Photo: McLaren
Back in the 1960s, Bruce McLaren was still trying to put his racing team on the map. The Kiwi racing driver, designer, and engineer decided on the M6A as his challenger for the 1967 Can-Am Challenge Cup, winning five of the six races of which Bruce won two with the #4.
The number four decal soldiers on in the one-off interpretation of the Elva, a special livery that pays tribute to the M6A as well as McLaren’s first-ever orange racing car. The MSO has even replicated the period-correct fonts for McLaren Cars and Bruce McLaren, which goes to show how much attention to detail you can expect from McLaren Special Operations.
Two things, however, didn’t make the cut. These are the fixed wing and rollover hoop of the M6A, but on the other hand, the sexy arches of the oldtimer carry over if you squint your eyes a little. Hoping to find a Chevrolet V8 under the hood is wishful thinking as well, a naturally aspirated engine that cranked out 525 horsepower from 5.9 liters of displacement.
Like the 720S and Ultimate Series models such as the Senna and Speedtail, the Elva relies on a twin-turbo V8 with 4.0 liters on deck and a little more than 800 horsepower. Priced at 1.425 million pounds before options, the Elva numbers 399 examples of the breed for the entire world.
Elva may mean “she goes” in French, but the nameplate originates from a British automaker that folded in 1968. Based in Bexhill, this company produced both racing cars and customer cars for McLaren in addition to Elva designs such as the Courier coupe and convertible.
McLaren says the Elva is the automaker’s lightest road car to date but McLaren didn’t share the curb weight to support this claim. What’s certain, however, is that the engineers have found a way to drop a few kilos off the Senna’s 1,198 kilograms. Speaking of which, the Senna is not as rare as the Elva at 500 units and not as expensive either at £750,000.
Two things, however, didn’t make the cut. These are the fixed wing and rollover hoop of the M6A, but on the other hand, the sexy arches of the oldtimer carry over if you squint your eyes a little. Hoping to find a Chevrolet V8 under the hood is wishful thinking as well, a naturally aspirated engine that cranked out 525 horsepower from 5.9 liters of displacement.
Like the 720S and Ultimate Series models such as the Senna and Speedtail, the Elva relies on a twin-turbo V8 with 4.0 liters on deck and a little more than 800 horsepower. Priced at 1.425 million pounds before options, the Elva numbers 399 examples of the breed for the entire world.
Elva may mean “she goes” in French, but the nameplate originates from a British automaker that folded in 1968. Based in Bexhill, this company produced both racing cars and customer cars for McLaren in addition to Elva designs such as the Courier coupe and convertible.
McLaren says the Elva is the automaker’s lightest road car to date but McLaren didn’t share the curb weight to support this claim. What’s certain, however, is that the engineers have found a way to drop a few kilos off the Senna’s 1,198 kilograms. Speaking of which, the Senna is not as rare as the Elva at 500 units and not as expensive either at £750,000.
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