Greetings everyone! I came across this site during an internet search and was extremely impressed at the wealth of knowledge available here, and by the friendly atmosphere. I decided I should join, as eventually I may be able to help others as I have already been helped by searching around this site.

I recently purchased my second Jaguar, a 1996 XJR. I've loved the classic look of Jaguars since my car-obessed youth, and I still think the most beautiful car ever designed is the E-type. My first Jaguar was a 1997 XJ6, purchased 4 years ago. Beautiful car, loved everything about it except I did wish it had more power.

A RWD sedan with a our -30C winters calls for dedicated winter tires. I didn't want to mount/dismount tires twice a year, so I purchased used factory wheels with new Yokohama winter tires for the XJ6. Winter traction was really quite good. Then last September......crunch. The car get's totalled. It was the cost of body panels that killed the deal for the insurance company. So I was left with a cheque, one less vehicle in the family fleet, and winter wheels and tires I couldn't use. What to do.

Fast forward to this fall. I am getting ready to put the whees/tires on ebay hoping to hit what admittedly is a very small market. Then I find a 1996 XJR for sale. Where? About 25 km away from me! I couldn't resist! So I'm now back in the Jaguar fold, and I can use the winter tires myself. No selling hassles! Yay!

The negative is this XJR is quite a bit rougher than my XJ6 was. The XJR came from Florida, imported just this summer by the seller who did do some work to it to pass our safety requirements. The interior isn't great. The leather is cracked, the steering wheel doesn't telescope, the driver's seat doesn't tilt, and there are a few cracks to the wood finish. The positives are the dash isn't sun-faded or cracked (rare for a Florida car), the carpets and headliner are fine, and most importantly for me, the body has no rust. We salt our winter roads so rust is all too common. That's why there is a premium here for southern US vehicles.

The major difference between the two Jag's is the power and handling. 322 horses certainly feel much better than 229, and I love the supercharger whine! Tramling is a significant negative though. My XJ6 had zero, the XJR has too much. The current tires are close to worn out. New tires will be in the offing this spring. I'll be curious to see how the handling changes when I change to my 17 inch winter tires.

I've has the XJR up to 140 kph. Yeah..........I like! What magnificent effortlessness,

I'm going to drive it as is for now due to too many after-work projects on the go. But even in a rougher-than-I'd-like condition, it's still an XJR.

 

Welcome to the forum jvitez,

Great Intro. Bad news on the XJ6 write-off but good to hear you've now found a very good use for the wheels!

Follow this link to the X300 section XJ X300 / XJR - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum for help, advice and information.

Remember to add vehicle details to your Signature to help others to give relevant advice. Go to the User ID button on the left of the top menu bar, then Settings & Options under Your Control Panel. Select Edit Signature and enter the details.

You can also visit the Canada Region section by following this link https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/canada-mexico-south-america-41/ to find other members in your region.

Enjoy the forum.

Graham

 

Welcome to this friendly Forum and thanks for the interesting intro.
Your car section is here
XJ X300 / XJR - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum
and there's a Canadian Region section here (together with Mexico Olé!)
Canada, Mexico, South America - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum

 

Welcome to the forum jvitez,

Good to have you with us.
Enjoy the forum.

If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.

 

I got up this morning to snap some pics, and what do I see but a blanket of fog. Fitting for a British car I thought .

 

Welcome! At least it isn't ice fog. Yet.

 

XJR body looks good and the suspension is sitting nice and level. BRG suits the big Jaguar saloons.

Fog looks much like the view from my window for the last few mornings in the North of England.

Graham

 

I thought it was British Racing Green, but I haven't had a chance to check paint code yet. Weren't there two green colours for the X300?

 

Checked my X300 brochure and you're absolutely right. British Racing Green and Sherwood Green were available. The Sherwood colour chip appears much lighter.

The Paint and Trim codes are on the Manufacturer label on the driver's door post. British Racing Green is HGD and Sherwood Green is HFR.

Graham

 

Hey Jvitez & welcome aboard, good to have you here with us here at JF

Any useful information you may need such as how to post pictures, edit signatures, add videos, use the search facility etc, can be found here
Helpful_information

Check out the regional section for your area?
There are lots of members local to you with the same interests.
Regional - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum


I've manually upgraded you to full forum access so you can better view the whole site and all its features.
Please Jump on in and enjoy the site.................

 

Since oogling TR6's and MGB's in my youth, I've always wanted a British Racing Green car, but only in a British one as otherwise it just wouldn't be proper.

I just checked my door sticker: paint code HFB and trim code NDR. After bit of googling I found HFB stands for Brooklands Green, and NDR is Cream.

Is Brooklands Green Jaguar's name for British Racing Green?

Jim C64: many thank for upgrading me to full access. Much appreciated!

 

NO - it's a different shade. British Racing Green is HGD.

Jaguar has used many evocative paint names over the years including a vast number of 'greens'. This has more to do with marketing than anything else.

You would see little difference between a British Green and a Brooklands car unless you used the wrong shade for touch up.

Graham

 

Welcome to the forum.

I've been thinking that it was unusually foggy here for the time of year, then I changed my glasses.

Be interesting to see how you get on with the XJR in your Winter.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I much appreciate the level of detailed knowledge here! It did look like British Racing Green to me, but I'm not yet a Jaguar cognescenti.

Translator: my previous XJ6 did quite well in our cold winters. We don't get a monstrous amount of snow. The last few years were less than usual, though the average is 110 cm. It's also generally quite dry, powdery snow, which is much easier to deal with than the heavy wet snow eastern Canada gets. Winter tires made all the difference; traction was an order of magnitude better. All-season tires are really only 3 season for our climate. But during icy conditions or large snowfalls, I would leave the XJ6 parked and take my Dodge Ram 4WD pickup truck or Ford Expedition SUV. The Expedition is now replaced by a Cadillac Escalade. (Hello, my name is jvitez and I'm a car-o-holic.....).

An excellent local independent father/son shop (father from Portugal, so they focus on euro cars, and he is the local Citroen expert!) installed a glued on oil-pan-type electric block heater, since it would have been a nightmare to replace the octopus hose with one made for the factory coolant heater. The block heater, full synthetic oil, and a strong battery allowed for easy starts, even at -25C.

 

Is that a Titan heater - we order them from Canada for our tractors + very good they are too.
We also use a 60W battery warmer when it gets below -5°C - warm by your standards.

 

I'm not sure of the brand, but it was a flexible mat with heating wires running through it, similar to some types of electric floor heat used under tile in a bathroom. They cleaned and degreased the oil pan, then used some type of adhesive to glue it to the pan. Most screw-in block heaters are 850 watts here. This heater was either 400 or 600 watts. Heating the oil pan directly makes more sense to me than heating the coolant channel in the engine block. I didn't have to plug it in all the time, but it was nice to have.