1967 McLaren M6/GT Coupe

Racing driver, designer, engineer, and company owner Bruce McLaren had a brilliant life and an impressive racing career. In 1964 he began designing, building and selling McLaren Racing Cars to both the Formula Grand Prix and to the Can-Am series. His McLaren M6 cars would dominate the Can-Am series through 1971.

After achieving success on the racing circuit, he began contemplating a similar success with a line of road-going vehicles based on his championship race cars.

The prototype M6/GT was built in the McLaren Motor Racing shops and later became the personal road car for Bruce. The chassis was built by John Collins, the same individual who worked with John Wyer and the Ford GT40 project.

The M6/GT was a Can-Am car built for the road that was hard to climb into but very enjoyable to drive. Mounted mid-ship was a Chevrolet 'DZ' V8 engine offering 500 horsepower and promising acceleration from 0-to-100 MPH in around eight seconds. Two further GT cars were built by the Trojan Group, which had been franchised by McLaren to produce their customer racing cars.

When John Collins left McLaren, he set up a shop in southern California. He later offered conversions of retired McLaren race cars to M6/GT configuration. This particular example was built by Collins in the mid-1980s. It was built from a Formula 5000 contender wearing chassis 60-16, and was the second-to-last of the 17 model M10As built. The body was obtained from Specialized Mouldings of England, the original body supplier to McLaren.

The car has Girling ventilated disc brakes, a wheelbase that measures 93.5 inches, and independent suspension. Air conditioning was even fitted to make the car even more enjoyable.

The car wears the original orange gel-coat paint that was given to it by well-known SoCal pin striper Shakey Jake.

In 2009, this McLaren M6/GT was offered for sale at the Sports & Classics of Monterey auction in Monterey, California, presented by RM Auctions. The car was estimated to sell for $125,000-$175,000. The lot was sold for $93,500, including the buyer's premium.

By Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2009