Hot Wheels Elite64 McLaren M6 GT – The forgotten legend FEATURETTE
How it all started - Bruce McLaren in a Nutshell:
Bruce McLaren was certainly more than a legend. Born in New Zealand in 1937, he drove his first car races at the age of 15. In 1958, the Australian Jack Brabham brought him into Cooper's Formula 1 team, and in 1959, at the age of 22, McLaren became the youngest winner of a Formula 1 race at the time. In 1966, he founded his own racing team, and in 1969 he finished third in the world championship in a racing car he had designed himself; he was able to take a total of four Grand Prix victories. But on 2 June 1970, Bruce McLaren had a fatal accident during testing. His racing team remained in existence, has contested 831 F1 races to date and achieved 182 victories - making it the most successful team in Grand Prix history behind Ferrari. 2025 could now be a very promising year for McLaren in Formula 1!
Racing history for the road:
Bruce McLaren made his first attempt to bring the glorious racing history to the road as early as 1969. His Spiders with the designation M6B were smashing all opponents in the CanAm racing series in North America, so McLaren planned to offer a sports car on the same basis for selected customers. Initially, the M6GT was only intended to be a racing car for endurance racing, but Bruce McLaren also had a road-going version built for his own use. And his team colleague Deniis Hulme also wanted one. And Steve McQueen is also said to have bought one to use in his LeMans film. It is rumoured that a total of four were built between 1967 and 1970, all powered by a Chevrolet LT1 V8 engine with a displacement of 5.7 litres and an output of 370 hp. Because its aluminium monocoque weighed only 800 kilos, the driving performance was sensational, almost 300 km/h could be reached and the M6GT accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.2 seconds. It was a great pity that the 250 examples that Bruce McLaren wanted to build never materialised. Nevertheless, the typical papaya orange colour of the M6GT is still used by McLaren today.
Number 12 from Hot Wheels:
Hypercars, Stadium Trucks, Libertywalk Widebody cars, ultimate classics: Elite 64 is a Premium-style series featuring true 1:64-scale cars. All castings feature multiple separate parts for added detail, bespoke Real Rider wheels specific to each car and may feature removable or opening parts. The line is available exclusively on HotWheelsCollectors.com, with each numbered casting priced at USD $20 and more; a Red Line Club membership is not required to purchase the cars. The price-performance ratio is absolutely justified for this model. With shipping, the price will unfortunately be almost $40 by the time the model arrives here in Switzerland. But all in all, we really have to admit that Elite64 has taught us better. Initially ridiculed, this series has established itself extremely well. The fact that we don't get the standard models as Hot Wheels in this series, but absolute exotics, is a great advantage!
These include the 1996 Toyota Chaser JZX100, LBWK Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4, Porsche 928 Safari, Pandem Datsun 280ZX, Bugatti Type 59 and now number 12: the Mclaren M6GT! The bonnet can be opened and makes many other manufacturers look old. Which also brings us to the point: with this car, Hot Wheels actually shows that they can depict engine compartments in detail, don't they? Why can't this be transferred to a premium Mazda 787b? Or a De Tomaso Mangusta from the Red Line Club series? So let's hope that the Red Line Club Lamborghini Miura takes the M6GT as an example and also delivers such a great performance. We will of course keep you up to date! And as for Elite64: We are so hyped for the next models to follow! We'd like to see a Ferrari F50 with an opening bonnet, or what do you think?
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