Updated

Updated · Car and Driver · Jul 6

McLaren Rebuilds 1 Original M6GT for Goodwood, Reviving Bruce McLaren’s 1960s Road-Car Vision

Updated

Updated · Car and Driver · Jul 6

McLaren Rebuilds 1 Original M6GT for Goodwood, Reviving Bruce McLaren’s 1960s Road-Car Vision

Q: Is this M6GT revival the first of many 'lost' classics McLaren plans to resurrect?

Yes — but only in a limited, heritage-program sense, not as evidence of a broad production run of revived classics. McLaren has presented the recreated M6GT as a one-off, non-retail commission built by McLaren Special Operations using original molds, drawings and period-correct components. It is destined for McLaren’s permanent heritage collection, not for sale, and the company has framed it as a tribute to Bruce McLaren’s first road-car ambition rather than a commercial model line. What makes it significant is that McLaren has also described the M6GT as the starting point for a new Heritage Collection within MSO. That strongly suggests this will not be the last historically focused restoration or recreation project. In that sense, the M6GT does appear to be the first of potentially several “lost” or important McLaren vehicles the company may preserve, rebuild or reinterpret. Still, there is no public indication yet of a slate of future revivals, no named follow-up projects, and no sign that McLaren plans to mass-produce recreated classics. The evidence points to selective, museum-grade heritage commissions rather than a regular series of retro cars. So the best reading is that the M6GT is the first visible project in a broader heritage initiative — but for now, McLaren has only confirmed this single car.

3 articles · Updated · Car and Driver · Jul 6

McLaren Special Operations has completed a one-off M6GT reconstruction that will debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed starting July 9.
The build used an M6A race-car chassis, original body molds found in the U.K. and archive reference materials to recreate the road car Bruce McLaren planned before his death halted the project.
A period-correct small-block Chevy V-8, five-speed manual, restored suspension and hand-fabricated structural parts were fitted to keep the car as close as possible to the original concept.
Only a handful of M6GT prototypes were built in the late 1960s, making the reconstruction a rare look at how McLaren’s first road car might have evolved if the program had continued.
Goodwood will also feature another major reconstruction—Audi’s 1935 Auto Union V-16 speed-record car—alongside McLaren’s current lineup, including the W1 and its Le Mans-bound MCL-HY racer.