Jaguar XJR..

I've got a 1998 XJ8 3.2 with 27,000 miles.

Great cars and the build quality is excellent.

The V8 XJR is simply awesome.

 

Had my 2003 XJR about 4 months now - its simply a great every day car - loads of room, comfort, and unusually for XJ' s boot space. And when you want to do some serious driving stick it in sport mode and listen to that supercharger whine !

 

Is that the new aluminium one?

 

Yes Si.

 

....I'm thinking of adding a second R to the stable, only this time in V8 form.




I've been running a UK spec 2002 V8 XJ-R (X308) for about a year. I love it. Fantastic piece of machinery...

The V8 is effortless and makes an excellent and brutal noise as the revs and supercharger pick up. That said most of the time it gets there quite fast enough on just a trickle of revs...

Performance!?! Give it a straight-ish road and it will run away from my 308 , no contest...(and many other Ferrari's).
0-60mph in 5.2secs.
Top end limited to 155mph.
Rated at 375Bhp (not a big figure by USA V8 standards, but quite enough)
20-24mpg

You need a long road with no limit and no traffic to really open it up.

My car has been nearly faultless (passenger door lock sensor).
Otherwise the advice on the V8 model seems to be:
1) check that the cam chain tensioners have been changed for the late spec aluminium ones...
(the early OE spec plastic ones have been known to occassionally fail... with catastrophic results as the cam timing drops out)
2) the auto gearbox can get a bit sloppy on the gear shift, if the car has had a hard life.


The only down side is next year the car will be too old for my company's car scheme, so I'll have to change it... probably for another XJ !!!

 

Try a S Type R, awesome

 

I very nearly bought an 6 cyl XJR a while back. It's a real classic Jag engine, and apparently they're pretty bulletproof.

 

Had one a few years ago, awesome car and like you say, very reliable.You can pick them up now for a couple of grand.

 

Thought this was a Ferrari forum?

 

So the only thing you want to talk about is Ferrari's ??

 

Still saving for my 512TR but I currently own a 2000 XJR V8 in silver - beautiful. I also owned (between 2001 and 2003 a blue XJR6).

Both awesome vehicles. The XJR6 is probably the best value car of its type anywhere (so cheap here) and the engine was the pinnacle of refinement of that 6 cylinder block which stretches back years before. They are bulletproof. They are plenty quick too - not quite V8 quick but good enough to pin you back and effortless overtaking. Gave many a sports car a shock in my XJR6 when I kicked down. It is also in my opinion the best looking saloon ever made. Fantastic handling for such a car and the ride excellent too.

Bought the XJRV8 on a whim recently as was bored waiting for an Fcar and needed a second car for various reasons.
This car is unbelievable, same looks, better performance. The handling and ride are even better with CATS adaptive ride/damping and the speed, oh lord, the speed. My friend has a 996 spider and with the Jag auto box (bar a standing drag start which would be silly but where the 996 could, if you shredded the clutch at 6000rpm, take a lead) when we are both moving there is no way he can catch me anywhere on a straightish road. The pick up is truly unbelieveable. Don't take the 0-60 (5.2) and 0-100 (12.8) too literally - they are very, very good - but rolling from 10-20 mph upwards the torque is such that bar a supercar or german "ubercar" almost nothing can catch it. Great engine.

I always remember Jeremy Clarkson testing an early XJRV8 back in 1998/9 on Top Gear. He was smitten. He lined up an XJRV8, F355, Porsche and several other serious "sports" cars on an airstrip and dragged them over 1/4 mile. The XJR won at a canter by some margin even with autobox. I wonder if someone has got that video or if it is on youtube?

Ferraris have soul yes but for English cars only Jaguars and Bentleys in my opinion (not Astons) have soul.

 

