There isn't much info out about the Mina gallery intakes for the 5.0 XKR. It is a full piping kit from the throttle body to the MAF joiner on the airboxes. It is fully aluminium, and you can get in either silver or a textured black coating. Overall the kit is quality and the centre 'collector', side pipes and straight pipes at the bottom are well done. The collector pipes are welded and the insides are ground down presumably to help smoothen air flow. The side pipes are mandrel bent and are a pretty nice, organic shape. Nothing looks cheap.








So, how is it to install? You need to pull off the fender lining and take off the stock pipes. Honestly, the longest part of this whole process was removing the linings because I decided to be lazy and not jack up the car. This job is possible without putting a wheel into the air. Mina instructs to place the centre collector pipe in first, then work outwards. It takes time to get everything to align/not touch items as the pipes are pretty big and are in a tight spot. The left (Passenger in UK/NZ) side is much harder than the right side due to a bit less space and having the power steering pump in the way. Mina includes a new boost reference for the supercharger and adaptor hoses for the 'full load breather' pipe.




I made a mistake on the right side and placed the right side pipe a bit too high, and it rubbed against the bottom of the 'supercharged' louver. A quick adjustment later and it now sits flatter and looks even better.



So, why do this? I personally don't like the look of the plastic intake. My one also had been bodged in the past due to the broken rubber coupling at the collector. The piping still looks pretty factory with the textured black coating and doesn't especially stand out. I'm not convinced that this would harm or improve the performance of the car - after driving for an hour today, the pipe was hot but I was still able to handle and adjust it. However, I have noticed a minor change in throttle response when in dynamic mode in second/low gears - the car seems to 'snap' a bit faster coming on throttle. It feels just as fast as normal though. I was hoping for a bit more supercharger noise but unfortunately the intake sounds the same - which is a bit funny considering all the resonators on the stock pipes.

So if you have the patience and want a nicer looking bay, this is something good to try.

 

If you want (a lot!) more SC noise you need to change out the stock air filters (and their boxes) for cone filters and the resonator/baffle tubes just above them.
That's what I did on my F-Type which has very much the same stock set up as the XKR and the increase in SC noise was yuge.
I used a Mina Gallery kit but searching their web site they don't seem to do a lower intake kit for the XKR, strange.

 

Yeah, I was hoping for a balance between full cone filters and the stock setup as not sure that full on SC whine suits the XK as much as the F-Type. I presume the snorkels on the front of the stock box must still muffle noise as all the baffled intake pipes past the airbox are now removed. For those that are curious the kit is here - https://minagallery.com/jaguar-xkr-5...ntake-kit-mk2/

One thing I was considering doing was adding some cutouts in the factory airbox what could be open/closed remotely. Meaning that I could increase the intake noise on demand and close when not feeling racy/it's raining etc.

 

It's interesting that the XKR setup is still pretty reserved. I wonder if that's because the 5.0 XKR is already a quieter supercharger setup than the 4.2, but that's good to know. I was thinking of getting one of these but all of the videos I've seen of the install was on F-Types where the supercharger whine was made Mad Max-levels of obnoxious.

 

It seems the only guaranteed way to get loud noises from the SC is to run cone filters instead of the stock box. I prefer a good sounding exhaust to a screaming supercharger so on balance am ok with this. It is odd that there's no increase (that I could hear) considering all the resonators that get removed. Perhaps there's some higher flow drop in filters that might increase noise but not something I'll be concerning myself with.

 

This certainly didn't take 45 minutes to install or whatever. I will say I do hear the difference. The exhaust quickly overwhelms it (and if you have the windows down you can't hear it at all) but from 2500-3500 on partial throttle it's definitely there when it previously was basically silent; if not still to the level as the supercharger on the 4.2 cars. I wonder if it's more audible from outside the car.

 

I’d say externally it probably is. Did you have troubles adjusting it past the power steering reservoir? I fond that area took a lot of time to get right. Interesting that you could hear increased noise. I think my exhaust is too loud and I usually drive with the windows down.

 

I just unscrewed the reservoir and push it to the side, near the oil cap.