1/43 Sunoco McLaren M6B, Can-Am 1968

[klubman01]

This is my model of the Sunoco M6B that Mark Donohue used to achieve his only Can-Am victory of 1968 at Bridgehampton.

 

 

At the end of the 1967 Can-Am season, Roger Penske purchased two cars from Bruce McLaren, M6A-1, Bruce's championship winning car that was used by Donohue to win the 1968 USRRC series, and the unused spare chassis, M6A-3.  This was developed specifically for the 1968 Can-Am series, packing a 7 litre alloy block Chevrolet engine, plus lots of Donohue inspired tweaks and modifications.  My model is of this car.

 

The model is a combination of two different Marsh Models kits.  MM7, a very early kit, and the first to have a resin body, and MM149.  MM7 has the correct style of bodywork for the Bridgehampton race, but the rest of the kit is mostly white metal, and lacks the finer details of later Marsh kits.  MM149 portrays the car in its late season configuration of wider bodywork and an externally mounted oil cooler.  I elected to use the MM7 body combined with the better parts of MM149.

 

The inside of the early body was modified with several sections of 30thou plastic card to replicate the arrangement of the MM149 body.

 

 

I also added the NACA intake situated in the rear part of the left hand sill.  The injection system and airbox was the same in both kits and was a bit crude in my opinion.  I modified the set-up with  Marsh intake stacks (available as an accessory from Marsh), a scratch built manifold plate to sit on top of the engine, and a heavily modified airbox which I widened, and then reshaped with Milliput filler.

 

 

The modified items are on the left, with the original items on the right.

 

The decals from the early kit were yellowed and inaccurate, and those from the later kit were not the same style as at Bridgehampton.  Fortunately, Patto's Place in Australia had the correct style available, so I used those.  There were many, many sections to the pinstripes.  The engine cover alone has 20 separate sections to apply!  Not the work of one evening.  The Champion and Goodyear decals came from the Microsport sheet, as did the Tech Inspection sticker on the roll hoop.  Paint was Humbrol enamel throughout.

 

 

 

So there you are.  Another Can-Am winner.

 

Trevor

[Coors54]

Nice work Trevor, makes a change to see this in a colour other than McLaren Orange.

 

I watched the McLaren documentary again last night, they were golden years weren't they? And the noise those things made!

 

Dave

[Kitkent]

Very nice model Trevor,turned out very well,the Sunoco scheme is a good one..Chris.

[klubman01]

Thanks guys.

 

Roger Penske certainly knew how to produce good looking race cars, but this is my favourite scheme.

 

Trevor

[RabRoberts]

Lovely result Trevor and kudos on the modifications, love those Can-Am cars, I need to get a few in the stash, always fancied a Sunaco 917/30.

 

Cheers - Rab

[klubman01]

Thanks Rab.

 

I do love Can-Am racers.  I've still got quite a few to build, including the Marsh 917/30.  

 

Trevor

[kapam]

Fantastic work; it looks beautiful!

[keefr22]

Another little gem, gorgeous model again Trevor!

 

Keith

[klubman01]

Thanks very much.  

Trevor