The McLaren Elva heritage meets its ancestor, the M1A, on the Laguna Seca race track

Racers Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme both originally made their mark on the circuits of the 1960’s at the wheel of the potent McLaren M1A, a car that paved the way for McLaren’s global success in both Can-Am racing and road cars. Powered by thundering Oldsmobile V8’s, the McLaren M1A Mk1 became synonymous with McLaren’s success in North American racing, piloted by such luminaries as Chris Amon and Graham Hill. To celebrate the links between McLaren Automotive’s latest Ultimate Series car, the 804bhp McLaren Elva and its illustrious forebears, McLaren Beverly Hills has created an evocative video of the new Elva. Alongside one of the historic Can-Am McLarens, the video features reminiscences from key McLaren personalities including; McLaren Racing CEO, Zak Brown, McLaren Indy 500 winner, Jonny Rutherford and former McLaren F1 driver, JP Montoya. About the new McLaren Elva: Limited to just 149 versions globally, the latest McLaren Elva is a ferociously fast, open-cockpit, extreme two-seater with a bespoke carbon fibre chassis and body but no roof, no windscreen and no side windows. With every sensory input heightened, this is a car that exists to provide unparalleled driving pleasure on road or track. A 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged McLaren V8 from the same family of engines that powers the McLaren Senna and Senna GTR combines with the lightest vehicle weight of any road car produced by McLaren Automotive to give the superlight new Ultimate Series roadster truly breath-taking performance across the board, with extraordinary levels of acceleration, agility and driver feedback. About the McLaren M1A: Designed by Bruce McLaren, the McLaren M1A was superlight, weighing just 1,215lbs with a lightweight but very rigid and strong chassis. A 340bhp Oldsmobile 4.5-liter V8 was mid-mounted. Suspension was cutting-edge for the mid-1960s: fully independent, with unequal length wishbones, anti-roll bar and adjustable coil springs and shock absorbers at the front and reversed lower wishbones with similar coil springs at the rear. The molded resin bodywork – again light in weight – was visually very distinctive, with the M1A and McLaren-Elva M1A [Mk I] both having a pointed nose and absence of any lip at the rear. The styling of the later McLaren-Elva M1B [Mk II] and M1C [Mk III] was more muscular, but from the outset the cooling ducts and side fuel tanks integrated into the design were laying down the principles of ‘form follows function’ and ‘everything for a reason’ to which McLaren still rigorously adheres. When the M1A raced in September 1964 at the Canadian Sports Car Grand Prix – the forerunner to the famous Canadian-American (Can-Am) Challenge Cup that McLaren drivers won for five consecutive years from 1967 to 1971 – it took third place overall but was the fastest car on the circuit, equalling the lap-record four times and breaking it seven more. Demand for customer cars after such an impressive showing was immediate, but with just seven employees at McLaren – all of whom were engaged in building team racing cars – the only solution was to outsource production. Frank Nichols of Elva Cars Ltd, a small, specialist sportscar manufacturer based in Sussex, UK, proposed that he would build replica versions of the M1A and in November 1964, McLaren and Elva’s parent company agreed terms to proceed. The McLaren-Elva M1A [Mk I] developed into the McLaren-Elva M1B [Mk II] and then the McLaren-Elva M1C [Mark III], the cars competing in privateer hands while in parallel the status of the McLaren brand grew as it moved towards becoming a major force in top-level motorsport. The McLaren-Elva M1B [Mk II] attracted the attention of American automotive magazine Road & Track, which in July 1966, declared it, “the fastest car we’ve ever tested (and) an example of the latest thinking in sports/racing cars.” The final iteration of the series, the McLaren-Elva M1C [Mk III], was introduced in 1967, by which time the McLaren works team had moved into a new era with the M6A. ⚡️⚡️ Discover all the new cars before anyone else! ⚡️⚡️ 🏎️SUBSCRIBE NOW to CAR VIDS ►► https://bit.ly/2NMTy2i 🏎️ 🔔 Don’t miss any new video: press the little bell ((🔔)) to get notifications

Added 2 Apr 2026