The pictures are in the gallery under “Mina Install”. I ordered the exhaust for my 2005 XK8 on 4-13 and received it on 4-23. It cost $899 on their site. I found it on Ebay not long after I ordered it for $875. Aside from receipt from the site when I ordered it I never got any emails from Mina. I was hoping for a tracking number. I called them and was told it had shipped. I also ordered the upper and lower grilles. The exhaust made it but the grilles came up as undeliverable as addressed even though all were addressed the same. Post office screw up, I still have not received them.

The exhaust was well packed. Each piece was individually plastic bagged and in a box with foam filler. The quality of the exhaust is good, the stainless well polished and only a few scuffs. The welds are also good. It comes with a hardware pack. This wasn’t so good. It looks like they ran out of one of the brackets and made one. The correct one fit well but the home made one had to be modified to work. The silver one is the good one and is a bent bracket. The black one is 2 pieces and welded together and the holes were too close together and had to be elongated. It also did not have nuts welded on like the good one so I had to use some of the old parts.

There was no documentation of any kind included and while I was able to intuit where and how all the brackets went in, Mina should include a diagram.

A lift is advised if you have access. I did not. I was able to get the old exhaust out but I did cut the pipes because I was not able to raise the car high enough. Not a big deal, I will either weld them back up if I have access to a lift or flange them if I don’t in case I need to put them back in. If you cut yours mark them for the proper orientation when you weld them up.
Once the original exhaust was out I could see how restrictive it is. The pipe is flattened where it starts to rise over the rear end and there is a deep dent in the middle of the flattened part. I don’t know why Jaguar did like this. The Mina is very easy to install as it travels under the rear end. It does not cut ground clearance as much as you might think. View the picture of the center bracket as this can be installed above or below its mounting point. Install it above as this pulls everything up tighter. Convertibles have 2 stabilizer bars the run from the trunk pan forward and out to behind the hubs. Mina suggests mounting the pipes tight against these. When I first mounted everything and started her up I had a rattle. Upon checking I noticed a gap between the stabilizer and the pipe. I loosened the clamps front and rear and put a jack under the low point in the pipe. You can apply considerable pressure without damaging the pipe. With the jack in place tighten the clamps. Rattle fixed. The easiest way I found to tighten the 2 side brackets
is though the bumper light hole. The light is easily removable.

The exhaust sounds great, deep but not overpowering. It won’t drown out conversation but you can hear the V8. I had a ricer pull up next to me at a light with his own aftermarket exhaust. His car sounded like crap next to mine.
Mina advertises an 8-17HP gain. I don’t feel a difference but don’t really push the car anyway. I ordered the quad tip version. I think it fills the exhaust cut out better than the stock one does.
So, there is my experience with the Mina exhaust. It took about 4 hours from start to finish. It would have been much faster on a lift. It is a bit expensive but it sounds great and the quality is good. All I can suggest for Mina is to include a diagram of the layout and make sure the hardware components are of the same quality as the exhaust. Email confirmation of shipping would also be nice.
Write up and pictures of the Grilles will be posted once I receive them. I also have a quad taillight conversion from Adamesh on the way and will post that as well.

 

Nice write-up on the Mina exhausts. Did Mina ever provide an explanation as to why you received the mis-matched bracket?

Do the pipes going underneath the suspension affect the suspension travel?

 

No, I have to call them about the bracket Monday (Also about my grilles). And no suspension travel is not affected, the pipes are inboard enough to clear everything. Ground clearance is a reduced bit but it's between the wheels so the only thing you may have to watch for is hitting a tall speed bump with only one wheel.

 

Hey Mike,
Congrat's on the new exhaust, I'm sure that you'll enjoy the richer sound! I too have the Adamesh Quad Tail Lights, and found Geoff a great guy to deal with. We did have trouble with the resistors, as they did not do the job they were intended for. My mechanic ended up wiring in normal light bulbs also so as to fool the car so that a dash error light wouldn't come on. It was well worth the trouble though and I am more than pleased with the end product. FYI.
Good luck,
Brian

 

Thanks, it sounds great.
I was worried about problems with the quad lights. What was Adamesh's answer on the trouble light and resistors? I'm hoping they have a fix.

