Well, it's pretty cool to sit where Bruce McLaren sat in his own car. I mean, when I was 20 years old, I never thought I would have this opportunity, you know.
Well, he drove these cars to his race and then he went and picked up groceries.
In 1970, 1969, you're driving this car, picking up your groceries.
Welcome to the episode of Jay Leno's Garage. Once again, true automotive royalty. The car we're featuring today is Bruce McLaren's personal own car, 1969 M6 GT. This was a car that was going to be a road car. He wanted to have a street car, and I think it's a great look. It still looks contemporary today. I mean, this thing is 50 years old. And we also have a surprise right here: a modern version of this car. I didn't even know about this until it showed up here. But it looks like there's a McLaren coming that's going to have a proper manual transmission. Correct. So that'll be really exciting. Let's meet Kamal Kurrick. He's the chief design officer at McLaren.
Good to see you. You've been kicking around for a while. We met a couple years ago. You got the plum job. That's great. Congratulations.
You know, it's very exciting. I've sort of been in on the ground floor of McLaren when they opened in Woking. I got one of the first 12 seats. So, it's fun just to watch the company keep moving forward, because so many fall by the wayside and go out of business, but they seem to have the right way of doing things. And Bruce McLaren was a visionary. I know his sister's been to the garage. You have other members of the McLaren family. So, it's fun to have you here, and thank you for bringing this. And we're going to drive this car today. This was going to be a street car, wasn't it?
This was meant to be the street car, right?
Right. So, we got about 370 horse Chevy V8. What, the 350, I guess. 7 liter.
That's right. It's liters over there, not cubic inches stuff. Yeah. It looks like it could be a street car. I mean, it's pretty cool looking. And that's sort of the inspiration for this car.
Correct. Yeah. So, the M6 GT, as you said, this was meant to be the race car, but built for the road.
So, only two of those were made. Personal car from Bruce McLaren himself.
Right. And this was obviously the guiding star for the design team. You can see how this car, to your point, it looks ahead of its time.
To me, this is the prettiest era of design. You know, the Ford GT, the Le Mans, all that stuff, the Chaparrals. I just like this era, you know, with the gas cap right up to here and all that. They just don't do those kind of things anymore. You got to be really aerodynamic. And this is when aerodynamics was, 'that looks aerodynamic enough,' you know, as opposed to now everything is all, you know, computerized and everything like that. But I just like that seat-of-your-pants stuff. You stick tape to the roof, you go watch it, you look at the film, what does the tape do, and then you change the tape. Yeah. It's really cool. And the thing that I love most, it's based on existing parts.
It's a Chevrolet engine, at least modern for the time.
It is modern for the time. Yes. Yes. Every V8.
It's 370 horsepower. As you said, it was like a 4-second car at that time.
Well, that was incredibly fast.
That was incredibly fast for 1969.
It's got a transaxle and it has all the cool things you needed in the period. Obviously, disc brakes all the way around. But it's just a big old honking American V8, which, as Ford proved, was reliable, you know. I mean, that GT40 won Le Mans not with the small 289, just the big slow-moving 427 in comparison, you know, wasn't hitting seven grand every day. You just, just like a locomotive, just all kinds of torque. And they ran that, what, four years, they ran that car, won, yeah, it's great, won four or five times out of six races, matter of fact, before he decided he's going to make a production car or street-legal car. And this one is a five-speed.
This one is a four-speed.
But again, it's a wonderful sounding car, too. We're going to take it for a spin a little bit.
We will take it for a spin. Let's focus on this one a little bit. Now, the inspiration comes from this car.
Obviously, this is what Bruce McLaren would be driving if he were still with us, probably. So, fair to say this is right-hand drive because English car. Six-speed? Five-speed?
Six-speed, manual, true manual. So the inspiration for the MCL GT came from the M6 GT, which was really the spiritual successor. We didn't want to create another retro vehicle, but rather look at some of the key elements which inspired this car. Like, you can see how pure it is, how very sensual it is, how exaggerated some of these forms and shapes are. But at the same time, we looked at the purpose built on this vehicle. There was no empty calories for that time, which is quite extraordinary.
Yeah, empty calories. I like that. Yeah, that's funny that you say that. Yeah, I mean, I could see the relationship. It looks like a modded version of that, which I think is pretty impressive. McLaren, every car is so incredibly fast now.
Well, let's get back to driving pleasure. I mean, obviously, nobody can drive a stick faster than a dual-clutch, but there's a certain pleasure that you get in going through the gears, and you know, everything else doesn't have to be. I mean, so many modern cars are going to, 'Hey, I'm in jail. What happened, officer? I just didn't really...' You know, I enjoy watching the tach sweep across and shifting, hit the gas, blip it, come in. Yeah. Yeah. It's just great fun. So, it'll be fun to get a... I think there'll be a huge demand for a manual transmission.
Absolutely. It's the most visceral, most engaging for the driver. Going back to the basics, the very last McLaren we built was the F1, which you own yourself, right? And we decided it's the right time. The demand is there, and we really want to go to purity of driving.
Well, that was the last manual car, wasn't it? Yeah. It's hard to believe that's '94 or whatever it was. Yeah.
