F-Type V6S Velocity AP Upgrades
Discussion
Greetings all. Just wanted to give some feedback on the Velocity AP tuning I’ve done on my V6S and David Appleby Engineering who carried out the work.
I’ve had the crank pulley and ECU upgrade from VAP for just over a week now. Backside dyno tells me the claimed 453hp is about right. More importantly though, the driving experience is smoother. I’ve found the V6S auto a bit frustrating as the power seemed a bit binary: you either had no power or you had all the power. I suspect this is down to the 8-speed gearbox. Accessing any power for small things like coming out of a corner or maintaining your speed up a hill always seemed to require a downshift of several gears. This meant that if I wanted to do something minor like add a few mph to my speed I’d end up with a big shove and the somewhat overbearing exhaust bellow. Made things a bit jerky sometimes.
The added grunt from the VAP mods seems to make a better fist of the gearbox as more power is readily available and I don’t need to do the shouty stuff for small speed increments. When you do want to press on, the extra power does make itself known quite nicely indeed. It’s no R killer of course, but then the R seems to have a bit too much power for the chassis to handle. (Look, I still believe in the philosophy that you can’t have too much garlic, money, sex, or horsepower but I’m trying to make myself feel better about not buying a v8). Overall, the driving experience is much improved. Also, the annoyance of not being able to shake a diesel German exec off your tail is lessened.
The guys at David Appleby Engineering were brilliant. They are a high-end race engineering firm with some very serious provenance behind them. Despite the bulk of their work being big money race and road engineering, they still took the time to look after a relative pleb like me and make for a very satisfying experience. Walking around their facility and seeing the race cars they were rebuilding or a newly built Metro 6R4 engine (Group B rally engine that with a few mods ended up in the Jag XJ220) on their dyno does tend to fill you with confidence that they can do a quality job. That was important to me as I believe I’m the first in the UK to do the pulley upgrade, so was a bit apprehensive.
Should you do the mods I’ve done? Yes, I think you should. They will make your F-Type smoother, faster, and more satisfying. VAP are putting out some very good products. If you’re in the UK, you are very lucky indeed that you could have the crew at David Appleby do the work. My only issue is that I now really want the sport cats and lowering springs they offer but just can’t afford them!
Thanks to Stuart at VAP and James at DAE; I’m a big fan.
I’ve had the crank pulley and ECU upgrade from VAP for just over a week now. Backside dyno tells me the claimed 453hp is about right. More importantly though, the driving experience is smoother. I’ve found the V6S auto a bit frustrating as the power seemed a bit binary: you either had no power or you had all the power. I suspect this is down to the 8-speed gearbox. Accessing any power for small things like coming out of a corner or maintaining your speed up a hill always seemed to require a downshift of several gears. This meant that if I wanted to do something minor like add a few mph to my speed I’d end up with a big shove and the somewhat overbearing exhaust bellow. Made things a bit jerky sometimes.
The added grunt from the VAP mods seems to make a better fist of the gearbox as more power is readily available and I don’t need to do the shouty stuff for small speed increments. When you do want to press on, the extra power does make itself known quite nicely indeed. It’s no R killer of course, but then the R seems to have a bit too much power for the chassis to handle. (Look, I still believe in the philosophy that you can’t have too much garlic, money, sex, or horsepower but I’m trying to make myself feel better about not buying a v8). Overall, the driving experience is much improved. Also, the annoyance of not being able to shake a diesel German exec off your tail is lessened.
The guys at David Appleby Engineering were brilliant. They are a high-end race engineering firm with some very serious provenance behind them. Despite the bulk of their work being big money race and road engineering, they still took the time to look after a relative pleb like me and make for a very satisfying experience. Walking around their facility and seeing the race cars they were rebuilding or a newly built Metro 6R4 engine (Group B rally engine that with a few mods ended up in the Jag XJ220) on their dyno does tend to fill you with confidence that they can do a quality job. That was important to me as I believe I’m the first in the UK to do the pulley upgrade, so was a bit apprehensive.
Should you do the mods I’ve done? Yes, I think you should. They will make your F-Type smoother, faster, and more satisfying. VAP are putting out some very good products. If you’re in the UK, you are very lucky indeed that you could have the crew at David Appleby do the work. My only issue is that I now really want the sport cats and lowering springs they offer but just can’t afford them!
Thanks to Stuart at VAP and James at DAE; I’m a big fan.
Separately: If they can find a way to keep the throttle plate open and the boost relief valve shut beyond 5k rpm I'm interested.
It already has enough torque below 4k to spin the Pirellis in third gear on cold tarmac*, so I really don't need more low rpm torque...
It already has enough torque below 4k to spin the Pirellis in third gear on cold tarmac*, so I really don't need more low rpm torque...
- Because they are made of plastic, rather than vulcanised rubber...
ftypical said:
Why aren't you using the paddles?
That way, you can always be in the right gear to b*gger off into the distance...
Guess I'm just lazy! Never been a fan of the paddles unless I'm going balls out. Again, I just think the box has too many ratios. I haven't found it instinctive enough on the paddles - perhaps due to my lack of using them much. Find it a pain to have to drop 4 or 5 gears to be where I want to be in the powerband. If ZF could make a 6-speed that works as quickly as the 8, I reckon that would be just right. At least things are much better with the mods. That way, you can always be in the right gear to b*gger off into the distance...
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