Hey guys! It's good to be back from my extended hiatus from posting on this forum.

Two weekends ago, I took my XJR to Willow Springs International Raceway for a track day. The event was held on the Streets of Willow which is a tighter road course compared to the normal big track.

Understanding that the car weighs almost 4300lbs, I went in hoping that the car would keep its composure against the field of "true" sports cars: S2000's, 350Z's, 370Z's, E92 M3's, WRX STi's...you get the idea. My goal was to stay in sight of and hopefully pass an E92 M3. I am happy to report that I was able to do so! Unfortunately, this happened on my first outing which was not on video.

The video I did take was my second and my last outing. During my first round, I developed a massive exhaust leak. I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out where it was coming from...to no avail. Oh well, it was still pretty fun!

Here is a link to the video I threw together. At the end, you can hear people clapping and cheering for the old gal! Everyone seemed to get a kick out of seeing an XJR being driven hard and drifted on the track!

EDIT: The exhaust leak was from the drivers side catalytic converter. The housing cracked at the seams. Thankfully, it is getting replaced under warranty!

Jaguar XJR | Laps around the Streets of Willow Racetrack - YouTube

 

FANTASTIC and thank you for sharing. Very Nice Driving on your part, truly took it to the limit! I have to ask, what size wheels and tires are you running? And is your car running a stock pulley?

 

Thanks for the kind words Albert!

The wheels are the factory 19 inch ones that came as standard on the car. The tire size is 255/40/19. The pulley is the factory pulley. I had swapped out the 1.5lb upper when the car started misfiring. Turned out to be a couple bad coils!

Hopefully next time I will be able to turn an even faster time...the Federal tires, while very resilient to wear, don't seem to grip nearly as well as my preferred Falken FK452's...

 

Thanks for the video , appreciate that

Nice to see you can drive your car like this in tracks rather than public roads

 

Nice video - what camera was it?
You had a much better line than the car in front - you have the edge over me because you've got a leaper to use as a foresight!

 

The camera was a GoPro Hero2! I had it recording in 1080p with the field of view set at 127 degrees. This offers less distortion than the wide angle setting and gives a truer perspective!

 

Yes, I use a GoPro on my FPV quadcopter (or used, actually, since I completely lost it by what the trade calls a brain fart)and thought I recognised the barrel distortion. Oak trees are harder than aluminium - unfortunately that applies to Jags too.

 

You did us proud! Thanks for taking the time to post. I have had the good fortune of driving many of the cars you mentioned in your original post. I'll take the R over them all, for all around use. Great to see this confirmed on a track day.

 

Thanks for the kind words! I too have driven all the cars I've listed above and for daily driving purposes, I would take the Jag over them in a heartbeat!

As for trackwork, I definitely miss my S2000. The precision offered by that car in general was something absolutely phenomenal. Coupled with the power it made (440whp), it was one hell of a monster to be reckoned with!

 

Nice driving!

Where have you been, BTW? You haven't posted for a while. I watched a lot of your videos on your Youtube channel and thought you sold the car.

Do you have Mina Gallery catback on the car?

 

Thanks for the kind words!

I have been kept busy with other toys for a while. The XJR has remained my reliable daily driver but in my absence, I went through a couple new vehicles...my favorite of which was a 2007 Yamaha R6. Riding essentially took over my life for a while and the car was only used in times of extreme need (read: rain/weather below 30 degrees).

After checking back on the forums recently, it seems that there is a lot more traffic through this site and it was good to see all the familiar names regularly posting. I enjoyed my time thoroughly in the past posting and chatting on this forum and I had the perfect post to open with after my long time away!

The Mina Gallery axleback was sold a while back as the drone on the freeway (between 1800-2100rpm) was a bit much for a daily driver. Especially under light load, it became a nuisance when I wanted peace and quiet driving home. Also, I noticed a drop on low end torque...enough to negate the advantages of having a very slight (if any) gain on the top end of the power band.

I'll be visiting the track again soon and I'll continue to post any and all content I procure when driving the XJR! Now that I have a GoPro, I'll start shooting fun chases of motorcycles and other cars in my local canyon roads!

 

Love the XJR's blower whine!!

 

Absolutely awesome!

 

I have to commend you on your line too. I have been to streets, and the big track many times, but I have to admit, I have never thought of doing it in my xjr I did take my Quattroporte there when I had it and it was a blast. Love the drift at the last turn before the front straightaway.