X300 shape XJR Supercharged Manual Straight six engine

[reddiesel]

a8hex said:

They did the comparison for both the TV program and the mag as I recall.
On the show they had a discussion about how well the BMW and Merc handled bumps in the road while JC was saying "What bumps, I drove down that road (in the Jaaaaag" and there weren't any".
In the mag the other thing I remember from that comparison was that they commented that after they'd finished it started to rain hard and they XJ just disappeared off into the distance and the others couldn't keep up in those conditions. Not sure what types the others were running, I wasn't ever overly impressed with the wet weather performance of the Pirrellis on my 3.2 Sport.

Pirellis have very much mixed reviews when it comes to Jaguar Saloons , I well remember the crashing and banging over broken surfaces in an X350 I once owned , Buck MR2 from Jaguar Forum ( anyone know what happened to him ) advised me to fit Falken rather than the standard P600 Pirellis which somewhat sceptically I did , it completely cured the problem .

[Sahjahd]

Jaguar steve said:

reddiesel said:

Jaguar steve said:

IIRC there was only 103 X300 supercharged manuals made - so they're pretty rare.

Have you ever driven a manual X300? Clutch action is very heavy and the Getrag gearboxes are unbelievably agricultural. Another downside of the manuals is there's obviously no torque converter to absorb some of the AJ16 engines coarse NVH at high RPM.

Finding one actually for sale that hasn't rotted badly or isn't absolutely shagged will be almost impossible, but I'd start looking in the owners clubs or on classic car classifieds. Expect to pay top - perhaps way over the top - money if you do find a good one.

IMO the later auto only XJR V8 is a much better car, but again finding a good one now that hasn't been thrashed to death will be almost a equal challenge.

I think the X350 XJR is a far better drive Steve and available almost at bargain bucket prices , in fact for me they render the earlier steel cars almost pointless especially if there are restoration costs to be considered .

Absolutely. Both the 300 and 308 are nothing more than antiques and the 350 is a much proposition now prices have fallen

I test drove just about every fast saloon from Germany and Italy a few months ago before settling on a 2008 XJR, because they stand head and shoulders above the rest in performance and refinement.. So far, easily the best car I have owned, regardless of price, and the ZF gearbox in sport / manual mode makes a three pedal manual pointless, as well as hard work in traffic.