Is James Glickenhaus set to become the Steve Fossett of the auto world?

Not content with developing his own one-off Ferrari hypercar, the director of Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus (SCG) has a new toy to play with. Jim bought Steve McQueen’s original Hurst ‘Baja Boot’ at an auction in 2010, and with the car came a gold mine of spares and technical drawings.

It probably hasn’t escaped you that there’s a significant obstacle in undertaking that drive called the Bering Strait, 82 kilometres of icy sea that separates Cape Dezhnev, Russia from Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska. Glick plans to drive west from the Big Apple, amphibiously across the Bering Sea, down the Road of Bones, across the Trans-Siberian Highway through Beijing, Moscow, St. Petersburg and then on to Paris.

Glickenhaus is looking to build a limited production run of 25 Boots in two- and four-door guises from $125k. Power will come from a naturally aspirated V8 engine, although the company hasn’t announced who its partner is here. We know it’s not Ford, but other than that, his lips are sealed. With over 500mm of suspension travel it’ll be able to make mincemeat of just about any other off the shelf 4×4 you can think of, although SCG will also offer the car in a rear-drive form which, frankly, sounds like ridiculous fun.