Yeah. I wonder why it took everybody so long. I think you just had to get the dual-clutch thing out of your head, you know, just everybody thinks going fast is the way to go as opposed to just enjoying the driving. You're just fun of just going through it and getting the soul of the car and the whole bit. Yeah. Very nice.
And also the lightweight is another thing which we learned from the past. This car was 800 kilos.
So that's very light for 370 horsepower. You can imagine the ratio was incredible. So the goal for this McLaren, now being carbon tub, carbon structure, an entire car is fully carbon. It's going to be one of the lightest McLarens we've ever built.
Really? What do you figure, weight?
We'll have the figures when we launch the production car, but we're working towards it. I mean, McLaren is totally obsessed with weight saving. This is one of the key tenets for McLaren.
Well, that was always my favorite thing, you know, when I got my F1. Like, when you buy a supercar now, they give you the watch that some company makes, and it's this big enormous thing. The watch for the F1, it's about the size of a quarter. It's, you know, it's that ethos of Gordon Murray. Light. You just need to know the time. That's all you need to know. And it's very lightweight, you know, it's kind of cool. So, yeah, I'm glad they've sort of kept that all along because I love mine. I love my 12C, and I love the timeless styling of it. You know, when it came out, people said, 'Nah, it's not that exciting looking.' But boy, it holds up incredibly well. When I drive it, what is it, 14 years old now? People go, 'Is this new?' Because it does look new. People go, 'Is this a new car?' No, this is 14. It is. It doesn't have a dated look to it, you know.
So, but I think that goes back to the importance when you keep things simple. Like, MCL GT is actually quite pure in its shapes. It ages really well, where you have all the, like I said earlier, the empty calories, and you start to add a lot of stuff to the car. We were very deliberate about keeping the noise away. The car doesn't scream, doesn't shout. It's quite confident in terms of expression. We're quite proud of some of the achievements, even on the headlamps, the way they executed. There's actually intakes integrated with the headlamps.
And plus nowadays, in those days, you got to have the headlights a quarter inch off the ground. Nobody cared. Now you've got so many rules and regulations. You've got to hit a pedestrian, he's got to get up laughing. You know, you have all these rules now which don't exist. I mean, the reason they stopped building the first-generation Ford GT was they changed rules. Lights need to be two inches higher. Well, you couldn't raise them two inches in that. It'd look like a Bugeye Sprite, you know, and so they just stopped production of the car, you know. So, the fact that you have to follow this crazy amount of rules and regulations just to get it to work.
We actually embraced it. We created a super low front end on this vehicle. If you look at the front end, it's like one of the lowest McLarens, but at the same time, some of the openings, like I said, there's not just a light signature, it's also an intake for the coolings, right? So, there's deliberately no lens behind it. So we wanted to get it as low as the original car was in order to achieve that. To your point, there is a legal limit at one point which this car achieves it.
But at the same time, gives you this really dramatic low-to-the-ground proportions. They're extraordinary on this vehicle.
It's funny, like, this car is low, but I guarantee you could drive this to any gas station and you won't scrape it pulling up. You won't, because it's high enough off the ground. A lot of modern stuff is like just crazy. You know, you got to hit the button, bring it up just to get you up. Whereas I love cars from this era because you could drive them in real-world conditions, you know.
What else is different about this? That V8, obviously.
Well, you don't know yet. It's not finished.
We don't have the horsepower yet. We're going to have to wait a moment. But you can see some of the aero effects and channeling happens within the body. Again, going back to the original ethos, keeping it really purposeful and pure, particularly on these two strong front fenders. So, you can see the intake behind the C-pillar. It goes straight to the motor and hides quite the technology behind there.
Was there a lot of discussion about building a manual? Because, you know, a lot of manufacturers say people say they want it, but then nobody buys it, you know. You sort of hear that, you know.
Well, our customers, our clients really were eager to get into the manual. We always listen to our clients. We always listen to the feedback, what they want. And we're giving them what they've actually been asking for for many, many years.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's great. Very exciting. Explain some of the badging to me here now. Okay, there's the kiwi. Okay, that's New Zealand. That's Bruce McLaren's stripe, is that what that is? Okay. Yes. And what is this here?
So this is the shield. So we really wanted to kind of have an homage to Bruce and his legacy. Muriwai Beach, the very first race he won in the 1950s, and that's meant to represent it.
Oh, okay. And this... Thank you for making a metal badge. It's not a stick-on decal. Thank you very much. I think it's great. Oh, cool. All right. That's pretty neat. You got some real... Oh, you got the outside filler cap, which is...
Yeah. If you walk around it, you can see it's all real, genuine, real authentic. You can see we wanted to keep it exposed. You can see again some beautiful details there on the speedy kiwi, we call this.
So, it's a real fuel cap.
And overall, just the entire gesture of this whole car is very simplistic and very pure.
And the kiwi is not a particularly fast bird, is it?
No, it'd be just funny because it's New Zealand. Just... And I like that. Do you remember there was an English car? Their logo was a turtle. You know what I mean? It had the Chevy V8. I can't remember the name of it, but it just made me laugh. Really? Have a turtle as your symbol of the...
