Mansory's restyled McLaren MP4-12C

Mansory's restyled McLaren MP4-12C

In the world of high-end tuning firms, none is more over-the-top than Mansory, a German company who’s previously assaulted everything from a Porsche Panamera to a Bugatti Veyron.

For last year’s Geneva Motor Show, Mansory defaced the Ferrari 458 Italia and the Lotus Evora, and this year the tuner has set its sights on McLaren’s latest effort, the MP4-12C.

Like the Ferrari 458 Italia, the McLaren MP4-12C doesn’t need any redesign. The car looks good to us from any angle, and we respect McLaren’s original functional-yet-elegant design.

Mansory, on the other hand, did not. Its 2012 Geneva Motor Show effort sticks gold-colored wheels and lots of carbon-fiber-enhanced vents on the MP-4-12C, and then Mansory adds a oddly-styled and semi-comical front end.

We’re not sure why it chose to add cooling vents to the hood, which serves as the trunk on the MP4-12C, or how badly the aerodynamic changes will impact the car’s handling, but we seriously doubt McLaren’s designers will call the Mansory effort an improvement.

Mansory did up the car’s output from 600 to 670 horsepower, and it increased torque from 440 to 498 pound-feet. That may make the car faster (until aerodynamics come into play, at least), but even that isn’t enough to outrun ugly.

We agree with the suggestion of Autoblog.nl regarding the MP4-12C: perhaps Mansory should change its name to “Eyesorey.”

Mansory's restyled McLaren MP4-12C

Mansory's restyled McLaren MP4-12C