McLaren McL 6GT debuts at Car Week with three pedals and a nostalgic design, bringing back the manual transmission. We’ve been beating this drum for a long time, and it seems as though manufacturers are finally starting to understand the need to introduce more manual transmissions. Ferrari, probably the oldest proponent of the “an automatic is faster” adage, has its pseudo-manual 12Cilindri coming, Porsche reintroduced a manual for its 911 Carrera S, and now McLaren joins the budding field of three-pedal builders with its McL 6GT.
But now is a bit of a tease. The production model won’t actually arrive until 2028, when it will carry a price of about $1.5 million. What you see here is a “pre-production prototype.” The 6GT follows a function formula—except for the manual trans—that’s familiar to McLaren, meaning a carbon-fiber tub and body with a mid-mounted engine.
View Price on AmazonMcLaren wouldn’t get into specifics on the engine, but we know this prototype was runner. If the shift pattern on the rather bulbous shifter is to be believed, it’s a six-speed. It’s probably a safe bet to assume the production car will have a V-8 of some variety. The form of this new car, of which McLaren will build 500 units, is breaking new ground, or at least treading ground McLaren hasn’t in decades.
It doesn’t have the scalloped headlights of a 750S. It doesn’t have a lot of exposed scoops. Just a single, low intake on each side with horizontal strakes. A keen eye will clock the well camouflaged intakes just behind the side glass. A tiny low-profile wing that’s mostly integrated with the body is out back above a diffuser and a pair of ovoid exhaust tips. That wing is fixed, but there is some active aero that manipulates the downforce happening underneath the skin.
Ultimately it looks like a modern mid-engine supercar, albeit with more reserved styling than what we’re used to seeing from McLaren. There’s a bit more McLaren familiarity inside the cabin, though it isn’t the carbon-fiber cocoon we’re used to. Quilted Alcantara covers, though not completely, the doors, sills, and seats. Between those seats is arguably the most important part of the car. The shifter has exposed linkage with large-diameter bushings.
Source: caranddriver.com
