427ci Ford V8
540bhp at 7,500rpm
Bosch Mechanical Fuel Injection
4-Speed Hewland Transaxle
4-Wheel Hydraulic Disc Brakes
4-Wheel Independent Suspension

*Ford's factory entry into the 1968 Can-Am series
*Managed by Shelby and driven by Peter Revson
*Recent comprehensive restoration
*One of few McLaren Can-Am cars

THE MCLAREN M6B

A stalwart of the Formula 1 World Championship for 50 years – of the current teams, only Ferrari has been in the sport longer – the company founded by New Zealander Bruce McLaren first rose to prominence in sports car racing, building a highly successful series of prototypes for the emerging Can-Am series in North America.

But the team's initial success was in Can-Am, a series they dominated from 1967 to 1971. Bruce first became involved in design and construction when he bought the 'Zerex Special', a Cooper T53 F1 car that had been converted into a sports-racer towards the end of 1962. Bruce's next Group 7 sports prototype was the M1A. The team's first self-designed car, the M1A was another simple spaceframe design featuring wheels, suspension uprights, and steering arms supplied by Cooper, while the Oldsmobile V8 engine was retained, driving via a Hewland transaxle. Frank Nichols' Elva Cars was already building its own highly successful sports-racers, and he expressed an interest in the new McLaren prototype. The result was an agreement for Trojan (Elva's parent company) to build a production version: the McLaren-Elva, 24 of which were completed.

For 1965, the design was refined as the M1B: a collaborative effort by artist Michael Turner working with team manager Tyler Alexander and designer Robin Herd, it had a blunter noise and sharper cut off at the tail, and was 20% stiffer than the M1A yet no heavier. The chassis featured a mix of large-diameter round and square tubing, with aluminum-alloy paneling forming the bulkheads and under-tray. Suspension was independent by means of wide-based unequal-length wishbones at the front, while at the rear there were radius arms, a single top link, and a lower wishbone.

In 1967, McLaren would finally find their place at the top of the podium, winning all but one race of the season in their M6A. The McLaren M6B would be the Trojan build privateer car that showed great sales success for McLaren, offering a championship quality chassis to any team wanting to advance their racing program.

THE MOTORCAR OFFERED

In 1968 Ford Motor Company looked at competing in the Canadian-American Championship, known more widely as the Can-Am series. Tasked to manage the project was the legend himself, Carroll Shelby. The chassis of choice would be the McLaren M6B, the privateer successor the M6A that McLaren had dominated the season with in 1967. Powering the Trojan built McLaren chassis would be a special built aluminum block Ford, supplied by Ford Motor Company and further modified by Shelby.

This example, Chassis 50-12, is one of two cars that Ford and Shelby campaigned for the 1968 season, being the chassis that Peter Revson drove throughout the season. A Formula One and Indycar competitor, the combination of Ford, Shelby, McLaren and Revson gave the team a very strong fighting chance at the championship.

Chassis 50-12 was campaigned at Road America, Bridgehampton, Edmonton, Laguna Seca, and Riverside in the 1968 season. To finish off 1968, many of the Can-Am teams were invited to race the Mt. Fuji 200 World Challenge race on November 23 at Mt. Fuji in Japan. Spectacularly winning this race, Peter Revson drove to the top step of the podium in 50-12, making this the sole win for the team in the 1968 season. Concluding 1968, Ford withdrew from the Can-Am series to focus its efforts into NASCAR.

Chassis 50-12 sold from Ford to Stan Szarkowicz who installed a Chevy engine and continued to race the car for several years. In 1972, the car caught fire, damaging various components throughout. John Collins was the next owner of 50-12, rebuilding the car after the fire to original specification. In 2000, the car was purchased by its current caretaker. More recently, 50-12 received another restoration that it still wears today.

Chassis 50-12 is sold with a letter from Carroll Shelby verifying the chassis as well as documentation between Ford and Shelby for the project in 1968. Restored and ready to vintage race or for display in a collection of sports and racing cars, this McLaren M6B has some of motorsports finest names associated with it, including Peter Revson, a driver for which very few race cars are ever made available publicly.