1995 Jaguar XJR - Not as fast as i thought??

[richard300]

Hi, I have just bought a 1995 XJR - Great condition, lovely service history and it seems to run fine.
BUT the first time i got to really give it some beans, it didn't feel as fast as i was expecting - Sounds great and you can hear the supercharger whining etc.

It was a really wet road surface with fairly cold tyres - I switched the TC off, had the gearbox in sport and floored the throttle (at about 20mph) In my previous XJ8 (4.0) that would have seen wheel spin, but not on this car.
It feels quick but not mid 6 second quick and i was expecting a bit of a punch from the torque.

Any ideas?

[SV8Predator]

It's nearly 20years old?

Still on original MAF sensor maybe?

[HaylingJag]

if you treat it more of a fast tourer rather than a sports car you will appreciate it more for what it is. its certainly not as fast or responsive as the V8's. i have recently sold my V8 XJR for an XKR but i still smoke the XJR-6 around and absolutely love it, not sure now if i want to sell it!
bear in mind its age and the fact that an x type 3 ltr will spank it off the lights, evolution, it seems!

D

[a8hex]

richard300 said:

It was a really wet road surface with fairly cold tyres - I switched the TC off, had the gearbox in sport and floored the throttle (at about 20mph) In my previous XJ8 (4.0) that would have seen wheel spin, but not on this car.

That doesn't sound right, at 20MPH on a wet road and cold tyres my 3.2 X300 would spin the wheels if I jumped on the throttle and the 3.2 doesn't even have sports mode.

[supermono]

I'd get it on the dyno it doesn't seem right to me. maybe the maf is dirty or who knows what else. Definitely no reason why a properly serviced engine should drop much power over time.

The operator will measure AFR over the rev range and probably will tell from looking at the graph what might be wrong.

My XJR 4.2 at 100k is knocking on the door of factory power, and it's full main dealer history didn't seem to have included an air filter since it was black as coal!

[richard300]

I took the car out early this morning when there was little traffic on the road - let her fully warm up and then had a bit of a 'play' again - She definitely doesn't want to light up the rear wheels one rolling (it will do from a standing standing start) - I don't intend to drive the car like this at all generally, but just wondering if its an indicator of something not being 100%

Re the throttle cable - There is a slight delay with initial pedal travel and throttle response (but not noticeable on the move) I will investigate.

As mentioned, in all other respects the car is (hoping i dont jinx myself) faultless in the way it drives, stops, steers, and rides.

I did 2 standing starts this morning the first one was with the TC on and not in sport mode and the second run was TC on and in sport mode both runs came in at 8seconds (the car bogged down due to the TC on the second run)





I did the videos, not only so i could time the 0-60 but to see (on play back) if i could see any slip from the autobox/clutch pack but that seems ok.

Edited by richard300 on Saturday 15th February 09:04

[Shuvi McTupya]

I thought an XJR should closer to 5 secs than 8 secs?

[richard300]

i think on a 'perfect run' its should be 6.6 seconds for the X300 - Prob much quicker for the X308

[Hooli]

a8hex said:

richard300 said:

It was a really wet road surface with fairly cold tyres - I switched the TC off, had the gearbox in sport and floored the throttle (at about 20mph) In my previous XJ8 (4.0) that would have seen wheel spin, but not on this car.

That doesn't sound right, at 20MPH on a wet road and cold tyres my 3.2 X300 would spin the wheels if I jumped on the throttle and the 3.2 doesn't even have sports mode.

Sounds wrong to me too, my XJ40 3.2 will spin up both rears on wet roads around town as soon as it kicks down. Surprised me the first time I exited a roundabout sideways as the power doesn't feel like it comes in fast enough to do that.

[a8hex]

richard300 said:

i think on a 'perfect run' its should be 6.6 seconds for the X300 - Prob much quicker for the X308

When I was buying my X300 the dealer tried to get me to go for an XJR instead. I was coming from an Celica GT4 and the XJR was noticeably quicker, but subtle in its delivery most of the time, you'd look at the speedo and think "where did that come from". From 50MPH upwards on full throttle though, it was quick and should still feel fast. 0-60 probably wasn't its strong point.

[richard300]

Not saying that it is the sole reason - But someone just informed me that (unlike lesser models and the V8 cars) the XJR-6 has a proper limited slip diff which goes a long way to limiting the wheel spin -certainly in comparison to my XJ8.

[HaylingJag]

if you want to pop over and have a blast in mine to compare performance send me a PM? i sometimes feel mine is slow then i just check the rear view mirror!! Not sure on the slippy diff on these, my understanding is that this was disgarded in favour of TC which is very crude. If you pull out of a junction and TC cuts in you feel as though everything is switched off and your stuck there for what seems an age!

[XJR500bhp]

I've got two at the moment, the higher mileage car flies, the lower mileage car feels tight but no where near as responsive