1969 McLaren M6GT
Leading up to 1970, Bruce McLaren decided he was going to build the fastest mid-engine car in the world based on his potent Can-Am designs. The idea was to put a coupe body on his M6 monocoque and contend the Group 4 category in the World Sportscar Championship. This was always one of McLaren ambitions and it became his favorite project.
McLaren intended to build 250 cars per year and sell the chassis and body without an engine. While the first prototypes used Chevrolet engines like his Can-Ams, Bruce imagined the sever liter Ford unit was suitable as well.
Unfortunately, homologation requirements changed, and a minimum of 50 cars had to be made for the M6GT to race. This made the project too large for McLaren, and without the initial promotion of the cars on the track, the M6GT race program was scrapped.
However, this didn't detour McLaren from offering one of the most impressively equipped cars in the world, essentially a road-legal, protoype race-car. But this meant that the car had a cramped interior, one which became very hot and no air conditioning was available.
The first prototype was built at the McLaren racing factory and became Bruce's personal car. Two or three more cars followed and came from Trojan-Lambretta, the company that manufactured McLaren's customer cars. One of these was raced fairly extensively by David Prophet.
Bruce McLaren used a red M6GT as his personal transportation until his unexpected death in June of 1970. With his untimely passing, the M6GT never made it to any large scale production. Just over twenty years later, however, with the revival of McLaren in Formula One, Bruce McLaren's dreams were realized when the McLaren F1 supercar was released in 1994.
The December 1974 edition of Road & Track did a cover article on one of the M6GTs and despite being four years old, they christened it 'the wildest road car'.
Bruces personal car, with license number OBH 500H only had 1900 miles when he died. It sold to Denny Hulme in New Zealand, eventually making its way to the Mathews Collection near Denver Colorado. Fortunately, it remains there in absolutely original condition.
engine Chevrolet LT1 V8
position Mid-Longitudinal
valvetrain Pushrod OHV, 2 Valves per Cyl
fuel feed 4 Weber Twin choke Carburetors
displacement 5735 cc / 350.0 in³
bore 101.6 mm / 4.0 in
stroke 88.4 mm / 3.48 in
compression 11.0:1
power 275.9 kw / 370 bhp @ 5800 rpm
specific output 53.53 bhp per litre
torque 502 nm / 370.3 ft lbs @ 4000 rpm
body / frame Sheet Aluminum Chassis
driven wheels RWD
front brakes Girling Vented Discs
rear brakes Girling Vented Discs
f suspension Double Wishbones w/Coil Springs over Dampers, Anti-Roll Bar
r suspension Double Wishbones w/Coil Springs over Dampers, Anti-Roll Bar
weight 800 kg / 1764 lbs
wheelbase 2450 mm / 96.5 in
front track 1350 mm / 53.1 in
rear track 1350 mm / 53.1 in
length 4114 mm / 162.0 in
width 1854 mm / 73.0 in
height 1016 mm / 40.0 in
transmission ZF 5DS-26 5 speed Manual
top speed 289.7 kph / 180 mph
0 - 60 mph 4.2 seconds
[b]mod edit: source added
Source: www.supercars.net/cars/1181.html [/b]
