McLaren revealed the McL 6GT at Monterey Car Week on August 14, 2026. It has a V8, rear-wheel drive, a carbon-fibre monocoque, hydraulic steering, and a gear lever you move yourself. It is the first McLaren road car with a manual gearbox since the F1, which went out of production in 1998, and the concept previews a production model due in 2028.
The name is not a codename. Reports through the summer had the car pencilled in as the "P50", which turned out to be wrong. McL 6GT points at the M6GT, the road car Bruce McLaren was developing from the M6A Can-Am racer in the late 1960s and did not live to see finished.
What McLaren has confirmed
- Status: concept, previewing a production model in 2028
- Engine: V8 internal combustion, no hybrid assistance
- Drivetrain: rear-wheel drive
- Gearbox: manual, with the shifter engineered for feel and throw
- Chassis: McLaren's latest super-lightweight carbon-fibre monocoque, with carbon-fibre bodywork
- Steering: hydraulically assisted, not electric
- Interior: portrait touchscreen, digital instrument cluster, knurled machined aluminium controls, boxed-quilt trim, switchgear unique to this car
- Power, torque, displacement, weight, seating, 0 to 100 km/h, top speed, price, production volume: not released
That last line is most of the spec sheet, and it is worth being blunt about it. McLaren has announced a layout and a philosophy, not a set of numbers. Reports that the car uses fewer than 100 units of production, or that it borrows the W1's twin-turbo V8 and tub, are not confirmed by McLaren. Even whether the V8 is turbocharged or naturally aspirated is unstated, and the gear count is inconsistent between outlets, with some reporting six speeds and others noting McLaren did not specify.
Two decisions that matter more than the gearbox
The manual is the headline, and it is the reason the car exists. But two quieter choices tell you how seriously the brief was taken.
The first is hydraulic steering. McLaren never moved to an electric rack in the way most of the industry did, and keeping hydraulic assistance here is consistent rather than nostalgic. It is also the harder path: an electric rack is lighter, easier to package and better for efficiency targets.
The second is the absence of hybrid assistance. McLaren's two newest cars are both built around electrification: the Artura is a plug-in hybrid and the W1 is the halo that replaced the P1. A clean-sheet car with no motor, no battery and no torque fill is McLaren choosing weight and directness over the numbers a hybrid would have delivered, and siding with the 750S and GTS rather than the direction the range has been moving. It also means the driver has to manage the engine, because there is no electric torque covering the gap while a turbo spools or while the clutch is down.
The M6GT connection is not just a name
The references are specific rather than decorative. There is a three-dimensional "Speedy Kiwi" emblem inside the gearstick shaft and another on the fuel filler cap. Bruce McLaren's signature appears in the engine bay. A "Racing Loop" motif in the lighting is drawn from the original M6GT's tail lights, and McLaren says the digital instrumentation was designed to keep the clarity and emotional appeal of the M6GT's gauges rather than replace them with a screen full of menus. The concept even wears the registration OBH 500H, a nod to the plate on the M6GT Bruce McLaren built for himself.
CEO Nick Collins framed it as finishing an unfinished job: the McL 6GT "imagines what our inspirational founder had wished to complete but with six additional decades of innovation and passion woven through every element, creating a modern icon of driver connection."
What it is not
McLaren has been unusually clear that the McL 6GT does not preview a new design language, even if individual details reach other models later. It sits beyond the core range rather than replacing anything in it, and the manual is not coming to the Artura or the 750S. Read that as a limited, expensive, deliberately analogue car aimed at people who already own several McLarens, not a change of direction.
That is a familiar shape for 2026. Gordon Murray, who engineered the original F1, showed his own lightweight driver's car at The Quail on the same day. The market for a car whose selling point is that it asks more of you is currently very good.
See how the two cars the McL 6GT sits between compare on our McLaren 750S vs McLaren Artura breakdown.
The basics
| McLaren McL 6GT | |
|---|---|
| Revealed | August 14, 2026, Monterey Car Week |
| Status | Concept |
| Production version | Due 2028 |
| Engine | V8, internal combustion, no hybrid |
| Gearbox | Manual |
| Drivetrain | Rear-wheel drive |
| Chassis | Carbon-fibre monocoque, carbon-fibre body |
| Steering | Hydraulically assisted |
| Power | Not released |
| Weight | Not released |
| 0 to 100 km/h | Not released |
| Top speed | Not released |
| Price | Not released |
| Production volume | Not released |
| Inspiration | Bruce McLaren's M6GT, based on the M6A Can-Am car |
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Sources: This is the new McL 6GT: the first manual McLaren since 1992's F1 (Top Gear, August 14, 2026); McLaren Goes Retro With The McL 6GT, Its First Manual Car Since The F1 (Jalopnik); McLaren McL 6GT Revealed: The Brand's First Manual Supercar In 34 Years (Motor1); McLaren Revives Manual in First Stick-Shift Supercar Since F1 (The Drive); 2026 McLaren McL 6GT revealed at Monterey Car Week (CarsGuide); McLaren McL 6GT, Manual and V8 (GTspirit). Photography: James Lipman for McLaren.