The McLaren M6GT was meant to be the
British marque’s first-ever street car and while the project was shelved after
the death of Bruce McLaren, the car remains truly iconic in the history of
McLaren. Bruce McLaren had intended to enter the 1969 World Sportscar
Championship in a coupe version of the M6B Can-Am but was required to build 50
road-going examples to be eligible to compete.
Knowing that was impossible, McLaren
abandoned the idea of competing but didn’t completely give up the idea of
creating a road-legal supercar and built a total of three examples of the M6GT.
This bright red example was Bruce’s personal car and now resides in the United
States.
The car is looked after by a team at
McLaren Chicago and was recently taken out of hiding and driven through the
streets of the bustling city. It has only ever covered 3,369 km and is as striking as ever.
Driving the car is a 5.7-liter V8 engine
good for 400 HP, sending all of its power through the rear wheels courtesy of a
manual transmission. Back in 1969, the car was capable of a 0-160
km/h in just eight seconds and could top out at 265 km/h.
As detailed in an article over at the
McLaren website, the cabin of the M6GT is very tight and features massively-wide
sills which actually double as fuel tanks. In a world of modern McLarens that
feature trick suspension systems allowing them to ride like Rolls-Royces, the
M6GT probably feels comparatively unrefined but very few McLarens are as
important as this one.
