert with our own infrastructure, that will change the world,” Glickenhaus said.

That’s right – infrastructure. SCG intends on building its own network for hydrogen refuelling (just look at Tesla and its supercharger network), so that the Baja Boot’s technology can be brought over to a road car.

“We will make a US road-legal version,” Glickenhaus said. “We are using all the engineering, testing and development of this race vehicle to create the systems and knowledge around cryogenic hydrogen, fuel cells, and our refuelling system.”

He concedes there’s still a mountain to climb, not least because “there are no FIA regulations for off-road hydrogen safety, no NHTSA regulations for road vehicle safety”. That's just two things.

“But we embrace challenges,” he said. “And Glickenhaus Zero builds the future of transportation, so we don’t make existing things.”

Is this indeed the future of transportation?