Pre-production Mc6

[Terry Bentley]

Anybody ever have, build a clone, or even see one for real?

[Jeff Campbell]

are you talking about an MC5 with the "hop up kit" that turned it essentially into what became the MC6 model?

[ted johnson]

There's an Mc5 converted to Mc6 on the third kart back from the front in the pic. Lanny Rothery owner, my Dad the builder. My old late '58 Bug standard with a Reed live axle kit under the rear rails, and Reed sissy plates. Steering hoop pushed forward with steering shaft in a tube. Won the 1961 Jr. Champ in Brevard County, FL. at the Shriner's track in Rockledge. Lanny fell out of the kart on the front straight of the local stock car speedway in front of hundreds of people. His feet still on the pedals, his hands still on the wheel, his fanny bouncing along the track at speed... He had to go to the hospital to have all the gravel removed! Ted

[Terry Bentley]

What was to be the Mc6 started as a stroked Mc5, but it used a Mc10 head and magnesium carb. The Mc5 shroud was drilled slightly off center on top for spark plug to fit thru.

[ted johnson]

Terry, I sold several Mc5's in the day, and Dad owned the one I showed earlier that had the conversion kit installed. I never saw any Mc5 shroud drilled for a spark plug. The plug was at an angle in the head, and came out toward the exhaust. When you converted it to an Mc6, Mac gave you a paper template to cut the head and flywheel shrouds so you could turn the head around. I never saw a factory Mc5/6 with an Mc10 head.

[Terry Bentley]

You can look at the McCulloch advertisements of the Mc6 before distribution to dealers and see what it looks like.

[ted johnson]

Pop sold his shop in '86. All the old time papers and brochures were still there, along with tons of kart stuff from the late fifties and early sixties. I'd sure like to have all that stuff today!

[Terry Sullivan]

This may be what Terry B. is talking about

[ted johnson]

Thanks for the ad, Terry (S.). I'd forgotten that picture. I never saw one like that with the centered plug in person. The pic I posted earlier was of an Mc6 that Dad built very early on from his Mc5. We were Mac saw/kart engine dealers, and when we heard of the first Mc6 conversions on the West coast from Tom Pierson at Bug, Dad called Bob McCulloch and got that particular conversion kit. It was so early that the shroud cutout template was hand drawn on manila paper. Dad didn't bother to use the cutout, and that engine ran and won for two seasons with the plug in the original Mc5 position. I ran the conversion for a while on my live axle converted Bug before McCulloch sent us our first production Mc6, and we then put the old engine on the blue kart for Lanny Rothery. I would imagine that none of the engines with the Mc10 head made it out the door to customers, but if they did, I'd like pictures!

[Terry Sullivan]

Ted,
Your memory is way better than mine. I don't remember if we ever had an MC-6. At one time we had a '59 Wasp and a '61 Scorpion, but I can't remember what was on the Scorpion. Surely it would have come with an MC-6?
Terry