Speed. [laughter] Okay. Another badging here.
Repeats himself. Yes. And then same thing happens on the steering wheel, right?
Okay. All right. Yeah. On the steering wheel as well.
Yes.
Some other highlights. Jay, I just want to... you've seen how it feels from inside when we drive the M6 GT. Really, a lot of... we want to convey this emotion at a glance when you see this car. Very pure, got-to-have-it moment with this car. It's quite sensual, and you can even see the headlamps are quite distinctive, the quad headlamps with air intake on the lower. We believe down the road, miles away, you'll always know there's a McLaren coming at you. For me, the most intriguing view is the back end. These racetrack-inspired taillight graphics, and as I always say, this is what most people will see on a McLaren is the back end.
So it's McLaren, right? And then McLaren 6GT, right? And what does the six connotate? What does that mean? Do you know?
It's just in continuation of the cars that were built at that period. Yes.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, very nice.
You can see the exhaust pipes as well. The way they...
Is it pretty much production shape? Pretty close.
It's a concept preview of a production to come in 2028.
So you get feedback as people like that kind of thing. Yeah.
Well, we're still working through certain details.
Fine-tuning. And what is fine-tuning most of these days? Aerodynamics. Just trying to find out where the air is going all the time.
Yeah. So the aero happens most of the time below this car. So underneath, you can see the diffuser, which is really functional, connects to the entire car. In this case, you can see there's no visible spoilers or wings, right? It really happens with your body.
Yeah. I remember when they had the Ford Cobra Coupe and they had the Kamm tail back, and people thought it looked crazy. 'How is that aerodynamic? Shouldn't it be like a teardrop or like an arrow?' No, it just... And that was obviously superior. Yeah. It's... strange things happen above 150 miles an hour, don't they? You know, they do.
Yeah. You never know where it's going to...
I've driven a couple of times at that speed. We took the Carrera GT to Talladega. We did a bunch of laps at 190 miles an hour, and... I mean, it was just walking around, you know. And I was coming down the back straight, and the guy went like this. Okay. Okay. I took my foot off the gas, back end came around, just spun eight times down the center of the track. It just... just a little too much input. But I mean, it was amazing. I was like, 'I drive like that.' It was funny. It was funny. Well, let's get back to this one now. Let's get back to my era. 1969. I was 19 years old, and this would have been the end of the world. I mean, and I love the... I call these Japanese mirrors. They used them because they were on all the Japanese cars of the day, the 240Z and all of those, you know. My Miura had those on, those kind of like... and I like them. A lot of people don't like them, but you really can't adjust it from the driver's seat, but other than that, it's pretty cool.
In fact, how do you adjust them?
I think you just push the glass. Yeah. See,
so you have to get out every time.
Yeah. You just get... Oh, yeah. You got to get out every time. There you go.
And that's the wind. You can't close that window, can you?
Nothing overly complicated. Nothing breakthrough. Just real solid engineering, isn't it? I mean,
solid engineering and very puristic design.
Yeah. No experimenting on this. It's just a good-looking car. And McLaren himself kind of sketched this, didn't he?
Bruce McLaren worked with a few designers as well, engineers. So, there's four of them. And yeah, he was a big part of this.
Can we open the hood and show them what's underneath here?
Travel with two hood openers.
Two [laughter] professional hood openers. Let me hold it for you. Yep.
Oh, there we go. Nice and easy. We got our stand holding the hood up here. Big honking Chevy V8 here. 350 with a single four-barrel carburetor. On the street, guys put dual quads on because I think that's... this is more efficient and you get more power, don't you? Car. And this is where a spare tire would go, right? You've got a rule that you got to carry a spare tire. So that would bolt on there. And this is the sexiest gearbox, the ZF. You know, it's so funny. We built so many mid-engine cars in the '60s. This one, the Pantera, the Ford GT, yet it took us, what, 50 years to come out with a mid-engine Corvette. You know, it just seemed like, yeah, we know this is the best setup. Can we do that, please? You know, but for some reason it just took a long time. Just really... I always loved this gearbox. I just thought it was the coolest thing that would hang out here. It looks like you're using just factory headers on it, right? Just...
This one has factory headers.
Yeah. Just... Well, it's a street car. I keep forgetting that. I mean, it's easy to work on, distributor's right there, you know. I mean, boy, it's very cool. It's so basic and simple, but it gets the job done, doesn't it?
Yeah. Very nice. Yeah. It's just a great-looking car. And these tires, well, they're almost hysterically wide. I mean, it's unbelievable. You think you'd be breaking axles with this thing, but it's just putting that power down. And of course, no traction control, no ABS, none of that, you know, none of that even existed at the time. This was a, you know, a pretty hairy thing to drive.
Just a man in the machine.
Man and the machine. That's right. And I just like the rust on the bolts. So, I mean, it's been used. It's a road car. Yeah. Very cool. So, how far away... when did Bruce die? Do you remember?
'70. That's what I thought. So, this was kind of set to go into production, and then when he died, that was pretty much the end of it, wasn't it?
Yeah. That was pretty much the end of it. He planned to do a few hundreds of these.
