It's winter where I live and I always put my toys away at this time of year and wait for Spring. It's early in the season and I look at the car in my garage and get the itch to go to a qualified tuner and get a semi "supertune"...but unfortunately there's no one in my area that works on Jaguars that I believe I can trust. Talking with Velocity AP , Stuart recommended reflashing my ECM with one of his custom tunes as well as changing both pulleys. I don't hot rod the car, but I love that feeling of power in a car. I can't remember the HP increase after doing that but he said I'd really notice a difference....maybe move from factory 575 to 650HP or thereabouts. My biggest concern is having this modification create a drive train problem anywhere in the drivetrain (the tune would be blamed) and lose my warranty...I only have 5500 miles on the car at this time. So, I'm looking for feedback from owners who have made this modification and how the cars attitude has changed and have they experienced any problems that could be caused by these modifications. Thanks!

 

I was running their Stg2 for two years before just switching over to their Stg3 and zero issues with the car. I change the oil every 3k miles to be safe. I would add that I run the car hard…no circuits, but drag strips, road trips, and backroads. The difference in power and torque is quite noticeable, yet the car still drives very well (I daily mine). For reference, I’m a ‘17 R (AWD).

 

I've been running stage 1 for a couple of years with no issues. But, it likely will void the drivetrain warranty.

 

I did VAP Stage 2 (crankshaft pulley and tune) last winter and have the parts ready to install for Stage 3 (supercharger pulley and tune) this spring. Stock to Stage 2 was a significant performance gain. I don't expect Stage 2 to Stage 3 to be as significant, but still noticeable.

I have been modding my cars for years and always assume that anything I do to increase power beyond stock will void my powertrain warranty. It's a risk I have to be willing to take before I start down that path.

 

Really good feedback from all that responded to my questions. VAP says just doing the ECM change over truly doesn't really give you a big power jump on the car and if that's what you're looking for (I am!) they recommend also making the upper and lower pulley swap (is that Stage 2?). They said that makes a fairly large difference. Hearing that, I'd have to do the pulleys as well.
Not to beat this thing to death, with the age of my 2021 and low mileage (5500 miles), my biggest concern is having a drive train problem and the dealer seeing I modified my engine and not warrantying the issue regardless of what caused the drivetrain to fail . As all of you are aware, it's mega bucks when you have a failure in that area. My only other question to this group is the later model 575 HP engines vs the 550 HP earlier models....are you seeing the same kind of success with power and hopefully life, with Stage 2.
Again, thanks for your help!

 

For the V8 Stage 1 is tune only, Stage 2 is lower (crank) pulley OR upper (SC) pulley plus tune, Stage 3 is both pulleys plus tune,
Stage 4 would be Stage 3 plus water/meth (and tune) but VAP don't do a water/meth kit.
For the V6 Stage 4 is both pulleys plus special E85 tune, I vaguely recall reading somewhere that VAP have decided against an E85 tune on the V8 (if so dunno why) or maybe they are looking into it?
Another option for the V8 roughly equivalent to Stage 3 is the larger SC (Eaton TVS R2300) so maybe down the track there might be a Stage 5 - R2300 plus both pulleys plus tune which I suspect would also need the forged piston upgrade from VAP to make it worthwhile.

 

My only other question to this group is the later model 575 HP engines vs the 550 HP earlier models....are you seeing the same kind of success with power and hopefully life, with Stage 2.

The 2 engines are the same, and will get the same results with the mods.

DC

 

Very good question. After speaking with VAP trying to sort out what I want to do, they didn't seem to flinch when I told them I had a 2021 R model. In fact, in the conversation, they said they have sold upwards of 6000 of these tunes and no feedback that this modification is failure prone in the F type cars..
On another note, I want to thank my friend from "Down Under" on his clarification on Vap's Stage 1, 2 and 3. I'm leaning pretty heavily on the Stage 2 at this point. I'd feel a little better increasing the HP someplace in the 100 HP range and that should be doable with the Stage 2 package. There's a YouTube entry that thoroughly explains the Stage 2 installation and this guy Dyno'd his car before and after. He had the graphs and hid increase was just north of 100HP, but his car was a '17 model. He seemed to be pretty knowledgeable and legitimate.

 

Yep...I was restating your question in red. And clarifying the two engines are the same.

The point is that the V-8s (AJ133) in both are the same. The 550's in the R and 575 in the SVR and newer R's are just a slight tune. So if you put a tune on a 550HP R that gets it to 650 HP or you put the same tune on the 575HP SVR/New R - You still end up with 650HP. It is not additive.

Just FYI.

DC