I'll be leaving next week for a trip to the Ft. Worth/ Dallas area of Texas to vist my elderly and ailing father, sisters and their families. This will be the longest trip to date for my 2000 S-Type 3-L, previously I have made several trips from home in Livermore CA to Las Vegas NV and to SoCal. My younger brother will be going with me and we planning on doing it in 2 days. I have 81K miles on my cars and its running great. My only concerns are the age of my tires ( original issuse Turanzas ) and whether my AC needs a R134a recharge. The tires still have serviceable tread but will probably be worn out after this trip. Time will tell. I usually get my best fuel economy during long trips and hope to break my personal best tankfill of 36.4 mpg .

I love driving, particularly in the Jag, and vastly prefer driving over flying as long as time allows. Now that I am retired, I can do this a lot more often. What are some of your longest or most memorable road trips in your Jag?
best wishes VMV

 

I bought our S-Type in December 2008 primarily as a highway cruiser for my wife to drive on her solo trips back and forth to Tampa to visit her elderly parents. She makes that trip about six times a year, usually for a week at a time, and always puts about 1,800 miles round-trip on the car. The S-Type has served her well in this capacity....

My most memorable road trip doesn't involve our Jaguar, or even another car that belonged to us. It was a new Pontiac Grand Prix, a rental car with all of 300 miles on it, and it was June 1991. I had flown from Raleigh to San Diego for a business meeting with plans to fly back home at the end of the second week out there. But I ruptured two blood vessels behind my left eardrum on the flight out as the pilot was dodging massive thunderstorms somewhere over Texas. It wasn't painful, but I couldn't hear a damn thing out of my left ear after that. Saw an ear doctor the next day in San Diego. She said "You can't fly for at least 60 days. If you do, you run the risk of rupturing your eardrum." So I rented the Grand Prix and drove from San Diego to Raleigh in 2 days and 8 hours. Left on a Tuesday afternoon, drove all through the night and the next day and into Wednesday night. Had to stop and grab a motel room and sleep for about 6 hours in Little Rock, Arkansas late Wednesday night into early Thursday morning because I was hallucinating. There were two dolphins in my back seat (I had spent a day at Sea World in San Diego) and my dashboard was covered with about 50 cheeseburgers (all I had eaten since leaving was a banana and an orange to cut down on stops and to keep me from getting too sleepy). I knew if I didn't finally stop and sleep, I would crash. Left again early on Thursday morning and pulled into my driveway around 11:00 on Thursday night. Did 2,900 miles in 56 hours....

The most fun I had was coming across the Arizona and New Mexico desert on a virtually empty I-40 in the middle of the night and into the early morning hours. Got behind two trucks hauling caskets at about 120 mph (no speed limit there at that time). Set the cruise control on 120 and never got under that speed for nearly three hours straight! What a blast! After maybe 30 minutes of doing 120, it began to seem normal, almost boring! I finally had to stop for gas and never saw those casket trucks again....

Never done anything else even remotely like that trip before or since....

 

Wow, crosscountry in less than 2.5 days, that is some driving! Nevada is great for testing out the top end of your ride. Best drive in my Jag was down the CA coast on Hwy 1 to the LA area. Lots of turns and great scenery. Best road trip ever was a motorcycle ride from home in the SF Bay area to mountains of Colorado through norhthern and Utah on the " loneliest road in America". Blistering hot ( 108* ) but a total blast.

 

Back in the days of the 55 mph national speed limit, I was one of those drivers who tried to "double the double nickel" every time I got on a longer road trip. It was late January 1987 and I was driving my regular Fort Worth to Huntsville, TX route to visit my ailing mother. I drove 110-115 mph for 80 miles straight through East Texas only slowing down for an occasional speed trap.

In 1989, I topped 120 mph through a newly opened section of I-49 through Louisiana. I held it at 110 for about 50 miles.

In the late 1990's through about 2001, I traveled from North Carolina to Alabama about twice monthly. Gas was selling for about 89 cents a gallon for a lot of that time. My fastest average was on one of those 440 mile excursions. The average was 83.3 mph. My needle rarely dipped below 90. During one of those trips, I drove the fastest I have ever driven which was about 130.

Prior to 1973 and for a brief period in the 1990's to the early 2000's, it was a golden era to drive. Speed limits were high and gas was cheap.

Part of the fun of driving is being able to sustain extremely high speeds on the highway. Rural interstate highways are the safest portion of our highway system in which to do something like that. I make no apologies for it.

My 03 S type 3.0 is easily the most comfortable road cruiser that I have ever owned. I can travel 8 hours straight and not feel the least bit tired driving it. I wish it had a better top end. While 121 mph is faster than 99.9 percent of the public will ever travel and much faster than I normally drive, it would be nice to have more in situations when I can use it.

 

Its gonna be hot and sunny WMV, so maybe have the A/C leak tested, and charged up for the most comfortable drive over here. Good news will be its sealed and full (and you're out $40), bad news is you have a leak, must fix an o-ring or two, and recharge, which will put you into the 2x Cnote, most likely. But, it'll be nice and cold.

I recommend a steak restaurant while you're here, try Hoffbrau Steakhouse, its locally owned, and some great hunks of meat. Try the broccoli-jalepeno cheese soup...delish! (plus my mom is part owner of one of the locations) I eat there as often as I can afford.

