My replacement front oil cooling lines are going in along with leaking power steering tubing. Torn front rollbar bushings are getting replaced with PowerFlex Purple units too. I think all the other rubber bits got replaced by previous owner 24 months ago and I did the lower control arm bushings 20 months ago.

Ideas up next.

1. Steering ratio faster
2. Rear sway upgrade from stock 17 mm to UltraRacing 20mm or JaguarSpecialites 22mm+ when its available late April.
3. lower frame braces from UltraRacing
3. Lower pulley upgrade via Eurotoys mike (thinking of buying spare pulley via ebay and send to him so my car won't be down 3-4 weeks if mine removed and have to wait for him to send back).

Steering ratio
I'm now wondering if I should leave steering alone until the rear sway bar goes in since a few people commented the steering felt more responsive as a result.

Rear sway bar
UltraRacing a known quantify, wondering if a 22mm+ bar is going to be too much of a good thing on a car I can't afford to put an LSD on. Deuce2000 solved his UltraRacing rear bar drop link problem (squeaks) without additional parts.

Frame braces
Anyone put these on a coupe and notice a real difference? The convertibles really need it.

OTHER

Any other maintenance items to check carefully before I go flog my cat in the canyons?

I am also reviewing leather replacement for drivers side seat
and changes to the wood paneling color (neat green wood version from Silverstone) vs. 3 gauge vs just find an iPhone 5c holder to stick phone in front of nav screen.

 

I think someone posted an eBay link to a full Silverstone set yesterday.

Or Wal-Mart probably has a suction cup holder for your phone.

 

May I ask why would you want to go bigger in size for the rear, considering the disadvantage on traction?

 

There were contributors here who wrote about XK8 generation car that had a second factory sway bar installed to improve rear stiffness and that it reduced the vehicle's understeer considerably. CoventryWest had a hand in it. I even saw same car up for sale at a different time. There were no aftermarket anti-roll bars at the time it was done. That car did not have an LSD upgrade.

As a guy who values sharper handling response at speeds between 30-70 Mph, would the larger rear sway bars now available not be helpful?

I don't forsee being able to afford an LSD install, so if LSD is really needed to take advantage of the stiffer rear then I will leave it alone.

 

From what I understand now is that if you stiffen the rear sway bar, and you go fast thru a corner, the inner wheel will be lifted more. That will cause less traction to that wheel, so will have a negative effect if you have an open diff (or even a Quaife).

Jaguar chose for the R Performance pack to go with a thinner rear sway bar (i.e. stock 17mm and R pack 15mm), that is why I was wondering why you would still want to go thicker.

 

Okay. Since larger rear sway is not considered a universally good idea, I'll pause that one.

I'll have another post about unstaggering my setup by using the same wheel size up front that back has. Chevy has done that with the Camaro SS LE1 package, the ZL1 and the Z-28, with magazine reviews attesting to vastly less understeer than stock Camaro SS.

 

Thanks Avos
I read that they went with a smaller dia. rear sway bar in the R performance package, and I wondered why.

 

It is rarely so simple as "good" or "bad". The right choice is a matter of how your car behaves and how you would like your car to behave.

There is some general description:
AutoSpeed - Sway Bar Shenanigans

Sway Bars 101

My guess that the R pack has the larger front bar and revised steering to improve the responsive feeling of the car and the smaller rear to decrease the power on steering, for safety to make the car more controllable with a heavy right foot.

The second article has a generalized summary of how changes at either end will affect the car.

A softer front bar:
1. Increases front chassis roll.
2. Increases front grip or traction, while decreasing rear grip or traction.
3. Slower steering response.
4. Increases off-power steering at corner entry.

A stiffer front bar:
1. Decreases front chassis roll.
2. Decreases front grip or traction, while increasing rear grip or traction.
3. Faster steering response.
4. Decreases off-power steering at corner entry.

A softer rear bar:
1. Increases rear chassis roll
2. Increases rear grip or traction, while decreasing front grip or traction.
3. Less on-power steering.

A stiffer rear bar:
1. Decreases rear chassis roll.
2. Decreases rear traction, while increasing front grip or traction.
3. Faster steering response in high speed corners and chicanes.
4. Increases on-power steering.

 

That fourth point eludes me for meaning.
Two questions besides that:

1. Anyone get a larger rear anti-roll bar and regret it?

2. Anyone just get the lower frame braces from UltraRacing and NOT do the rear sway bar?

I'm looking for improved feel, balance and fun below 75 mph! :-)

 

Fully agree!

One must also take the stiffer springs into consideration the R Pack, but I trust that Jaguar has done some testing with it and came to the design of the pack with good reasons.

Streets are pretty narrow overhere, very unforgiven, therefor I normaly don't drive my car to the max in corners (certainly not at 75mph), but so far stiffer springs/shocks/lsd have already made a good improvement.