McLaren Special Operation (MSRO) has revealed a special one-off restored M6GT as a tribute to founder Bruce McLaren, who passed away before it could enter series production. Revered as the genesis for all McLaren’s road cars, according to its maker, the restored M6GT will feature as part of McLaren’s stand at this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK.

The M6GT represents an important part of McLaren’s history as it was planned to be its first production model and transition McLaren from racing car company to producing road cars as well. Unfortunately, Bruce McLaren’s death in 1970 saw plans for a McLaren road car scrapped until the F1 hypercar that entered production in 1992.

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More than half a century after the original M6GT, MSO revealed its special one-off M6GT that was built using an original chassis of an M6A race car. Restored using original moulds, drawings, photographs and reference materials, the M6GT is also serving as a new starting point for a heritage collection within MSO and will open up the company to complete more for the future.

According to McLaren, the M6GT uses a period-correct small-block Chevrolet V8 engine and five-speed manual transmission. When originally developed, the prototype M6GT could reportedly hit a top speed of 265km/h and even launch from 0 to 160km/h in just eight seconds, making it quite fast even today.

According to McLaren, the suspension is the original M6GT hardware but restored and rebuilt. Many of the M6GT’s components required the sourcing of imperial-era bearings, reportedly specified to standards that are no longer in regular production. Scans of the M6GT’s windscreen shape were sent to a specialist supplier in order to recreate its unique profile.

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Inside the M6GT “balances restraint with intimacy” with a hand-turned solid walnut gear knob, custom vinyl-trimmed seats and a stitched heat-seam in a warm green colour. In fact, the ‘Colnbrook’ white and green colour combination of the M6GT was chosen as a tribute to Bruce’s first McLaren Formula 1 car, the 1966 M2B.

McLaren’s Goodwood stand will also include a number of its models, including an M8A Can-Am race car, the W1 hypercar, an F1 GTR race car and even a “high point of its current supercar era” that’s yet to debut. The Goodwood Festival of Speed will run this week from July 9 to 12.