Here is one solution:
In [x]: %%timeit
...: nmax = 100000
...: nfmax = 0
...: hcn = []
...: for n in range(1,nmax+1):
...: nfacs = len(factors2(n))
...: if nfacs > nfmax:
...: hcn.append((n, nfacs))
...: nfmax = nfacs
...:
1 loops, best of 3: 2.44 s per loop
Note that the variable hcn is not available outside of the %%timeit cell: to find out what the highly composite numbers less than 100000 actually are it is necessary to rerun the code inside this block without the %%timeit magic directive.