Its always delightful to read pleasant comments on the XJR. I was lucky enough to be the guy heading up the design team, and I was always convinced the style and feel of the car was about right and that Chris B was taking a giant leap of faith with the BMW. The design philosophy was that the car should look hand built in the traditional way - with crafted bodywork that might have come off a metal roller, with no obvious joins, add ons or gratuitous gismos. But I'll tell you 2 stories you may find interesting. Although I worked out of Design, or Styling as some call it, occasionally I'd take groups around the Engineering Facility and to Engine Test where prototype and production engines would be humming away on the dynos. On one occasion there were 3 engines running with white hot manifolds and the big clock face showing a steady 5700 RPM. I asked the engineer to explain what was going on and it turned out these were ordinary production engines - taken off the line for endurance testing. Part of ISO Certification where the engines are run up to maximum revs and given full design load. OK so far, but then they keep them running non stop, night and day for 3 weeks. The equivalent of 150000 miles.
On another occasion I was at MIRA as part of a ride and drive when I was on the XK8 programme. An elderly test engineer who I vaguely recognised came over and asked if anyone wanted to come around the track. He was testing diffs. Well nobody was that keen but I said "yes please" and took along a couple of chaps for good measure. We piled into Series 3 V12 saloon and slowly trundled out onto the perimeter track. For those not familiar with MIRA the perimeter track is basically a couple of mile long straights with banked ovals at each end. It's very bumpy but there's a low guard fence to catch you if you stray over the edge. He drove the car about halfway down the straight and stopped to put on his seat belt. It was a little like the scene from Bullit when the driver in the Dodge Charger gets serious. We all did likewise and then it began. Brake firmly on, the engine was put into drive and given full throttle.The engine was screaming away protesting mechanical abuse and the brakes released. The rear end raised up and the car absolutey catapulted down the straight. 80,100,125. He wasn't stopping. We hit the banking at 145 MPH and I thought we were all going to die. It went beyond the laws of physics how that car was held in a perfect 4 wheel drift all the way around the banking - 3 feet from the guard rail. Everyone was gigling nervously when he brought the car to a halt - halfway down the straight. "what did you say you did" I asked again. "I break diffs" he said. This cycle of diving continued for the next half hour. Modern Jags are unbelievably robust.

 

Great post Fergus.
How's your 308 coming along?

 

There are a bundle of things to do on the old nail. I tried - unsuccessfully - to weld in metal into the doors last year, but bubbles in new places began to appear. So at the moment and with the weather being so kind I have new lower door skins to put in. The doors are staying on the car so I have references for gapping, and I intend adhesing them in place. I have a good tin man who makes things up to pattern so if any of you want to pay less for your metalwork you need Frank at Radford Panels.These lower door skins were £40 for the pair. When the doors are surfaced I have the rear valance to do. The horizontal piece above the bumper and below the tailgate is pickling, as are local areas on the wheelarch flares. It's been a bit of a learning curve how anything so smooth and shiny was actually a masterful bodge where underneath the surface there is untreated rust covered by resin and filler and worked into a class A surface. I love the car - and Fioravanti did a wonderful job on the design but bringing it back into shape is becoming a long and painful job. I intend to paint it (in the garage) in COB. The car is in Argento Silver which is pretty rare in UK spec.
With the bodywork completed I need to get the Webers sorted. The car ran like a train till I foolishly took out all the wadding from the intake and changed to the K&N. Now, despite mixture adjustments it still pops at slow speeds and emissions are a disaster. I'm not confident enough to set the car up and will trust it to MDL in Birmingham to bring it back on song. Lastly there's the naughty starter soleniod which always starts the car from cold but often just clicks at me if try to restart when hot. I've read all the threads on how to change it, including one which states it can be done in 1/2 hour. Well be my guest. I've spent hours in various stages of contortion trying to get just close enough for the ends of my fingers to make contact. It just seems impossible short of pulling off the exhaust manifold and removing an engine mount. Wow, these cars weren't designed with a Manufacturing Director in tow that's for sure. But as my pal Bob Dover likes to remind me " Ferrari owners are ecstatic twice during their ownership. First when they buy the car and second when they sell it." What does he know.

 

I can sympathise with the difficulties you have.

Bodywork - I have some minor jobs that need doing on the 308. I investigated some local garages that I figured would be cheaper than my usual shop. But at the end of the day I will end up going back to Fullbridge Restoration as I know that they will do it properly.

Emissions - to get through the MOT last September the mechanic spent most of the day at the Testing Station tuning the carbs to an inch of their life. In the end the test was run without the airbox - just to get a pass. The upside to this is that the old girl starts first time everytime and is going like a train.

Cold Start Mechanism - if this is the same thing we are talking about. On my car it is a rotating thermostat that holds the throttle open slightly when cold. For years this didn't work - then a couple of years back it sprung back into life and it now annoys the hell out of me. I'd rather tickle the throttle myself when shes a bit cold rather than suffer the engine ticking over at up to 2000rpm when cold. It can take 5 minutes before she settles down to the normal idle of 1000rpm.




Sorry thread hi-jack