– Doug Kott, Comms Mgr, Hennessey Performance
McLaren MP4-12C: Making Woking’s Wonder Quicker
It’s good to be back in a McLaren MP4-12C, if only briefly before Hennessey’s ECU neurosurgeons unlock the secrets of even more power. The last time for me was at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump, Nevada, doing a comparison test for Road & Track with the Ferrari 458 Italia and Corvette ZR1 using the facility’s 1.5-mile Radical Loop.
For cars with such explosive power and speed, the track’s tight-radius corners and short chutes made for a bit of a bull-in-a-china shop experience, but we all came away impressed with the McLaren’s ability to put power down in lower gears. On the sweeper leading on to the back straight, you could feel the MP4-12C’s high-speed stability as it powered over a sizable crest that can be the undoing of cars with less aero downforce and suspect suspension kinematics. It did tend to plow a bit more than either the more highly strung Ferrari or the ZR1 (with its borderline-streetable Michelin Pilot Cup Sports) on the track’s tightest right-hander, but its suspension offered a nice combination of both suppleness and control. It’s said a car’s character directly correlates to the environment in which it’s developed, so it follows the McLaren would be the ideal automotive tool to devour England’s narrow, undulating B-roads, with a couple of roundabout skidpad laps thrown in for dessert.
At Hennessey, we’re in the process of upgrading a customer’s MP4-12C with our exclusive tuning, with the end goal of making 700 bhp at the crank. We’ll soon perform a dyno pull to establish baseline horsepower and torque numbers, and if the R&T test was any indication we ought to see north of 500 rwhp from the 3.8-liter twin-turbo V-8 straight from McLaren’s Woking factory. We did a couple of 60-130 mph runs to establish baseline performance as well, with the console-configurable Powertrain settings on “Track” for the quickest possible shifts and the rear wing in the intermediate downforce position. The beauty of this test is that it takes launch variables out of the equation and showcases pure power. An average of two runs was 8.15 seconds, which puts it in the exclusive company of the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano and Lamborghini Murciélago LP670-4 SuperVeloce.
It’s a beautiful car that assaults each and every sense. The sounds are deeper, more burly than you’d expect from 3.8 liters, the capsule-like cockpit is redolent with fine leather, and the composite bodywork—while not chiseled to the point of inflicting flesh wounds, like the Lamborghini Aventador’s for example—looks powerfully coiled and ready to spring. The mere act of getting into an MP4-12C is full of specialness and ceremony; swipe the underside of the intake channel cut into the door (it pivots up and forward), negotiate the formidable carbon-fiber sill and settle into an exotically sculpted bucket that clings remora-like to your backside. And how cool is that airbrake that pops into full-downforce mode above 60 mph when you get hard into the brakes? We can’t wait to sample more thrust in this already formidable rocket.
Specs:
Power:
• 704 Horsepower @ 7,500 rpm
• 538 lb-ft Torque @ 5,800 rpm
Performance:
• 0-60 mph: 2.8 sec.
• 1/4 mile: 10.3 sec. @ 137 mph
HPE700 McLaren MP4-12C Upgrade Includes:
• Engine Management Software Upgrade (external from factory ECU)
• Intercooler Heat Exchanger Cooling Upgrade
• Dual Air Induction Filters
• Stainless Steel Exhaust System Upgrade
• Professional Installation
• Dyno Tuning & Road Testing
• Serial-Numbered Dash & Engine Plaques
• HPE700 Exterior Badging
• Hennessey Exterior Badging
• 1 Year / 12,000 Mile Limited Warranty
Gallery:
Doug Kott, Communications Manager of Hennessey Performance, brings 25 years of automotive journalism experience and vehicle evaluation skills to his current position.
Nice upgrade.