You pay half a million for a supercar only to have its performance superseded in the coming model.

Not so with McLaren.

Owners of the $490,000 Ferrari-rivalling McLaren MP4-12C are being offered a no-cost upgrade to match the outputs of the upgraded model.

By revising the engine computer mapping, the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8's power lifts by 19kW to 460kW.

That's the same output as the facelifted model, which goes into production later this year.

The upgrade cuts by 1.2 seconds is the 0-300km/h time.

Yes, that's 300km/h, with McLaren obviously talking about the racetrack.

The 0-100km/h time actually stays put, at 3.3 seconds, though remapping delivers better all-round responsiveness.

The new model will have other changes that cannot be retrofitted to existing cars.

These include quicker and smoother shifts, new colour options and an updated sat-nav.

Nifty is technology that allows the driver to tune exhaust notes.