Novitec hits the McLaren Senna with a hefty power boost, not that it needed it

Andrew Sluys
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Photos / Supplied

Photos / Supplied

When a manufacturer builds a car as a tribute to one of the best Formula 1 drivers of all time, you'd expect it to be pretty quick, but it's fair to say that McLaren knocked it out of the park with the Senna.

Dripping with carbon fibre, and looking like a spaceship, the Senna only needs 2.8 seconds to hit 100km/h in a straight line, so does it really need to be any faster? It turns out Novitec thinks so.

No strangers to McLaren products, the German tuner has worked on almost every single vehicle McLaren has released since the MPC-12C, so know a thing or two about the twin-turbo V8s in these speed machines.

In the Senna's case, Novitec has taken the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8's regular power output of 588kW and 800Nm of torque, and turned it up to eleven. These two figures now sit at 662kW and 888Nm of torque.

Before you ask the obvious question, "why?" Novitec spotted a niche in the Senna's market between buyers of the road-going car, and buyers of the track-only Senna GTR.

The Senna GTR is the stripped-back, lightweight track version, and features a few more ponies. But like most track variants, you can't drive this thing on the road, so the Novitec version bridges this gap.

Thanks to these engine upgrades, the Senna only needs 2.7 seconds to hit 100km/h now, and will only take 6.5 seconds to hit 200km/h. The top speed has remained unchanged at 335km/h.

Some power gains were gained by installing a custom exhaust system made from Inconel, which is described as a "superalloy" that's also used on Formula 1 cars.

While the exterior of the Senna has remained the same for the most part, Novitec couldn't help themselves, and have replaced the factory wheels with a set of Vossens. These measure 20-inches at the front, and 21-inches at the rear.

A price wasn't listed with Novitec's kit, but if you can afford a $1.8 million Senna in the first place, tuning it probably isn't going to break the bank.