New purchase: 17' XE R-Sport 35t
 

Hey everyone, I just purchased my first Jaguar on Monday. First thoughts: I am totally in love with it... from the sound, look, interior, comfort, and yea... the head turning. My favorite part of the new car might have to be the 20" Propeller wheels... by GOD do those things look good. Just had my local guy give me the works with a wash, wax, detail, etc. I bought this car not only because I love mostly everything about it but more importantly because nobody really has one. Now that I have my unique car, I want to make it even more differentiated. I've seen a few threads on here listing some aftermarket parts and DIY mods and I want to see if anyone has had some good ideas that really made their car stand out.

I have a few things on order such as a front grille R badge I plan on putting on and a few more minor things. Next on my list is getting my grille swapped out from the chrome to the gloss black (might just have that done via Jaguar). After, I am going to have my guy powder coat my calipers red. Something that I really want to address: Cold air intake. I understand that a bunch of people are saying that our stock intake has plenty of cold air flow and so on but listen, I want to maximize that supercharger noise. Not interested in any DIY systems so if anyone is/was able to get their hands on a product whether its an entire system, replacement parts or system additions please let me know. If anyone has any tips/advice regarding the car itself let me know!

Cheers to breaking some more necks! :icon_nut:

Congratulations and welcome to the forum.

I like the XE a lot. It handles brilliantly on the back roads and I love the sound and performance of the supercharged engine, even around town.

nice purchase - what color??

As this is your first thread, please take moment to stop by the New Member section and post an intro. In return, you will receive a warm welcome and some useful tips to navigate the forum - enjoy!!

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/n...-intro-must-5/

Good idea on the powder coating the calipers. They rust easily and look low rent on such a car.

Start off with taking the engine cover off. I believe you'll get more engine sound with it off.

I wouldn't mess with the air intake. If you want to spend money, how about a tune and pulley upgrade? You'll get serious power from that mod. Could also go with fancy exhaust system or racy tires like Pilot Sports, etc...

Welcome.

I agree with mosesbotbol.

Save your money on the cold air intake. It's amazing how well-designed the stock intakes are on any performance car these days.

Research on the exhaust would be warranted. Drone is a real concern.

The tune/pulleys are where the real power is as long as you don't mind voiding the warrantee. Dealers are REAL sensitive to that nowadays.

The car is white. I was always kind of a black car kind of guy but I got such a good deal on this thing I couldn't pass it up. Now that I have had it for a few days I regret nothing. Regarding what mosesbotbol said, I will probably look into pully upgrades now. I do have a 100K mile warranty on it and would like to not void it. My last car had an exhaust system on it and I got tired of it after years of loud driving. I haven't noticed the drone in the Jag yet, but I love the way it sounds. Mild when you are cruising and when you slam the throttle people's eyes tend to pop out of their heads. I don't think I would want to upgrade to an exhaust that would make it a lot louder but if anyone has or has seen something on the market that resembles the stock exhaust while still eliminating the drone and/or other concerns, feel free to leave them here and I will definitely look into them. Thanks for the support and feedback guys!

If the exhaust is not your thing I would go for the best tires, verify the alignment, and go with the that for a little. I bet the alignment is off and I wish the the XE came with better tire options. Brake fluid flush should be high on the list too.

I put BMC filters into my f type and got a bit more engine and supercharger noise into the cabin. Very cheap mod.

Cool, thanks for the recommendation. I saw that K&N has some replacement filters for the XE that I will probably purchase tomorrow. Unless the BMC filters provide much more supercharger whine, gonna have to look into that a bit. Sound improvements mainly in the cabin? Do you know if there was a noticeable difference outside of the car?

Much appreciated!
-Z

Sounds gruntier outside the car in the f type. A bit more raw at idle. Bmc are supposed to be the ducks guts, I've got no complaints.

Well, BMC filters are not cheap... Great product though.

True, true, but cheap in the context of cone filters being the alternative. Actually in the F Type with the filter boxes being down low at the front, it was a real production getting them in but I think the XE has them up the top.

Yes, up front and on top of everything. Should be an easy install. BMC’s are going to run me $148 and delivered on June 5th. K&N gonna be around $128 and I can run down the street pick them up and have them in the car today. For convenience sake I’m gonna go with the K&N’s.

Most K&N installs on Jags make less HP than stock from what I read on this forum.

Hey guys,

I also have xe r sport with red In color.
Thinking to go for powder coating on calipers.
Just wanted to have some rough estimate of how much it's gonna cost for that. And also what they gonna for powder coating like they redo the whole calipers and how much they have to open my car for that?
I was thinking they can just remove the wheels and remove the calipers for powder coating.
I am newbie in car world, so don't have much knowledge

Hi. Powder coating would involve removing the calipers. Ive had things powder coated but not brakes. I've had brakes done with caliper paint. It doesnt look as good close up as powder coat IMO but it can be done in a day and without the brakes being taken off. That's pretty cheap, I have had it done at the tyre shop and it was probably under $300.

@Ashish Aggarwal One thing you'll also want done if you are powder coating is some Dremelling or filing of casting marks. The calipers are bit rough and some filing will really make them look special once they powder coated. Every metro area has a powder coating place. Give them a call ask about the whole thing. You may want to apply Jaguar decals to the front calipers too. Be careful on the color, if going yellow, I would try to match the SVR caliper yellow. Silver and black are safe choices.

My guess is $500ish for all four calipers delivered to the powder coating shop.

I believe you'll need to rebuild them too.

One option is painting while one the car. There are a several kits on the market to do this with good results. You can file the calipers while on the car. Some detail or auto specialty shops offer this service.

Removing the calipers by removing the tires right? Or they have to open something else also?
Brakes you mean by discs?
The guy I just called said to me they have to redo the callipers and it's gonna take a week for that. I didn't fully understood that.
300 USD ?

Delivered you mean manually remove the calipers and deliver to the shop?
And I don't understand the rebuilding the calipers. Can you please give me insight to that also?

If I choose to paint them can they apply Jaguar decals?
Sorry for asking so many questions. I am totally new to the cars and I found it so much interesting 😁

Gooday. On painting them on the car, I mean they can do them without removing the caliper sorry. I've had it done twice. Once was with the caliper paint (spray) which cage a pretty good result, it held on nicely through I did see a flake or two. The second was with the G2 product which is essentially brush on with a foam pad. That wasnt a bad result either. I think the cost was actually about $200 - $250, you are only paying for their time as the paint itself doesnt cost much. With spray you'd need 2 of the small cans to do maybe 3 coats. With the G2 product one kit should be enough. I'm talking Australian dollars but I'd have thought it would be cheaper in the US.

The secret is in the prep. Mosesbotbol makes a good suggestion above with filing them as the metal is a bit rough and that does continue to show after they are painted. Also, filing would help get the grease and oil off the caliper to help the paint bite. I wouldnt put the decals on for a while after they have been painted, but the ebay style decals go on fine.

I dont understand what the fellow was talking about with redoing the calipers, but powdercoating can take a while because again the secret is in the prep - you have to give the stuff an acid bath first, if it is done quickly it might not adhere, then there are another few steps and if they arent done properly it can peel as well. A week sounds like a long time though. But because I was intrigued I just googled it and came across a mention in an R8 forum as follows

Help!!!! Be careful when powder coating calipers