Hi Forum, I just went up north for the holiday weekend and I must say, my STR behaved flawlessly...I can really tell the difference with the Mina intake and Hi-flow cats. Driving up from Phoenix at sea level to Flagstaff at 7k feet was great...no loss of performance that I could detect. Anyway, I was thinking of either doing the Mina pulley upgrade or the Mina exhaust. Which one do you guys recommend I do first? Also, has anyone put spacers on their STR? If so, I would really like to see a pic and hear your opinion about them as I was thinking about do that as well. I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!!!! Thanks forum

 

The Mina things... whatever you like

Spacers... why? The geometry is designed carefully and you'd alter it so would get wear etc as all the angles would then be off. Plus more mass where you don't want it. Performance downgrade.

 

I see a lot of folks on the XKR forum using them and was wondering/thinking what they might look like on the STR...maybe giving it a wider stance. I wouldn't want to sacrifice performance though

 

They must be doing it for appareance, despite the negatives on wear, handling and performance. A bit like fitting bigger heavier wheels. People do that, too, again despite the negatives.

tijoe posted a bit about suspension issues if you want to read.

 

Adding spacers is effectively the same as changing the wheel offset.

This results in a change in scrub radius.

And that leads to the tires wanting to do all kinds of funky things that the engineers were trying to avoid.

 

I had spacers (20mm) in the front, and right now I have to run spacers in the back (to clear the rear brakes). I never got the front to balance out properly and I haven't had issues with the rear. Well except the rubbing that happens due to the wheels being out further than the wheel well


Fronts:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...part-ii-52815/

Rears:




And this is how much it clears the brakes by

 

Well nothing against Mina But I have their rear boxes (Mufflers for us USA guys!) which are beautifully made and mirror polished. But for the price I think they are just way out there!! Last time I looked they wanted $975 for just the two rear boxes.

Hardly any sound change although the change was for the better and I really don't think you get any more power. If I was to do any exhaust work on my 2005 STR I would start at the head pipes (Maybe even try those Lincoln LS headers?) and go with 100-200 cell count catalytic converters and then an X-pipe with low restriction mufflers. Maybe run 2 1/2" mandrel bent tubes.

I have not because I don't want my STR to be loud. I have done that on plenty of other cars and just because the car is louder it does NOT make it faster!!
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Sorry! Here is a picture:

 

AKA every mustang exhaust ever

 

Start with the Mina pulley. It cost $175 and about $125 to fit, so $300 for about 12-15 HP, noticeable torque increase at low-midrange rpm's. Easy and simple. My indie jacked up the engine and removed the OEM pulley undamaged, but that is unusual - they normally have to cut them off.

The Mina exhaust is probably 3x the cost for the same power gain.

 

 

Pulley will give you much better and more noticeable gains than any other mod currently available.

 

Robin,

Where did you found Mina pulley for $175? Can you share the link?
On Mina Gallery website it cost $320