I am NOT against tuning, but as SinF posted in a very well written post, if you tune, you better know what you get into with eyes wide open. You are also to learn fact from fiction and respect those that don't make that choice by not ridiculing them. By that standard, any SVR owner should ridicule everyone else.

 

I'll just put my 2c in here.
I have the Eurotoys lower/crank pulley and the VAP tune on my V6S and I don't notice any real difference from stock when cruising on the highway. Same gear, same revs, same fuel economy.
BUT, when I put the pedal to the metal the difference is yuge, the acceleration from around 100 km/h (62 mph) to say 160 km/h (100 mph) is a helluva lot quicker than stock, the tune has really brought the car alive. My "bum dyno" tells me it is even quicker in this range than my old XFR (with the XKR-S tune, same as the F-Type R) was. I have never intentionally taken it over 160 km/h, not for "saaaaaafety" reasons mind you, purely for licence preservation reasons, but it is still pulling hard at 160 km/h and I have no doubt it would keep pulling hard to well over 250 km/h.
The stock S was not "slow" by any means but with the pulley and tune it's a whole different ball game.

 

Thank you! That was my point (and quite logical)

 

 

 

I have been looking at getting a Mini for my son to play in autocross. I am torn between the Cooper S supercharged (older) or turbocharged (newer). Manual of course

 

The sound from the supercharged ones is a hoot. Highly recommended

 

 

I was thinking 2006 supercharged. 2007+ is Turbo. I did not know about the gearbox, thank you

 

i would agree here that for highway "cruising" at 80 (or whatever speed), the tune makes not much difference, the big difference comes with the torque being available at the lower rpm's and more usable in the beginning of the gear, i am not having to slam it down a gear to get the desire effect from the peddle. The ratios are the ratios, but the early torque is what makes it "seem" like your not working the engine as hard.

 

I will offer a bit of a counterpoint. On a flat road with cruise control set to 80 mph, the tune doesn't make a difference. But where I live there is too much traffic to use cruise control so you end up accelerating between 65 to 80 mph. I noticed that on the base V6 many times there was not enough torque to accelerate from 65 to 80 in 8th gear, especially if there was a small grade. As a result, the car would kick down to 7th and then I had more than enough power. While that was fun, it wasn't the smoothest and hurt fuel economy. After the tune I have enough low end torque to accelerate in 8th from 65 to 80 and I only need to downshift if I want to go really fast and that lack of downshifting is what I attribute to the better fuel economy.

To me this is a big deal. I never liked how the lack of torque of the base v6 and the tall gearing sometimes made the car feel weak cruising on the highway in eighth gear. I also did not like how the power curve went flat after 5k, leaving me wanting more. Don't get me wrong, the base F-Type is a fast car but I didn't like the power band -- too little torque down low and not enough top end. To each their own.