Born in the late 1960s, the M6GT was envisioned as a high-performance grand tourer, blending McLaren’s race-proven engineering with a road-legal package. Based on the M6 Can-Am car, it featured a lightweight monocoque chassis and a sleek, low-slung body designed for both aerodynamics and speed.
At its heart was a thundering Chevrolet small-block V8, producing well over 400 horsepower, giving the M6GT a blistering power-to-weight ratio. With a projected top speed of around 165 mph, it was set to be one of the fastest road cars of its time.
However, McLaren’s ambitious dream of building a production road car was cut short by homologation difficulties and changing regulations. Only a handful of prototypes were built, with Bruce McLaren himself using one as his personal car. Though the M6GT never made it to full-scale production, it laid the groundwork for what would later become McLaren’s entry into the road car market—eventually culminating in the legendary McLaren F1 decades later.
Today, the M6GT remains an incredibly rare and revered piece of McLaren’s history, showcasing Bruce McLaren’s vision of taking racing technology to the streets.
