Today the VAP tune was installed on my 2017 XE R Sport. Program controller arrived yesterday. Sent my stock tune via email this morning and received new tune early this evening. Took 5 minutes to upload to the car.

No warning lights or alerts from the car.

Best $695 I have spent on a car upgrade period. This car is very fast now.....very fast. I have a 1.5 mile circuit close to home that I can push the car staying clear of traffic etc. I don't have any numbers but have a good sense of quick cars as my brother has a nice collection of what I believe are known as super cars. In any case.....

Smooth power delivery.....
Serious increase in power from low to high rpm....
Car drive train and suspension seemed to really like the upgrade and all felt in balance.

The car does feel like it has had a transplant. Having come recently to the XE R from a couple of Audi S4's that had ECU mods this car is stronger and faster. I would guess it is sub 4 seconds in 0-60 and 30-100 happens very quick.

As I mentioned in prior threads my daily drive in LA traffic will keep me in check but it is nice to have realized the potential of this motor and every now and then I believe I will enjoy the thrill of the rpm surge. Thx to Stuart and Chris.

 

Glad to hear you like it so far! Please update us down the road on how you like it in LA traffic. My commute is mostly crawling along and stop and go and I don't want to be any less comfortable in that situation just to have a little fun on some back roads occasionally.

 

Morning drive felt the same as prior to new program. Smooth and mild. My commute is 80% stop and go so not much chance to get into the accelerator.

 

Joe, first of all thanks for your business. We appreciate it very much. It's a tricky decision to MOD a car under warranty and one with we encourage people to think carefully about.

Secondly, your comment above is our raison d'etre - the reason why we got into this business is that we are gearheads ourselves and there's nothing better than getting feedback like this.

 

After driving the car on the fwy in normal traffic I was able to get a sense of the additional power. Best part of this car for me is how much of a sleeper it is. Entrance ramps getting into clear traffic is really nice. The car is quite fun to drive and still the classic sport sedan. Clearly not a muscle car but a very balanced drive.

 

I've been catching many unsuspecting other performance cars o the hay with mine tuned and been eating them all up. The XE does well at being the sleeper a bit since no one really takers with these cars and are unknown to all the other bolt on cars we see. We can get a few easy kills this way.

I was able to beat a newer piped R600 up to 153MPH the other night. Drag was his enemy.

 

Your car has no 125mph speed limiter?

 

They removed it for me, I wanted to see if it would go to 160 but I didn't have the room and the poor bike was falling farther behind.

 

I am wondering if either of you have any other mods other than the tune. Mine is on the way and I have already dyno'ed the car stock and got 329 WHP out of it.

I have since had a resonator delete with Xpipe installed and also installed the TCP intake and K&N filters. Wondering if its worth it to dyno with the current mods before tuning to see what I am getting out of them before I load the tune.

 

If you have access to a dyno and willing to take the time it is alway helpful to know where the car is at incremental steps. The only mod on my car is the ECU program from VAP.

 

Mine is stock, I just removed the engine cover and charcoal pre-air filters with the Tune.
Can you tell me if the Y-Pipe increased the blower whine or other sounds please?
I know Mina Gallery is making a 1 piece part so I am waiting on that.

Any sound clips of the X pipe as I hear that is not good for the V6 and only good for the V8 version? Can we hear the resonator sound as well?

I was only going to remove this 2 bullet resonators and leave the square one alone to have the same stock exhaust as the V6 F-Type. It seems the XE has added bullet pipes to differ from the F-Type.

I want to add the crank pulley as that will give that down low grunt I am missing to propel the car out the hole better. I may add a 100 shot next year after I figure out al the correct bolt ons to apply that actually are "proven to work".

 

Just out of curiosity, what is the point of removing the engine cover? it can't possibly offer any performance benefit? is it just because you don't like how it looks?

 

the TCP intake was a great way to eliminate some of the lag between engine response and pedal input. Also gives more audible noise from the supercjarger. You can hear it spooling now whereas before it wasn't audible until high rpm's.

my resonant for the x pipe and resonator delete is that I feel once the tune is installed the increased boost will create alot of backpressure that will effect cylinder compression rate, so I decided to do it now and give the lungs room to breathe. I get the car back from the exhaust shop today. Just got fitted with the Varex Active exhaust.. will get my hands on a gopro and record some vids later.

I plan to do the lower pulley install but want to see what the tune plus these other mods gets me.

I curious to hear about your plans for a 100 shot. I have tinkered with the idea but haven't found many one doing this with our brand...some of the older xkr's have begun to play around with wetting their cars but nothing in the XF, XE, or F type forums happening around this topic.

 

I removed the engine for the same reason Jaguar removed it off the SVR, it holds the heat in and with it off the heat soaking doesn't affect the car as quickly in the summer months. Plus it allows for more of the blower anime to be audible.

please give me all the details on the Varex setup including which model you chose? I been trying to figure out how to plumb one of those units into my XE like My XFR had. Having control over the Valve is a great idea to keep my wife quiet for long trips. It will also net some performance and sound benefits as well. I don't care how loud or quiet it gets long as I don't get that nasty raspy cracking sound that some people grown to love just like this FTYPE guys love.

as for the 100 shot that is kids play, my local friend and on this forum has a 125 shot on his stock FTYPE and goes 10.30's and he has made many many runs and this thing just stays together and loves the bottle. We think he has hit the ceiling as the TCU is now holding it back from letting anymore power reach the ground. He even up the shot a bit higher and nothing changes at all in the time slips or dyno.

since the 35T is built the same as the other V8's a 100 shot would be totally safe and net some serious gains in this chassis.

 

BTW, which TCP pipe did you buy? Is it the same for the XF or a specific XE model?

 

Wair..the 35t is a V6 not a v8...I am not wrong on that. A 50 shot is the most I would go with after.the tune...remember that the ecu will compensate for knock and retard timing...not good if you are blowing cold gas into the engine at the same time.

sorry, but my end goal for the exhaust is to get the crackle and pop that the f type does so well.

the TCP intake is for the XF. Don't think they have one for the XE yet. I would look at the Mina Gallery piece if you want one right now.

 

Got it, do you suppose with the tune the engine may get too hot with the cover on, or do you just do it to ease your mind and get that extra whine? If left on could it possibly cause problems with the tune installed?

 

I just think it will get heat soaked quicker only. So I leave it off for the sound as well, no harm will come from it on or off.

 

is there no plug-n-play option for these cars? the one thing I liked about my BMW was that I could just plug the tune in and remove it when i needed to bring it to the dealership....and no one would know it ever existed.

 

What do you mean by 'plug-n-play' - are you talking about a piggyback device?