Monday 16th September 2013

Hennessey McLaren 12C HPE700

Texan tuners follow up twin-turbo Ferrari 458 conversion with comparable upgrade for McLaren 12C

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The McLaren 12C and Ferrari 458 Italia battle is one of the great supercar rivalries of our time, one given additional spice recently by Texan tuner Hennessey adding a couple of turbos to the latter and extracting 738hp.

Subtle badging is all that gives the game away

Now, if you're on the McLaren side of the argument and feeling a little left out fear not; Hennessey is fuelling the arms race with the announcement of a similar package for the 12C. Like the 458, it's badged the HPE700 and builds on McLaren's existing twin-turbo 3.8-litre V8 by boosting power to 704hp and 538lb ft from the standard 625hp and 443lb ft. Which is an interesting comparison with the 737hp and 531lb ft the related P1 motor delivers, albeit before the additional 179hp and 192lb ft of the electric motors is factored in.

Thing is, does this give you P1 pace for $19,000, rather than the $1,150,000 McLaren is asking for the hybrid hypercar? And, more importantly perhaps, does it mean you can out-drag your mate who's just added Hennessey's HPE700 turbo package to his 458?

Hennessey claims a 2.8-second 0-60 time, matching that recorded for its turbocharged 458 and the quarter-mile times are barely two-tenths apart (10.3 for the McLaren) with terminal speeds matching at 137mph. So they're still evenly matched, just a little further down the road than the stock versions. By Hennessey's own VBOX acceleration tests the uprated car is a second faster 60-130mph at 7.15 seconds than stock and "flat out, scalding fast" according to Hennessey's communications manager Doug Kott.

"Flat out, scalding fast," according to Hennessey

The extra performance hasn't come easily though, the full story available to read on Hennessey's website but necessitating a water/methanol injection system to cool the charge air at high boost pressures to reduce the risk of detonation. This is managed by a piggybacked ECU upgrade, new air filters, a new exhaust system and modifications to the heat exchanger cooling systems.

And beyond surprisingly tasteful badging that's it...

[15yrold]

no thanks

[rejn]

yes please

[Capri86]

Conversion covered by the manufactures warranty by any chance?

Something’s niggling me that McLaren are a company that would know how to get the most out of their products before over stressing them and setting up the handling to be suite the performance.

Brits make a perfectly engineered car then the yanks chuck some bigger turbos on it and some extra kit to try and prevent their mod from destroying it…

[sunsurfer]

Sounds like a great addition. Anyone who's already paid £200,000 for their 12C is unlikely to be worrying about having to find an extra $19,000.
Yes please.

[CraigyMc]

I find it interesting how little headroom there was in the basic package.

C

[Wills2]

Not sure I'd bother with all that for another 80hp, the stock 625hp seems enough to do the job nicely.

[LotusEspritTurbo]

Lovely looking thing. Stylish and goes like stink, perfect.

[mackay45]

"terminal speeds matching at 137mph"?

[j90gta]

Wonder what Ron thinks?

[eliot]

CraigyMc said:

I find it interesting how little headroom there was in the basic package.

C

Indeed...

Yank blurb said:

The HPE700 upgrade raises boost pressure from 21 to 23 psi

I think they just had a rich kid in who wanted to spunk some cash that morning..

[RadQuinn]

I bet you Ron would have a heart attack...

[T.K]

Water injection is at the aggressive end of the spectrum for a road car.

[Ved]

Hennessey is a precursor to a ruined car

[SrMoreno]

Hennessey have an "interesting" reputation that hasn't been mentioned in the recent articles on them. Do Haymarket take payment for articles, or is this just a rehashed press release?

[anonymous-user]

Capri86 said:

Conversion covered by the manufactures warranty by any chance?

Something’s niggling me that McLaren are a company that would know how to get the most out of their products before over stressing them and setting up the handling to be suite the performance.

Brits make a perfectly engineered car then the yanks chuck some bigger turbos on it and some extra kit to try and prevent their mod from destroying it…

Not necessarily. McLaren have positioned the 12C within their future range (P1 above it, and the car coming to sit under the 12C) and the other products they would like to compete with. As standard the engine produces 625bhp but that's not to say that that's the most it can deliver (we know it isn't because the P1 uses the same base engine).

It has 625bhp because that delivers the performance McLaren WANT to give the car. This is the same when remapping a car; some people question the point of remapping because they can't understand why the manufacturer didn't give it that power/torque to start with. Well this is the same reason, it's just the manufacturer positioning the car to sit with competitors or the other cars in their ranges. For example BMW had the 318 and 320 with the same engine, except for a different map (maybe other parts too, but it was very similar).

In addition these modifications cost $19,000, and if McLaren added $19,000 to the base price of the 12C from the factory they may well price themselves outside what their customers are willing to pay. $19000 for 75bhp is a lot of money.

[405dogvan]

SrMoreno said:

Hennessey have an "interesting" reputation that hasn't been mentioned in the recent articles on them. Do Haymarket take payment for articles, or is this just a rehashed press release?

Hennessey's "reputation" manages to get dug-up EVERY time they're mentioned - I think it's fair to say it will be aired here too.

[vxah]

mackay45 said:

"terminal speeds matching at 137mph"?

For the standing quarter!

[405dogvan]

RadQuinn said:

I bet you Ron would have a heart attack...

As I said when someone asked if Ferrari had commented on the 458 conversion

"It's like asking a father what he thinks of his daughter's genital piercing - some things you simply don't ask"

[airbrakes]

Ved said:

Hennessey is a precursor to a ruined car

Apart from the exige-based Venom. That is a simply awesome car

[Capri86]

RenOHH said:

Capri86 said:

Conversion covered by the manufactures warranty by any chance?

Something’s niggling me that McLaren are a company that would know how to get the most out of their products before over stressing them and setting up the handling to be suite the performance.

Brits make a perfectly engineered car then the yanks chuck some bigger turbos on it and some extra kit to try and prevent their mod from destroying it…

Not necessarily. McLaren have positioned the 12C within their future range (P1 above it, and the car coming to sit under the 12C) and the other products they would like to compete with. As standard the engine produces 625bhp but that's not to say that that's the most it can deliver (we know it isn't because the P1 uses the same base engine).

It has 625bhp because that delivers the performance McLaren WANT to give the car. This is the same when remapping a car; some people question the point of remapping because they can't understand why the manufacturer didn't give it that power/torque to start with. Well this is the same reason, it's just the manufacturer positioning the car to sit with competitors or the other cars in their ranges. For example BMW had the 318 and 320 with the same engine, except for a different map.

In addition these modifications cost $19,000, and if McLaren added $19,000 to the base price of the 12C from the factory they may well price themselves outside what their customers are willing to pay. $19000 for 75bhp is a lot of money.

For mass market car manufactures their engines are manufactured well within the components tolerance levels for reliability and longevity, so more power if relatively easy to extract.

I’d suspect that most supercar tolerances are less however as their manufactures usually look to get the optimum power performance from their engines. I take you point that the 12C engine can/does deliver more, that’s for sure but I think I’d rather wait for McLaren to issue a performance upgrade package than opt for a Bast dised yank upgrade.