Two of Hennessey's 808hp Heritage Edition Mustangs are coming to NZ

There's a frequent sadness felt when reporting on exotic, thumping four-wheeled new-car metal from a country like New Zealand. Our isolation from the rest of the world quite often means that these rare creatures are unlikely to ever be seen on our shores.

And admittedly, those thoughts were on my mind when I reported on Hennessey's celebratory, wild new Ford Mustang Heritage Edition at the beginning of the month. But, rejoice, because things have taken a turn. 

CTB Performance and Accessories (the folks behind many of New Zealand's Mustang upgrade packages, including RTR and Ford Performance) and Streetfighter have confirmed that Hennessey Performance (HPE) have given them an allocation to build two Heritage Edition Mustangs for the Kiwi market. Additionally, Australia gets five of them.

That's quite a coup, given that just 19 of these beasts are being built, total. And CTB have confirmed that the seven right-hand drive editions being built in Australasia will be the only ones on the planet. 

What makes a Heritage Edition? Evidently, quite a lot. Power from the 5.0-litre Coyote V8 is ramped up to 808hp (603kW), with 918Nm of torque — up from 339kW and 556Nm respectively on the standard GT. 

The improvement in output comes from a 3.0-litre supercharger, Hennessey's own bespoke fuel pump and injectors, plus an air-to-water intercooler, and a high-flow air induction system. These additions combined with that output add up to a 0-60mp/h (96km/h) time of 3.3 seconds, a top speed of more than 320km/h, and a quarter mile time of 10.7 seconds.

Add to that too visual fruit in the form of lightweight 20-inch wheels, more carbon fibre, and a paint scheme inspired by the GT Supercar.

The question now is price for those two Kiwi models. Word from CTB is that price is on inquiry — given that a top spec RTR Spec 3 is $119,000 (and this is much more limited), expect dollars to be somewhere north of that. 

“We love the design and livery of the 2018 Ford GT Heritage Edition supercar that we took delivery of earlier this year. We thought that this look on our specially tuned Hennessey Mustang would also be very appropriate and a great way to celebrate our 10,000th build”, said John Hennessey.

“This is one of the most beautiful Mustangs we’ve ever built, and it has the power and performance to match its gorgeous looks”.