Boosted Falcon

So my dad bought a BA XR8 a few weeks back. 6 speed manual, 4 into 1s/full exhaust/quad pipes out the back, lowered a little.

He's gone to America for a couple of weeks and given me the car to work on and drive (coolant flush, oils, fit new pads all round with dba drilled and slotted rotors, whiteline front swaybar etc) while he is over there.

I'd invite anyone who has driven one for any length of time or owned one to comment here, because I think there might be something wrong with it....it feels really doughy when driving normally, and doesn't go worth a shit until 4500rpm - I've got to say I was disappointed...it sounds absolutely freakin' awesome, but has no go to match the show.

In comparison to other 245-275kw stocker SS/HSV commodores this feels very very flat. It might do a comparable quarter mile time if pushed, but in normal day to day driving it needs about 50-80% throttle when accelerating through the gears just to keep up with traffic off the lights

Are they normally like this, or is there something that goes wrong occasionally to cause it? Dead set, my car has 3.08 diff gears atm, and if I ran this thing in my car, with both drivers shifting at 2000rpm, I reckon I'd sort it, which as far as I'm concerned should not be the case!

I'll be telling him to get a PD blower for the thing when he gets back

Last time I had exhaust fitted the 02 sensors warn't connected properly...
Sounds like it needs an edit ?? Check that all sensors are working...

Yeah i have experienced the same, a friend of mine recently bought an AU III XR8 off a bloke who also had a BA XR8 for sale (both autos) , i took both for a drive and found that anything below about the 3500rpm the AU had it all over the BA.

The Ba just seemed to have a really good top end with not much poke off the line.

I think Bosses are known to lack bottom end while the 3Vs have heaps of bottom end & midrange due to the VCT.

But I haven't been in either, so I guess that didn't really help much...

id be unsure if there is actually something wrong with the XR8, i drive my dads GTP all the time and it seems to suffer from the same problem, albeit not as bad as your describing. Hasn't it been reported since the BA was released that the V8 models felt very sluggish especially the XR8??

One of my brothers had a BA XR8 and I drove the thing a fair bit. As you say, sounded AWESOME, but was very uninspiring to drive. To me it was gutless down low, very unresponsive in general, and then had a noticeable hump in the power curve at around 4-4.5k and peaked not much later.

Mate has a BA XR8 5spd ute i thought it was a tad slugish but it could just be the throttle response as a stocker has a ramp up ratio on the flyby wire ie put ur foot down and it slowly gets upto the revsyou want like a 1 to 4 ratio or some shiz custom tune can get a 1 to 1 ratio giving better throttle response.

Ive heard similar things.

A PD charger sounds the go. Personally i like the stealthy Yella Terra kit.

They are like that to drive, keep them on the boil and they're fine. They wake up at about the 4000 mark, and by 6000 you're into the limiter. But they have a good number for peak kw. That's all that matters in a car right?

BTR XR8's are just poo.

Never driven a BA XR8, but fly by wire is gayer than a three man spit roast. Stupid emissions crap built into it so it brings on the throttle slowly rather than snapping it open as you floor it. Edit FTW.

I thought it was common knowledge the BOSS motors sucked balls?
The 3Vs are alright, I'd work one of them over a BOSS motor.
Least it doesn't try to hide the "don't rev me too hard because I'm a truck motor" factor.

Barge8 wrote:fly by wire is gayer than a three man spit roast.

Yeh I reckon. EA CFi have better throttle response than most FBW cars IMHO.

I'll get him to take it to ford to have the sensors checked etc, too much effort for me.

In all seriousness, the more I drive it the more I love e-series - the ergonomics in these things are shithouse!

Yeah that FBW crap is shit as. The first time I tried it was in dads old BA XT 5-speed, and I kept hitting the limiter every gear change due to the slow response of the pedal. Total poo!

I like my fly by wire. I don't wanna sound like a smartarse, but I honestly thought everyone knew Boss motors are very average stock?

Edits do wonders. A friend of mine has one; stock it was okay. But after an exhaust, CAI, and Edit, the thing is a weapon. Stock it pulled 175rwkw which is LOLable, back on the dyno after the aforementioned mods it pulled closer to 250rwkw and is veh veh nice. Sounds fucking sick too.

Kenaz - I knew everyone said they were very average, but I'm astonished at how very average it is - like, IMHO a 'very average' 5.4 should still feel a lot more toey off the line than a stock 4.0, surely? I was really trying to avoid sounding like an I6 wanker, but I guess I'm justified here

Edit ftmfw....but I doubt my dad will do it...maybe I can convince him that it will decrease fuel consumption

The more I drive this thing the more I love everything about my car...except the instrument cluster lighting and the length of the gear lever...

Yeah the Boss motors aren't the best at all. Thats why most guys on here would take and LS series V8 anyday over them.
My old mans got the 3V, and its still nothing overly special. It pulls alright, but seriously hits the limiter at like 5,200-5,300rpm. Its fucked, i reckon the thing could rev to almost 7,000rpm. It starts pulling and then the limiter kicks in hard! Sucks balls.
Nice V8 to drive around town and give it a stab avery now and then. Really cruisy kinda thing, which works alright in the Ghia.

my parents have had a 5 speed ba xr8 for about 4-5 years now.

we fitted difillipo extractors and cats with a custom twin 2.5 inch system and a ss cai kit. after that it made 220rwkw and felt alot better on the road.

i personally don't think they are that bad. would still take 1 over a 5l e series any day.

it has done just under 100,000km with no issues at all.

i do reckon there is something wrong with your dads rollin, if it cant keep up with traffic there is definitely something wrong.

Yeah the xr8 are very wofull i used to own own and dis this and that to it 236 rwkw and it just sounded great thats all. then i drove a mates F6 and i was sold went out and traded the xr8 in straight away.

Whats the point of a V8 if it doesnt have instant torque down low to get things going?

Sloppy lowrange is for us turbocharged people...

Was going to get a xr8 in the near future...


Note to self, buy a modded xr8.

Grechie wrote:Was going to get a xr8 in the near future...


Note to self, buy a modded xr8.

modded = supercharged.

+1 for the yella terra charger kit + misc including edit and stuff, that would sort it out.

89AIT wrote:+1 for the yella terra charger kit + misc including edit and stuff, that would sort it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxJef7po ... re=related

417.9 rwkw, I'd be happy with that!


800rwhp 6.0l boss v8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad7TtVnn ... re=related

YT kit is so stealth, awesome stuff!!