1967 McLaren M6A Chevrolet - Images, Specifications and Information

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The immediately popular and highly lucrative Canadian-American Challenge, or Can-Am, came one season too late for the McLaren M1. Originally designed in 1964, the company's first sports car was clearly outdated compared to the Lola T70 with its monocoque chassis. The McLaren built examples of the spaceframe M1 scored various podium finishes in the 1966 season, but no victories. There was great commercial success for McLaren though as many Can-Am privateers bought examples of the Elva built M1 customer cars.

Bruce McLaren knew what was needed to be competitive in 1967, but he had to balance his time and resources between Formula 1 and Can-Am. In the end there were just 11 weeks available to design and build two new McLarens and have sufficient time left to test the cars before the start of the Can-Am season in September. In charge of putting Bruce McLaren's ideas to paper was young designer Robin Herd, who was assisted by Gordon Cuppock. They had the daunting task of designing McLaren's very first monocoque sports racer.

Bettering the Lola T70 was needless to say the top priority. Herd and Coppuck however also tried to keep things as simple as possible for ease of maintenance as well as to have option of selling a customer version. A mix of aluminum and magnesium was used for the monocoque, which stretched from the front suspension to the rear wheels. Suspension was by top links with radius arms and lower wishbones at the front, and top links, lower wishbones and trailing links at the rear. Stopping power was provided by solid Girling dis brakes.

Mounted amidships behind the driver was a heavily modified version of Chevrolet's popular small-block V8. Years of racing had turned the engine into a real fire-breather, offering a stunning power to weight ratio. The version fitted in the McLaren displaced just under six litre and sported a Lucas fuel injection system, which helped boost power to in excess of 500 bhp. The engines were built by McLaren themselves to ensure every unit was up to their specification. The McLaren/Chevrolet V8 was bolted to a five speed Hewland gearbox.

With all that power available from very low engine revolutions, it was essential that surface area of the tires was maximised. The easiest way to achieve that was by making the wheels and tires wider. Compared to the M1B, the rear wheels grew a whole 2 inches in width to a startling 13.5 inches. They were shod with the latest generation of Goodyear racing tires. The M6A, as the new McLaren Group 7 racer was dubbed, was completed with a straightforward fibreglass body, constructed by Specialised Mouldings.

McLaren Cars not only started the Can-Am season with two new racing cars, they also recruited the services of Formula 1 ace Denny Hulme and changed their paint-scheme to the now very familiar papaya-orange. The M6A's victorious debut at the September 3rd season opening race at Road America was the beginning of the absolute domination of Can-Am by McLaren. Officially known as the 'J-Wax Canadian-American Challenge', the championship was quickly renamed the 'Bruce and Denny Show'. McLaren lost just one race in 1967 and Bruce was crowned champion.

Despite the success of the M6A, McLaren developed a brand new car for the 1968, mainly to adopt the more powerful big-block version of the Chevrolet V8. It was far from the end for the M6 as British specialist Trojan was commissioned to build the M6B production version intended for privateers. An amazing 26 copies of the 1967 champion were built and raced by the likes of Dan Gurney, Vic Elford and Marc Donohue. The three M6As built by McLaren were also sold to customers and Marc Donohue drove one to the M6's only victory of the season.

McLaren dominated the 1968 season with the big-block engined M8A, which was let down only twice by poor reliability. With the M8B of 1969, McLaren made no mistake and won every single race of the season. The company did not let down its customers and developed the hybrid McLaren M12, which combined the M6B chassis with a M8A style body work. Designed to take the big-block V8 engine, the M12s often clinched the best of the rest position behind Bruce and Denny. The final evolution of the M6 came in the form of the M6 GT road car.

Featured are two of the three McLaren M6As built for the 1967 season. Liveried in the striking papaya-orange paint-scheme is chassis M6A/1, the prototype and Bruce's personal racing car. He raced it to two victories and clinched the title, beating his team-mate by three points. It was sold to Jerry Hansen, who struggled to finish a race in 1968. His best result was a 7th. Today the car has been completely restored to its original specification and this historically significant McLaren is part of the impressive Mathews Collection, together with several other McLaren Can-Am cars.

Sporting the equally stylish Sunoco livery of Roger Penske Racing Enterprises is chassis M6A/3. Serving as the spare car in the 1967 season, it was sold to Penske for the 1968 season and replaced his Lola T70. Equipped with a big block V8 engine, it was driven to victory in the Bridgehampton Can-Am race by Marc Donohue after both McLaren M8As retired. Donohue also used this car to successfully defend his USSRC crown. Today this car is regularly raced at events like the Monterey Historic Races where it is pictured above.