Hennessey’s building a 1,001bhp McLaren 600LT

The McLaren 600LT has appeared on Hennessey’s radar, and it has been selected for detonation: prepare yourselves for a 1,000bhp+ version of McLaren’s new Sports Series star.

Company boss John Hennessey confirmed to TopGear.com that he does indeed have a 600LT, and is planning on upgrading the mid-engined, twin-turbo supercar to levels that’ll eclipse McLaren’s own Speedtail. Yep, that’s the 1,036bhp, streamliner-GT.

“I decided to buy my 600LT for the same reason I bought a new Ford GT,” John tells us, “to give our team a solid benchmark for our Venom F5.”

Indeed, he wasn’t planning on modifying it at first, but after a first run, decided “it is so good the only thing that it’s asking for is more power”. The idea is to give McLaren’s own £2.1m Speedtail a “run for its money” from 0-150mph, after which point the Speedtail’s lower drag – thanks in part to that super slippery bodywork – would give it the edge.

There are three levels of upgrade planned for the Hennessey 600LT. One with a modest 708bhp upgrade (0-60mph in 2.6s), one with 805bhp (0-60mph 2.4s), and the Big Daddy HPE1000. We’re talking a full 1,001bhp, 865lb ft of torque, 0-60mph in 2.1s and the ability to run the quarter mile in under ten seconds (9.6s) at 156mph.

To complete such herculean feats of speed, Hennessey will fit high-flow air filters, a Motec ECU, the company’s own stainless steel turbo headers, upgraded twin-turbos, a high-flow wastegate, a better transmission system, stainless steel exhaust and a better intercooler.

“I think that McLaren is building the best supercars in the world right now,” John told us. Indeed, when TG first tested the 600LT, we said “it generates speed without effort and never stops communicating”.

Lord only knows what one packing similar power to McLaren’s Super Series cars feels like…