London-based creative studio INK has a nice little sideline in automotive re-imaginings. Over the past couple of years, INK has created the Plain Body series, a computer-generated portfolio of some of the iconic racing cars ever created, stripped of their liveries and sponsors and rendered in pure, uncompromising white on white.
The latest car to get this treatment is the McLaren M6GT, a legendary 1969 proposal for the world’s fastest road car. Essentially a coupé version of the 1967 McLaren Can Am racing car to compete in Group 4 racing, the project was curtailed by new manufacturing regulations that required 50 examples of a sports car to be made for it to qualify in this ‘production car’ category.
The tiny company couldn’t hope to comply with this, and the MG6B was shelved. Except for one car, devised and designed by McLaren racing founder Bruce McLaren for his own personal use, splicing the proposed bodywork with an existing race chassis.
Registered OBH 500H, the M6GT was essentially a prototype, one that synthesised the company’s extensive skillset and experience on the race track and turn it into a world-beating sports car.
McLaren died whilst testing another car in 1970; his legacy included not just a world-beating racing team and a clutch of iconic cars, but his own personal M6GT, the orange car shown here. It was a tantalising glimpse of what might have been. The McLaren name had to wait for several more decades before it graced an all-conquering road car in the form of the F1.
INK has meticulously recreated the purist forms of the M6GT in virtual form, evoking the feelings of raw power and race car packaging that the original must have conjured up. Considered to the forerunner of all modern McLaren supercars, this render shows what might have been.
We previously reported on INK’s collaboration with photographer Benedict Redgrove and his portfolio of images of the Polestar 3 alongside works by Zaha Hadid Architects. Other classics to be given the Plain Body treatment include Porsche’s all-conquering 917 racing car, the Ford GT40 and the Porsche 959 Paris-Dakar. The agency also has an enviable portfolio of real-world clients, including Aston Martin Formula One, Honda, Mercedes Benz, Porsche, NIO and Maserati.
For more about the Plain Bodies series, visit the INK website
INK, weareINK.co.uk, @weareINK
