I recently purchased a 2007 XK Coupe. I absolutely love the car to me the XK is the perfect blend of luxury and performance. How ever I would like to upgrade the performance. But I do not know where to begin. I am a Defense Contractor in Afghanistan so I do not mind if it takes some time to install the upgrades. I do not want to go over board so I am trying to keep upgrades around 10k. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

I'm assuming you're looking for improved power and handling. Would you consider upgrading to an XKR model that has many serious performance upgrades as standard? Probably within your $10k budget, and where the XKR model will always be worth considerably more at resale, dropping 10 large into a XK wouldn't likely increase its resale value much, if at all.

Bruce

 

When I was looking for Jagaur's I had a hard time finding XKR's for sale. Apparently once people buy them they don't sell them.. I don't blame them. My main goal is to upgrade the power of the car. I don't really ever plan on taking it to a track and the handling is pretty outstanding as it is. And I am not going to lie the 138mph limiter is a buzz kill haha.

 

Intake and exhaust are typical upgrades people do to normally aspirated engines, but they offer very minimal improvements. You could contact ECU Tuning Group to see if they have an ECU tune that you might be interested in. Do a forum "Search" for their threads for more info.

But honestly, the best suggestion is to trade up to an XKR for more power if/when you find one. There's often 5 or so for sale on AutoTrader in the Toronto area at any given time, and I imagine they're for sale regularly in many cities.

Good luck...and welcome to the forum!

Bruce

 

I remember reading your post (or I blelieve it was you) on another thread explaining the different parts of an engine. The ECU part was the part I was fascinated with the most because I had no idea the ECU did that much. I will look into the power gains vs price comparison for the mods you listed above and compare that with available XKR's. Other than it not being an XKR everything else about my car is EXACTLY what I was looking for in a XK. I figured since it uses the same engine that was in the previous generation XK's there would be a fair amount of upgrades available. At least that was the mindset that I thought when I was buying the car IF I ever decided to upgrade haha. Thank you again for the advice!

 

Take the advise given kevin, trade it in on a r youll be way ahead of the game and way more performance than you will ever get from ecu, exhaust, intake, flying pigs etc.....
the only thing even close would be 100hp shot of nitrous which is easy enough and best bang for the buck, but you have to refill when empty and 10# bottles empty fast

 

Like Bruce suggested above, the XKR would be your best choice. Upgrading the XK would cost as much and be less reliable at the same time. ECU upgrades will always take away the safety margin that a factory builds into the car. You get one bad batch of gasoline and could blow your engine. Upgrading the exhaust (with Mina or similar) will give you substantial gains in the very high RPM range (near redline). It will, however, take away from the range where most people drive most of the time; thus it is a compromise.

Bruce is also correct that a modified car will likely worth less than a stock one, or, at the least, you will never get back your monies that you put into them.

The XK is a rather low powered car in today's high-performance standards. I have one and I love it for what it is; a beautiful show car and cruiser for the average driver. You would have to spend mega bucks to make it speed/handling-competitive with many other garden variety Corvettes, Mustangs, etc. Besides, very few performance parts are on the market since there is very little interest amongst the XK drivers to upgrade their performance.

Albert

Albert

 

+2 on XKR,add a pully to it and nyour off!

 

The ECU certainly does a lot, but tuning it on the normally aspirated engine will yield very little gain. The big gains are on the supercharged engines where the ECU is restricting the amount of boost, and methodically limitting power. This may be the post you were thinking of...
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-primer-73973/.

Considering a convertible also, if you weren't already, will increase your selection of available XKR's significantly. They're gorgeous and wonderful to drive with top up or down, and some might even suggest the fun goes up when the top goes down! But either way, there are other differences that help make the extra power usable, safe and reliable.

I'm sure those who own and love the XK would agree the car doesn't need more power...so maybe the question really is "IF", as opposed to when!

 

Albert, I realize the topic of this thread is about upgrading engine performance, but for me, the number one reason to get the Mina exhaust is the visual upgrade of the quad pipes.

 

Personally the XK is fast enough for the road, if you shift the shifter over to Sport and put your foot down 100 mph comes up fast enough for you to lose you license here in NC in a heart beat. You will never match an R with mods but you can play with the XK with Exhaust and ECU but you do buy an XK or an XKR for different reasons. I think the XK is prettier than the R which is a bit more aggressive looking, so if it is speed you are looking for upgrade to the R but drive one first sometimes speed can be over rated.

 

I appreciate all the help gentlemen. If I do at some point decide I want something with more performance I will more than likely get an XKR. The XK is still plenty fast and amazingly smooth through the gears. Jaguar really did do a superb job with every aspect of this vehicle. It really is a head turner, it is even more suprizing to people when they see a 24 year old step out of the car as well haha.

 

Michael, I don't have any problem with that. As a matter of fact, that is exactly the reason I am holding onto the Mina. If it was not for the looks of the quad pipes, I probably would have switched back to the stock one for better drivability.

Albert

 

Before my 2007 XK I owned the Lotus V8 twin turbo Esprit, a low-slung exotic that went 0-60 in 4.5. And I enjoy the looks and performance of the Jag far more. I realized that this 300hp beauty is everything a car should be.

Jaguar nailed it with the XK; to me the XKR is just gilding the lily. Then again, I was 25 once too.... ;-)

 

I say just drive it screw the upgrades. Go for the best performance tires that make sense and just enjoy it for what it is. I was torn between XK and XKR and just took the best available car to me at the time. I would've loved the extra performance of XKR, but I like the looks of the XK's nose better. The softer springs of the XK are better suited for the urban roads of Boston better than XKR, imo...

Either way, be thankful you have such a beautifully crafted and nice looking car.

Wait it out until the XKR-S start coming on the used market is a few years!