 

Geoff's answer was exactly what my mechanic did...........wire in the regular lights to fool the sensors. As a note, I had the light cavity painted to prevent rusting prior to installing the quads. After they were installed, I also applied Silicon from the inside to help make it waterproof.

Geoff had said that they only encountered this problem on one other XKR........but then again, it is quite new.

Again, I was REALLY happy with this upgrade!
Regards,
Brian

 

Install a Mina on my 01 XK8. I had a good jack ( read that as TALL) so I was able to get the exhaust off in one piece.....still have it if anyone is interested. Even so, it's like one of those "twisted nail" puzzles figuring out how to get it off. Ditto on the bracket. In the end, I found that there are slots on the differential bracket that match perfectly with the Mina tubes so I attached it there with stainless hose clamps. I worked great and gave me another 3/4 - 1" of ground clearance. Like Mike, I was amazed at the crimped OEM pipes. Can't figure out why Jag would do that. It has to eat up some HP just pushing out the exhaust gas. 8 - 14? Who knows, but the motor sounded a lot happier and revved freer with the Mina on. Hell, the sound alone makes it worth it !!! I sold the 8 and bought an '06 R. I'm ready to put a Mina on it. Anyone had any experience with Mina on an R ? Does it sound as good as it does on an 8 ?

 

Hey Mike great write up!

Gova: one of the S type R (if your R is the 4.2) owners Jose (03jagstr) has this on his car and some sound clips he put on youtube If you PM him im sure he would be more then happy to send you the link

 

Thanks Mike. I found the link here on this site.

 

I have seen some questions about weight savings on aftermarket exhausts. I forgot to weigh the Mina before I installed it. I'll check if I have to install the stock for smog. The stock parts replaced by the Mina weigh 44 pounds.

 

I installed the Mina exhaust on my '01 XKR this past weekend. I have been very pleased with the product...it has a super classy sound, a definte improvement in pickup across the band and is great looking.

I too was shocked at the crimps over the rear axle in the stock exhaust (see the photo). The pipes are squeezed down from 2" to about 1.1" OD. And then there are those near 90 deg. bends. This cannot be good.

 

Nope! FYI keep an eye on your fuel mileage, you should notice a vast improvement.

 

Wow - thats some crimp! Is that just the case for the XKRs or is it that bad for the XK8 too?

 

My parts diagram shows the intermediate stock muffler, which has the crimped pipe attached, is the same for XK8 and XKR. Front and rear stock mufflers are different parts, however.

 

Man, am I glad I got rid of that wheezer and put something in with more breathing room!

 

Anyone want to buy a stock 2001 XKR exhaust system with 59K miles?

 

I just purchased a Mina system for my 2000 XKR. I unpacked it today and hunted for the parts list and the installation instructions. There was none found. I called Mina and Chris there explained to me they have no parts list nor instruction manual. He did, however, go through it with me. The rear mounts need to be converted to the type used on the 2001 cars. I think I will be missing bolts required to attach the rubber hanger with the supplied bracket.

I hope it sounds as good as the other posts indicate. I luckily have a hoist and I can see the big crimp in the factory system. Strange they would do this.

 

Hello,

You will see a separate post on my experiences with the Adamesh exhaust, which in short killed off the car's back pressure and lost its torque.

My car is a 2003 4.2 XKR until recently it had the standard Jaguar exhaust.

What are your experiences with the Mina exhaust? Especially surrounding torque and acceleration off the line. With the standard exhaust a blib of the throttle and my car was off like a bullet, with the Adamesh it was all noise and delay.

Does the Mina add any torque, especially from standstill. Does it make things worse?

I don't want to make another mistake on another "sports" exhaust to find it is worse than the standard one.

Thanks!

 

I have the mina under axle set up. Quad tips, eliminates the small mufflers just ahead of rear axle. This was fitted when l bought the car but throttle response is immediate and strong. Love the tone of the exhaust at any speed, no drone.
l have also changed crank pulley for blower, this made a very noticeable difference.

 

Hi Baxtor,

Thanks for your comments, that sounds very encouraging. I am considering both the exhaust and the pulley at the moment.

Thanks!