Hi all,

I'm looking for information on suspension tuning options to make the ride tighter and reduce the body roll. Particularly where I now live, many of the roads have horrible grading with bumps, sudden dips or drops, and then big hills. The ol' cat has lots of body roll on these and I can feel when going down the sudden drops the wheels drop down on the suspension, then the body slamming down on it, which is not great for the car and feels bad too. Overall, the car feels very sloppy on these roads, very unsure. I'd like to tighten it up.

I've got a friend with a modified Audi RS5 and having driven a few of those before, it's a big heavy sedan of similar weight and power to the XKR in stock form. His is tuned to have a very tight suspension and having driven it, it feels very confident, pin-point precise on the roads here.

Ideally, I'd like to do something similar to get more performance out of the Jaguar without compromising its comfort.

Who's done suspension improvements on their car and can provide input?

 

Replaced suspension bushes with PowerFlex black urethane race bushes, which made an immediate difference. Next fitted adjustable coilovers and finally custom front and rear sway bars with urethane bushes. Other tweaks include solid subframe bush replacements and thicker front and rear end links. New engine mounts, trans mount, diff mounts & guibos.

 

Thanks for the inputs!
I've done the bushings and sway bar links on a previous one that had rotted components, and that did help. I looked into the polyurethane ones at the time but went with OEM style ones because they were a little cheaper and troublingly people reported the polys squeak. Any issues with that?

New mounts will probably help improve the ride as well, but the car only has 22k miles. Thoughts?

Tell me more about the custom sway bars and coilovers. What made the sway bars custom? Are they commercially available parts or custom fabricated? And which coilovers did you use?

 

Jahummer Im guessing the custom sway bars are the same diameter ?? (i ask as to whether we would need new brackets to accommodate a thicker sway )

 

And something like this for the rear would be brilliant. This is for the xf , (I have always presumed that the vert would have one of these as well to increase rigidity, although i could not find anything.)

Rear strut tower brace for xf

 

Not to mention that if you are running original springs, dampeners, control arms, etc. after all these years, metal fatigue and wear and tear are not your friend.

 

The XKR has a substantial anodized alloy rear brace. You can see part of it here:

 

Larger and solid front rather than hollow.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/w...-f-type-94044/

 

Personally, I can not imagine how perfect these cars would be if they came in at 300–400 pounds lighter the handling in even a standard xkr would be brilliant at 3500–3600 pounds (There would be no need for power increase).

When driven hard you can feel the weight of these cars especially over the front axle

 

Hi @jahummer . A little off topic but I see you have a lithium battery?
What are your thought about it? Do they solve the battery troubles?( I see yours is very large)
Isn't it too boring to maintain? I see you still have a permanent charging plug...

Thanks.

 

It’s a Motorsports version not best suited for a daily driver. Plenty of charge for limited use whilst the generator’s not in use, perhaps 10-20 minutes max compared to an AGM. Good thing about lithium’s its ability to maintain constant voltage compared to lead batteries, which’s also a bad thing because it will drop instantly rather than slowly on a curve. Also not likely compatible with later versions of Jags fitted with BMS. First gen, like mine, don’t have BMS so it charges just fine using the battery’s built in BMS.

 

I've had various types of lithium batteries in my ebike over the past 15 years. The lifepo is my favorite because it does have that (almost) fully charged discharge until the end, also the safest type lithium there is.
My buddies xe has a lithium battery, much lighter and except for the one time it 'flat lined' seems like an okay upgrade. He had it at a shop, they left the doors open too long and it went so dead that it souldn't be jumped, needed a slow charge overnight.
wj

 

The AG batteries have a jump start reserve when they go dead which allows a one time restart. The one I’ve fitted is small with lower Ah, which means it will go dead in 10-20 minutes if the lights or other electrics are left running with the engine off. AG do make a full size 80Ah H8, but it’s $1300 and 26 pounds which isn’t enough weight savings to justify the price. For less than half that price mine’s a further 20 pounds lighter.

 

Does anybody have any experience with the Swallows Racing - AVO GTZ adjustable coilovers for the X150? Swallows Racing Coilovers I would eventually like to install a set of coilovers on my XKR, but I haven't been able to find any reviews on the Swallows Racing kit.

 

Have you looked into the BC Racing kit? They’re based out of Florida, a bit closer to Texas.

 

I spoke with BC Racing's customer service after reviewing your BC Racing installation posts. They were supposed to get back with me with a quote for a set of DS coilovers, but I never heard from them. I got sidetracked on another car project and haven't followed up. I was hoping to find a review of the Swallows Racing coilovers before I re-engaged with BC Racing.

 

https://au.maxpeedingrods.com/index....092&quantity=1

I wonder if these could be a suitable alternative to BC racing coilovers ?

As the above link is for x350 we would simply need to confirm whether the x350 & x351 also share the same upper mounting plate, specifically the distance between the studs.

*I can confirm the x351 & x150 share the same upper strut mount plate

 

Looks like its a go for x350 coilovers to fit x150 https://au.maxpeedingrods.com/produc...2004-2010.html

coilover upper mounting plate for x350 they match x351 & x150