Thoroughbred: The £1.5m SCG 003 road-racer

Road-going race cars are becoming something of a rarity in the motoring industry, with the majority of carmakers basing their performance cars on their existing road cars to either cut costs or make them easier to live with.

However, there's a new company on the scene that's just been approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the US to build a low-volume hypercar with racing roots.

The company is Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, an American racing team that is turning its SCG 003 competition car into a thoroughbred road-going hypercar. It was founded by American film producer and stock exchange magnate James Glickenhaus, who is known for commissioning a one-off Ferrari Pininfarina P4/5.

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The road-going version of the SCG 003's styling is completely different to existing hypercars. The bodywork is very minimalist, leaving parts of the suspension and carbon-fibre chassis exposed to passers-by. Glickenhaus says the design has been inspired by the Italian homologation road-racers of the 1960s.

It will be powered by a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 engine that produces 740bhp, allowing the compact hypercar to go from zero to 62mph in less than three seconds and reach speeds of up to 217mph. And, according to Top Gear, it will cost $2m, or £1.5m.

What makes the SCG 003 a serious competitor to cars such as the McLaren P1 and LaFerrari is that it has already proven itself on the racing scene. Glickenhaus has been racing the hypercar at the Nurburgring 24-hour event for several years.

Following the approval of production by the NHTSA, Top Gear says Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus can now make "up to 325" examples of the SCG 003 per year – all of which will be "exempt from some federal emissions regulations".

They will be hand-built in Italy by Manifattura Automobili Torino, the same company that made Glickenhaus’s P4/5, with a handful of examples expected to reach customers next year.