The McLaren M6GT is one of the great unfinished stories in supercar history: a mid-engined road car conceived by Bruce McLaren himself in 1969, built to become the world's fastest production automobile, and cut short by his death in June 1970 before a single public customer had taken delivery. London creative studio INK's CGI tribute captures the M6GT in pure, unadorned form, stripped of the racing liveries that distract from its extraordinary proportions.
What Was the McLaren M6GT?
The M6GT grew directly from the McLaren M6A Can-Am racing car that dominated North American sportscar racing in 1967. Bruce McLaren envisioned a road-legal coupe that would compete with Ferrari and Porsche on public roads while simultaneously qualifying for Group 4 endurance racing, which at the time required only 25 examples for homologation. When the FIA raised that threshold to 50 units, the racing programme became unviable for a company of McLaren's scale, but Bruce continued developing his personal car regardless. The one complete prototype, registered OBH 500H, used the proposed M6GT body mated to an existing M6B race chassis and a small-block Chevrolet V8 engine producing in excess of 400 hp. Bruce drove it daily to and from work at Colnbrook, using it as his personal transport and as a rolling development vehicle.
Bruce McLaren, the M6GT, and a Legacy Cut Short
Bruce McLaren was killed on 2 June 1970 at Goodwood during testing of the McLaren M8D Can-Am car, aged 32. His death ended both the M6GT project and the possibility of a McLaren road car for another 22 years. The M6GT prototype he had built became one of three known examples of the model: his personal car, a second prototype kept by the company, and a third car built for a McLaren dealer. None were publicly sold during his lifetime. The project's ambition, a low-slung, mid-engined sports car capable of outrunning the fastest Ferraris, would not be fully realised until the McLaren F1 arrived in 1992, a car whose design team worked directly from the principles Bruce had established with the M6GT.
What INK's Plain Body Rendition Reveals
INK, a London-based creative studio, created the Plain Body CGI series to show significant historic cars as their designers originally intended them: without the sponsorship graphics, racing numbers, and period colour schemes that are inseparable from how most automotive enthusiasts think of these machines. For the M6GT, this approach is particularly revealing. Without any livery, the organic curves of the fastback roof, the delicate relationship between the wide rear haunches and the tapering nose, and the sweeping glasshouse that wraps around the single seat are visible in a way that painted examples rarely allow. The rendition is not a restoration proposal; it is a form of close looking, a visual essay that argues for the M6GT's design meriting the same attention as the great Italian GT cars of the 1960s that it was designed to compete with.
For collectors who appreciate McLaren's racing legacy as physical objects, TheArsenale offers a remarkable range. The McLaren-Honda MP4/4 Full-Scale Tribute recreates the most dominant Formula 1 car in history, while the 1988 McLaren MP4/4 Steering Wheel Re-creation places Ayrton Senna's championship season in your hands. The McLaren M23 James Hunt Japanese GP Poster documents one of the most dramatic championships in F1 history. Explore the complete Cars collection at TheArsenale. Further reading: McLaren's official M6GT heritage page and Top Gear's account of driving Bruce McLaren's original M6GT.
Photo: INK