If you need anything, give me a shout.

 

Wow. I second Hoffbrau. I have great memories of that place with my girlfriend of many years ago. As I remember, it was right off the bike trail.

As I remember the food was good and the prices were reasonable.

 

Longest trip in my S-Type so far has been a couple of up and backs from DC to NY City. Fairly nice except all the GD tolls. It cost me about $30 each way.

Most memorable would have to be the time I rode my motorcycle from Ft Hood TX to my parent's home in LA. It took about two days and I tried to utilize the two lane roads due to the dreaded 55 mph. On the back roads I generally went about 80-90 mph. There is a back route from Phoenix AZ to Lordsburg NM. US 60 from Phoenix to Globe and then US 70 from Globe to Lordsburg. I used this because it was a lot more fun to ride, especially coming down off the mountains from Globe. With the demise of 55 mph the back roads wouldn't save you much time like they used to.

 

I'll be leaving in the morning to head out to the Dallas/Ft Worth area from my home in the East SF Bay Area. I went ahead and recharged my AC with a can of R134a and was able to test in the 98* heat , nice!!!!
As I was running some errands I heard a cracking sound near my right rear door. I wondered what it was until I found the RR window dropping and knew the window regulator had failed. No time to fix it today so I have it blocked in the closed position and will fix it after I get to my Dad's house. This will be the 3rd one I've replaced so I'm getting pretty good at it. I'll just need to find a Lincoln dealer there to get a replacement regulator.

I'm excited about the trip and hope I won't have more bad luck.
Matt, Thanks for the restaurant tip, I'll have to check it out if I get a chance. Texas does have the best beef and barbeque.
Thanks for sharing your stories, hope I have some good experiences to share.
best wishes VMV

 

Hey VMV. I'm in San Jose and just picked up my first Jag

 

The back roads in TX have a 70 or a 75 mph limit in Texas. It is 65 mph in NM, AZ, and CA. (there is some 70 mph on divided 4 lane roads in NM).

Rural 2 lanes west of the mississippi are nice. East, they are a snarl.

 

Hi, I got back Monday night around 9PM, my S-Type ran like a champ the whole trip. We made it to Mansfield TX from Livermore CA in 2 days without driving too hard. It was very hot and we saw 120* F. in Needles CA and the desert areas near there. I'm glad I recharged my AC before leaving as we needed it almost the entire trip. That one can of R134a made a huge differnence.
The Jag is so comfortable to drive on a long trip, its amazing. After driving some long days you still just want to get back in and drive some place else far away.
I had a good time visiting with my dad, stepmom, sisters and their families. My dad is fighting lung cancer but is doing pretty well considering. It was great to spend some quality time with him and my other family members.
I repaired the window regulator while there in TX and thought the rear window regulator was the same as the Lincoln LS but it wasn't. I got the correct regulator from Autobahn Motors in Ft Worth and I was very impressed with how friendly and helpful they were. It was also great looking and drooling over the new Jags in their showroom.
We began the return trip on Saturday but decided to visit some spots such as the Carlsbad Caverns, Hoover Dam and some UFO buff sites ( Roswell NM, Socorro NM ) on the way. All in all a great trip. The Jag was fast, comfortable, economical ( 30+ mpg ) and most of all fun to drive.
Flyer 621, welcome to the Jag club, we'll have to meet up sometime as you"re close by.
Best wishes, VMV

 

Yep will have to hook up. I think we're in the same line of work too. Sounds like you had a great trip with your jag. I've had mine for only 3 weeks and haven't had a chance to take it for a run yet...Maybe Livermoor LOL

 

VMV....My email gschif1135@aol.com

 

Hi Flyer, It would be great to meet you. Let me know when is a good day for you, I'm retired now so I'm pretty flexible. What year and spec Jag do you have? Mine is a 2000 3L V6 SE that I bought new. Its definitely the best car I've ever owned. My email is jagman1346@aol.com.
VMV

 

...What a coincidence! I just drove from Dallas to Florida (1200miles) with my dad after purchasing my S type R jag from there last Tuesday. We stopped over in Louisiana at night then got back on the road early morning and reached at 10 at night back in florida. It was a very comfortable ride and thank god for our radar detector which came in very handy. But over all, my dad said he doesnt think he can do it again, its tooooo exhausting for him at his age, even though he loves driving. My STR gave me right on 25mph, I usually put in LUCas fuel injector cleaner in most of my cars and I went ahead and put it in the jag, and it did help.
have a safe trip!

 

Best road trip? Back in 1989 I drove my 1986 Audi 4000s Quattro from Quebec City to Newport Beach California. I made that trip in 3 days. I was a young lad who was on a mission and I took more than a few uppers in order to make the entire trip without sleeping more than 3 hours.

Driving through Canada at 3AM with noone on the road.....man, I made that Audi fly. I took a picture of Le Soleil on the day I left (newspaper in QC) and one of the Orange County register when I arrived in order to prove that I had done it. I slept for two days after...

I miss that car. Was a handling machine that couldn't be stopped in the snow.

 

Hi, Attached are some pix of the trip. 3737.9 total miles, 124.1 gallons of fuel used, 30.1 mpg for the trip. Not bad for lots of 75mph cruising. The original Bridgestone Turanzas are still usable with 89K miles on them.
Carlsbad Caverns, Hoover Dam and the rest were awesome.
VMV