The latest car from McLaren is also the first car from McLaren. That must be the F1, right? Not exactly, but if you’re confused, don’t worry. We’ll explain everything, and it’s worth the wait. In fact, this has been decades in the making.
The company’s Special Operations division, which spends its time with restorations and bespoke creations, has completed a job that was one of company founder Bruce’s final wishes. It’s called the M6GT, and it is a road-going version of the car that was designed and built for racing at Le Mans.
McLaren Wanted A Road Car Long Before The F1
McLaren MSO M6GTMcLaren
Company founder Bruce McLaren was killed in a crash decades before the company started building road cars like the P1, but his ambitions extended beyond race cars to the road even in the 1960s. The M6GT was meant to be the first of them, taking development from the M6A race car and turning it into a coupe for Le Mans and a road car. Bruce McLaren drove the first prototype to work, and was in talks to get a small run of customer cars built when he was killed testing a different car in 1970.
MSO calls this car a restoration, but it also says it was built from the ground up. The process makes the car a bit of both, really, because it uses some period-correct parts like the engine and original M6GT suspension parts that have been rebuilt, but it also uses brand-new panels made from original molds the company managed to find.
The chassis came from an M6A race car, like the original would have. Structural parts like the roll hoop and rear frame, along with the wiring harnesses, were all handcrafted by MSO specialists. The company said that it had to source parts like imperial-sized bearings that were no longer available, and it even reached out to aerospace technicians to install the 1960s-style rivets.
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Instead of a whizz-bang modern McLaren engine, the recreated M6GT sticks with the original formula. The period correct mill is a 5.7-liter Chevrolet small block V8, and MSO touts the camel hump cylinder heads, the marking of the best factory small-block chevy head design available.
Very Special Car Will Enter The Company’s Collection
McLaren MSO M6GTMcLaren
Instead of building it for a customer, it seems that MSO has built this one for itself. It said the car would be the start of the McLaren heritage collection at MSO, though we can’t imagine it wouldn’t try to build more if the checks were sufficiently large.
The white paint is called Colnbrook, the name of the factory where McLaren developed the original car. That color, combined with green on the inside, is inspired by the first McLaren Formula 1 cars.
“The M6GT: Restored by MSO has been a labor of craft and care for the team and served as both a technical education and a living reminder of Bruce’s ambition to take McLaren beyond the racetrack. This car occupies a unique place in our collection – a tribute to the very beginnings of the company.”
– Jon Simms, Director of MSO.
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McLaren Special Operations plans to reveal the car this weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It will be part of a display that features other restored McLaren racers as well as its modern rides. The MCL-HY, the car bound for Le Mans 2027, and a track car built for a client will also be on stand.
