Hi Everyone.





I am a skeptic and a recent owner of a 2011 XJ Supercharged.





I have had several earlier XJRs starting from 1998, but this new model. Oh my god, what a beast and a total change from Jaguar of the past.





From the moment I got it I knew over here in the states they have limited the power down from the available 550HP to 470HP, which I thought unfair and just a marketing ploy. So I started looking for tuners.





I found a company called ETG Tuning Group, they are mentioned here in the forums, after a bit of thinking I decided to give them a call and go for it. (http://ecutuninggroup.com/)





I was introduced to a guy there call Jaggs, come to find out he's the owner of the company. He schedules and appointment in 2 days time and gives me some information I was not fully aware of to think about.





The engine and in fact the entire drive train on this car is identical in everyway to that of the XF-RS except for software, and with a few advanced tweaks my engine can be tuned to produce not 550HP but a mind whopping 620HP.





I thought about this for the 2 days and when the appointment was due I opted for the "Mc Large Please" and went with the 620HP, the price was a little more because this involves replacing the supercharger pulley for the one that is installed on the XF-RS, and then the "full kick my ***" tune can be downloaded..





The whole process took just 2 hours, and please note this is not some guy tuning my car with a laptop and a dyno machine, this is a manufacturer tune with all of the months of R&D that the manufacturer put into it being loaded into my car, its a jaguar XF-RS map that's being used.





Ok, so now jaggs tells me "OK its tuned but you won't see the full results until you have driven 105 Miles" So this is the part where my inner skeptic pops up and starts ringing a bell. I have seen this guy downloading files from my car, I have seen my car go nuts while he does it, and then I have seen him upload new files to my car, and my car return to completely normal again, but still I'm a skeptic.





I take it on a short test drive and yes it's a little more powerful (probably due to just the pulley change) but no way is it the whopping 150HP I was told, I am worried but I pay him and keep my fingers crossed.





OK so now the verdict.





Oh my Goodness!!!! This thing is an animal, Jaggs was correct, the car takes 105 miles to fully accept the new mapping, this is a safety feature in the ECU that only time tried updates to the mapping can be loaded, this is to insure no transient in processing can cause any potential problems, but after 105 miles all of the new figures are fully loaded, you can feel the car getting fast and faster as the mapping completes and you near your 105 miles, but after that, oh WOW.





This car used to go from 70 to 100 in 5.8 seconds, that was in dynamic mode, and in sport on the transmission, it now does the same thing in just 3.1 Seconds. In sport mode with dynamic turned on first gear is utterly useless, the trac system goes crazy and you cant get off the line, turn the trac off, and you still don't go anywhere because the tires are disappearing in a cloud of smoke. This thing is a complete monster, but oh my goodness its so fast.





If anyone is thinking of upgrading their car, please allow me to recommend ETG Tuning Group. Their work is simply shocking, and they have been so great with customer service, a month after my tune, I took the car to Jaguar, because of a Battery Monitor Issue. For some stupid reason they found it prudent to re-flash my ECU, totally wiping out my tune, as soon as I got in the car I felt the difference, it was slower than normal, so I check the service paperwork, and bingo, it states "Re-flashed ECU" CRAP!!!, I call up jaggs, and 2 days later he is back at my house re-tuning it again..... FOR FREE......





Please if your thinking of tuning your car, these guys are the best.





I am a total skeptic, but these guys are the real deal. There website is http://ecutuninggroup.com/





I hope this helps you guys find the power your car truly wants to give you.





Anthony

 

A couple of questions Anthony. What tires are you running and is the car still mild mannered when driven leisurely? I just ran my car in the 1/2 mile WannaGoFast.com meet in North Georgia last weekend and my best run was 141 in my 510hp Supersport and loved it and got a lot of dropped jaws at the cars stock speed.

 

Anthony, just to give you a heads up, but odds are, the dealership was trying to be nice and restore you car back to "within warrantee". I asked about simply just having the XJR tune put into my car and while the dealership said that they would install it, they were going to also void any warrantee that may be left on the car. Just a heads up. I know the 5.0L motor is strong, but you also have to ask if you are willing to take that risk. Some are, some aren't. Just want to make sure that you realize what you have potentially set yourself up for. Some dealerships are more "mod friendly" than others. Hard to say what your dealership is like.

 

I think if Anthony looks at his work order they more than likely performed the open recall which is to update the ECM. There is no way they were restoring the car back to "within warrantee". I have had to reflash quite a few cars because of this. The only way the tune would be detectable is if they are looking for it or diagnosing a drivability issue.

You said your dealer was willing & able to install the XJR tune in your car? How were they going to void your warrantee? Report the car to Jaguar & have the warranty blocked or were they just not going to warrantee work on your car? How much was the Jaguar dealer going to charge you to install the XJR software?

 

JgaXkr, I was talking with a salesperson because I was telling him that I was looking at one of their XJL's with the supercharger package and that before I picked the car up that I would want it in the shop to have the XJR tune put in. He simply responded that they would void the warrantee (assuming they would be getting into the national database for that) because they cannot garantee what effect it would have on the engine. Maybe they are being ****, but in todays world, I can't blame them.

As for cost, while nothing was talked about, I figured they could do it in an hour easily.