A McLaren 650S To Celebrate 50 Years Of Can-Am

Published on October 13, 2015 in News by Frédérick Boucher-Gaulin

McLaren was a serious contender in the Can-Am series for a long time. When the very first race was held in 1966, the manufacturer was on the starting grid. The next year, McLaren dominated; of the 6 races, they won 5! After that, Bruce McLaren's team kept on winning, securing the '68, '69, '70 and '71 championships.

The series stopped in 1987, but McLaren still has fond memories of the era; to mark the 50th anniversary of their domination in the division, they decided to entrust MSO (their one-off vehicle division) with the task of building a limited edition of the 650S Spyder.

Compared to the regular version, the 650S Can-Am will be painted in red and adorned with white stripes (as a reminder of the livery used on the 1960's race car). It will also sport a hood, front splitter, rear bumper centre, spoiler and side skirts made of exposed carbon fibre. The wheels are unique, and are a nice throwback to those used on the car Bruce McLaren drove. And in case you don't like the red paint job, you can spec your car in either Black or Papaya Orange, both of which also include stickers designed to remind us of the manufacturer's historical liveries.

Performance-wise, the car will feature the same twin-turbo 3.8 litre V8 found in the 650S; it will however get a unique exhaust and carbon ceramic brakes.

Only 50 McLaren 650S Can-Ams will be built; there have been no official announcements about the North American price, but the car will be sold for 225,650 pounds in the UK, which equates to around $447,480 here.

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