McLaren Finally Built the Road Car Bruce McLaren Always Wanted

Bruce McLaren never got to see his road car dream reach production. More than half a century later, McLaren has gone back to his unfinished project and completed it. The result is a newly built M6GT, created by McLaren Special Operations as closely as possible to the car its founder wanted to make.

The M6GT started life in the late 1960s as a road-going version of McLaren's dominant M6A Can-Am racer. Bruce planned to build 50 cars, hoping to show that the company's racing experience could work on public roads too. Only three prototypes were made before the project ended, leaving the M6GT as one of McLaren's biggest “what if” stories.

McLaren Special Operations didn't try to bring the car into the modern age. It used original body molds, old drawings, and archive photos, with former M6GT mechanics also helping with the project. A period-correct small-block Chevrolet V8 and gearbox were fitted to a chassis from an M6A race car. Restored original suspension parts are used too, while aerospace craftspeople installed the aluminum rivets by hand.

The cabin is pure 1970s, with green carpet, vinyl seats, and a hand-turned walnut gear knob. The cream white paint is called Colnbrook, named after the factory where Bruce developed his early road car ideas. The finished M6GT will make its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the same circuit where Bruce lost his life in 1970 while testing an M8D Can-Am racer.

Bruce's dream road car finally exists as he imagined it. Shame it took more than half a century to get here.