Two days ago I had the supercharger pulley and ecu programming upgraded on my 2014 XKR convertible and wanted to share the results. I used ECU Tuning group in Beverly Hills, CA. Jags Gill flew out from California to New York and did the upgrade right in my garage at my work. Talk about door to door service. The upgrade took about an hour and a half. He changed the pulley out to a slightly smaller one that gives one and a half pounds more boost. He then flashed the Ecu with his new mapping which changes the shift points, the throttle response of the accelerator, removes the torque limiter among other changes. Instead of disconnecting the battery to reset the ecu he allows the car to go through its own reset process which takes 105.4 miles to complete. The result was not subtle. This car hauls a**. He says this upgrade takes the XKR from 510 hp up to 620 hp. Cost was $2200 installed. The power delivery became so much smoother and linear that I almost didn't realize how much faster I was going. It now uses much less throttle to achieve the same rate of acceleration. I immediately felt the additional pull into my seat. The sound of the engine roar increased and got fuller due to the extra flow of gases. Music to my ears. I always felt the car needed a little more to give me that ecstatic sensation I was looking for. Now it does in spades. I have a much deeper personal connection with the car than before and want to drive it all the time just for the sake of driving it.

Richard

 

I'm considering the same for my 2012 XKR. What was the cost? Cheers!

 

Marko,
The cost is $2200 installed. Either they come to you or find an installer near you or you can do it yourself. I know many members like to see dyno sheets of before and after. They do about 5 upgrades a day on this 5.0 liter supercharged engine. Dynos range from 617 to 623 hp and he said they are available upon request. All the versions of this engine end up with the same power. The 495 hp f type s, the 510 hp xkr or 550 hp F type r will all end up with over 600 hp. They did a Land Rover SVR and clocked 0-60 in 3.9 seconds with higher grade fuel. The most important thing is what you feel. The numbers don't mean anything if it feels the same. This is such an enjoyable improvement and it will put a big smile on your face.

 

I fully agree with what you are saying about the increase in power it is night & day as I have done quite a few myself. I think your statement that they tune 5 Jaguar 5.0 cars a day is at best an exaggeration. Enjoy the car & be careful when the tires are cold or it is wet as the rear end will come around on you. You may want to consider changing the exhaust now. We just put a Spires Stage 3 active system on a car that had been updated to 625hp with the Rica tune. Wow what a great sound on acceleration & no drone what so ever. Enjoy your "NEW" car.

 

Thanks to both of you. How bad is the rear end issue really? I'm coming from Porsche, and find the XKR already quite a bit more unstable. That may be fun on track, but not for spirited driving on normal roads. If the power increase means I have to constantly watch by behind, I'd rather stick to stock power. Thanks for any additional insights!

On the exhaust side, I've been looking around too. I'm mostly looking for a bit more noise, but I'd like to keep it "sane". Maybe I should go for the smaller Mina exhaust and pulley upgrade? I just can't seem to find any sound bites from the Mina setup.

 

I haven't had any issue with wheel slip so far. Only a fraction when coming off a rolling start and none at all when down shifting to 1st or 2nd even when the tires are cold. I have new Pirellis all around and it is warm out. I have been getting on it all weekend and it is a blast.

I hesitate on changing the exhaust because the back pressure is what is giving you the midrange torque. Open up the exhaust and you will gain hp but lose boost pressure and torque and that great midrange acceleration. You would need to increase boost even further to compensate. The sound does get louder and crisper just from the upgrade. Try it first then decide about exhaust.

 

Marko,
I have the Mina exhaust and it is much quieter than the stock exhaust. I am considering switching back or putting the Spires system that Lothar52 wrote up about a week and a half ago. He included a sound bite with video on his post. The Mina exhaust is very quiet on the XKR. I bought this exhaust from another forum member who was disappointed with the sound and returned to stock as well.

 

Thanks tberg! I was close to getting one! The prices for the other systems are pretty high, I will talk to my former Porsche tuner, they always did a great job. Maybe they have some out of the box ideas. Cheers!

 

I have the Mina system on my 12 NA vert. It sounds great and added about 10-15 bhp. I'm surprised that the Mina system seems to have the opposite effect on the R's - interesting.

 

I'm amazed that you can get the power down. Mine is stock save for the exhaust, running on the stock tyre, and 98 octane fuel. I find the back end goes out at the slightest provocation in first and second in the dry, in the wet I've had it go out accelerating from 80kph in a straight line.


When I first had it I thought that the tyres might be old and have gone hard, but I replaced them and there isn't any real improvement. In fact, I thought that the base f type launched quicker than the XKR because at least I could give it some boot. Trying to accelerate quickly into traffic is a menace because of the traction loss then the dsc cuts power. Is it the tyres, or bad driving, or a bit of both? Maybe I should throw some sandbags in the back to put some weight over the rear axle.

 

I achieved great results with a sport alignment, in other words, negative camber. I had the issue on rear wheel drive Porsches. Good tires made quite the difference too, never liked the Pirelli, I go with Michelin Super Sports usually.

I did talk to my tuner as well, looks like we're trying an x-pipe setup first (for my sound needs) as well as the mentioned sport alignment (for better traction). I keep everybody in the loop.

Cheers,

Marko

 

Cheers. I did the X pipe and the sound is great, but you end up with more of a howl and lose a bit of the throb. The tyres on mine are the ones it came with, Bridgestone something Maxx something whatever.

 

Bruce,
That is odd that you loose traction like that. I havent been able to loose traction if I wanted to. I drove several different xkrs before I bought mine and they all held traction. One was a 2011 xkr convertible. The same year as yours. I did notice the exhaust was much louder on the 2011. Seems they muffled it down when the f tye was coming out. That's what I liked about the car that you can really use all that power. Even from a dead stop all I get is a little chirp . I test drove a DB9 and the rear went right out at the first bit of gas. It was very unnerving. I leave the traction control on. Did you turn yours off?

 

If you are using Bridgestone that could explain it. All the cars I drove had Pirellis.

 

Cheers. No, I've left the traction control on. I'll put it down to the tyres. It happens even to my missus.

 

What are you going to do when your tune is lost and the ECM reverts back to stock?

 

How long does it take to revert to stock? They said it takes 105.4 miles before it accepts the new tune. Why should it revert? The factory tune doesn't disappear so why would this one. Isn't the new program still there.

 

You got to get the SPIRES STAGE 3... I dont care if its a 4.2 or a 5.0... its a BLAST. My XKR is now much MUCH louder than my XKR-S. Its night and day different. So much of a different I would like to switch the XKR-S to a Spires exhaust!!

I did no tune or anything... feels faster, more aggressive, and the when you let your foot off the gas it pops and snaps!!! AWESOME!!!

Loth

 

everyone on this board... and i mean everyone with a performance or non-performance active exhaust.. if you dont get a stage 3 spires exhaust YOU ARE MISSING OUT... I got my non-active full hooligan all the time - the rumble at idle is even addicting. My dealership is still talking about it... THEY ARE IN LOVE WITH MY XKR MORE THEN MY XKRS!! .... unfortunately..... so am I!

Loth

ps- considering the rear bladder on my XKR-S as it already has the X-Pipe... they said if you have X-Pipe its all you need!

 

It seems from other members who tuned their 5l SC XKRs that when the limit parameters are exceeded from utilizing the tune the ECM map is overwriten with the stock map for protection. Consequently, you have a $2,200 tune you can't use and if you push it you will loss it. There are many threads on the forum about this happening. All of the tuners know about it but will not say any thing. It has been proven by a few members.