The Petersen Automotive Museum To Launch McLaren Exhibit This Month

Photo Credit: McLaren

McLaren enthusiasts, it’s time to speed your way to the Petersen Automotive Museum, which takes an exclusive look at the iconic racing and road creations of one of the most famous names in motorsports — McLaren. Opening to the public on June 18, 2022, in the Charles Nearburg Family Gallery on the museum’s second floor, the display features a diverse collection of the most ground-breaking McLaren vehicles ever to grace the open road and racetrack.

Photo Credit: McLaren

The aptly named “The Color of Success: McLaren’s Papaya Livery” focuses on the periods when McLaren has employed it’s now-famous orange paint scheme and includes some of the rarest examples of McLaren’s early racecars from Can-Am, Formula 1, USAC, Formula 2 and Formula 5000. Included among them is the vaunted 1967 McLaren M6A. The first McLaren to ever feature the now-famous papaya orange livery, the M6A was developed in just 11 weeks and began McLaren’s era of Can-Am racing dominance. More modern McLarens are also part of the display, with the innovative 2018 MCL33 Formula 1 racer on exhibit. The last racecar piloted by Fernando Alonso before his initial retirement featured a return to McLaren’s famous livery with the addition of unique blue, yellow, and red stripes in recognition of Alonso’s home region of Asturias, Spain.

Photo Credit: McLaren

Other unique McLaren creations on display include the rare 1969 M6 GT. Only one of three in the world, the wickedly-fast M6 GT was meant to be McLaren’s first road car, but the project was canceled after Bruce’s death less than a year later. Showing the breadth of McLaren’s motorsports knowledge is the M16. A successor to the earlier M15, the McLaren M16 was its most successful USAC design, ultimately winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1974 and 1976.