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Bruce McLaren once said, “To do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one’s ability, for I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone.”

56 years after the New Zealander died just before his 33rd birthday while testing a McLaren Can-Am car at the Goodwood Circuit in England, those words feel more relevant than ever. McLaren continues to deliver remarkable achievements even though its founder has been gone for more than half a century. The racing outfit he created is the reigning Formula 1 champion, having secured both the driver’s and constructor’s titles in 2025. At the same time, McLaren Automotive keeps producing some of the world’s most admired road-going supercars.

During Monterey Car Week on Thursday, August 13, McLaren Automotive revealed its latest model: the MCL 6GT. The company intends to build a limited run of around 500 customer cars, with production set to begin in 2028. The GT uses a carbon fibre monocoque and carbon fibre bodywork, and although the company is planning a V-8 engine for it, no further powertrain details have been disclosed yet. What is already confirmed, however, is that the M6GT will be McLaren’s first manual-transmission car since the F1 of 1992.

The story behind the new model is every bit as compelling as the car itself, because the company has drawn deeply from its heritage in a bid to energise its future. Back in 1969, Bruce McLaren created a sleek road car that he used as his personal vehicle, and he intended to establish a network of partnerships and launch a production run for customers. He named that car the M6GT, and there are many photographs of him driving it, finished in a striking shade of red that was every bit as bold as the car’s small-block Chevy engine. Today, McLaren refers to this 1969 supercar as “the genesis of McLaren road cars.” Bruce McLaren did not live long enough to see his dream of a production version become reality. Now, the company has brought that idea back to life with a new car inspired by his original vision.

“I knew of the original M6GT,” said McLaren Automotive chief design director Kemal Curic, who joined the company just six months ago, after work on this project had already begun. “This was the car that started it all. This was Bruce McLaren’s first dream, that he wanted to create a roadgoing race car, super-functional, the most comfortable race car for the road, and he was extremely ahead of his time. I always thought to myself, this is the original. This is what McLaren is all about.”

To maximise the impact of the reveal, McLaren presented the new car alongside Bruce McLaren’s original road car, as well as 1968 engineering blueprints showing what the production version from decades ago might have been. Displayed together on a dais, the two machines clearly resemble father and son. The MCL 6GT’s headlamps take inspiration from the original, as does the red paint, which one company official simply described as “Bruce’s Red.” Both cars feature dihedral doors. Both incorporate blades in the bodywork behind the doors. Both use the same taillight design, cleverly shaped like oval racetracks, and the same placement for the twin exhaust outlets at the rear. And both share what the carmaker calls Bruce McLaren’s “maverick spirit.”

And, naturally, both cars come with manual gearboxes. The new model’s gear shifter is a piece of art in its own right, created exclusively for this car and featuring exposed titanium shift linkage.

McLaren’s ambition was not simply to fulfil its founder’s dream, but to combine it with six decades of innovation and technology. “It is symbolic of the bold, provocative and hugely exciting future we are preparing to realise,” said the company’s chief executive officer Nick Collins. If the plan to begin sales in 2028 goes ahead, it is difficult to imagine anything other than McLaren customers around the world rushing to secure one of these cars. If Bruce McLaren were alive today, he would be 89, and surely very pleased.