Have you ever looked at the McLaren MP4-12C and thought, “this car could use a little bit more power”? With already 616 wild horsepower coming out from its 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 engine, power is not something that this car is lacking; but Hennessey disagrees. Being a power-obsessed tuner, they feel as if it is their responsibility to give the 12C a bit more oomph to the punch it already carries.
The HPE700 upgrade sounds like a simple performance package as it only includes an ECU software upgrade, a heat exchanger upgrade, high-flow air filters and a stainless-steel exhaust system for a throatier soundtrack. But from these upgrades, Hennessey was able to extract 704-horsepower from the twin-turbo V8.
This 704-horsepower is put into good use as Hennessey quotes that 0-96 km/h can now be reached in just 2.8 seconds, compared to the stock 0-100 km/h of 3.1 seconds. The quarter-mile time has also been reduced from 10.6 seconds to 10.3 seconds at 220 km/h.
As McLaren has just set foot on Malaysia, Hennessey might get a couple of customers from here; given if they are adventurous enough to tinker with their million-Ringgit toy. And even if they do, they will still need to face the RM 61,700 price tag of the upgrade. A worthy purchase, do you think?
