Bruce McLaren’s M6GT to make public debut at Goodwood
Words: Andrew Sluys
McLaren has revealed plans to show off the world’s first completed M6GT at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.
As a relatively unknown part of McLaren’s history, the M6GT was the brainchild of Bruce McLaren, who wanted to transition into building road cars alongside the race cars they were known for.
The M6GT grew from the M6A Can Am racer that found success on tracks throughout the 1960s.
Bruce initially planned to build 50 M6GTs, but he tragically passed before production could begin. Just three prototypes were built.
McLaren Special Operations decided to take on the project of restoring one of these prototypes to its original state for this year’s festival.
They have reportedly used original body moulds, drawings and images to get the proportions perfect. They even got help from some of the engineers that worked on the initial prototypes.
Unlike a lot of projects of similar elk, McLaren set out to build this M6GT to Bruce’s original plans, without modernsing any of it.
It features the same Chevrolet small block V8 engine and manual transmission as the original.
The chassis has been taken from one of the surviving M6A racers, and all the suspension hardware is period correct.
On the inside, it’s a very 1970s affair, with green carpet, cream-coloured vinyl upholstery, and a walnut gearknob.
