03/09/2026
• The McLaren M6GT was never supposed to exist. It was supposed to redefine the supercar. 🧡 Bruce McLaren had a radical idea: take the technology of his Can Am racing cars and turn it into a road car.
The result was the M6GT.
An aluminium monocoque, fiberglass bodywork, a mid mounted Chevrolet 5.7 litre V8, rear wheel drive and a five speed transaxle. With a weight of roughly 800 kg, it was estimated to reach around 265 km/h (165 mph).
For the late 1960s, that was extraordinary.
But the M6GT was about more than speed.
Bruce wanted to build the best road car possible.
He planned to produce 250 cars, but changing FIA homologation requirements made the project impossible to complete.
Still, Bruce kept developing it.
And he actually drove one.
His personal M6GT, registered OBH 500H, was used on the road and driven to work and to the circuits.
Think about that.
A lightweight, racing derived machine with a Chevrolet V8 directly behind the driver, used as a road car.
Butterfly doors. Fiberglass bodywork. Minimal weight. No electronics. No compromises.
A race car that had learned how to live on the road.
On June 2, 1970, Bruce McLaren was killed while testing the M8D Can Am car at Goodwood.
The production dream died with him.
The philosophy did not.
Around 25 years later came the McLaren F1, carrying the same obsession with low mass, racing technology and uncompromising engineering.
The M6GT was not the fastest McLaren.
It was something more important.
The beginning of McLaren’s road car story.
M6GT, 1969.
A Can Am car for the road.
A prototype turned legend.
If Bruce had lived long enough to build all 250 cars, would the M6GT be considered one of the greatest supercars ever?
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