Jaguar XJ Sport 4.0 - YouTube

A video of a XJ6 getting up to about 150mph. The wind is quite loud. I gotta admit, the Jag V8 sounds much better than the old 6 cylinder.

 

LOL, love the elevator music at 150 mph!

 

for those of us in a hurry, the XJR for comparison

Jaguar XJR 4.0 V8 Supercharged Acceleration 0-247kmph - YouTube

 

had 140 out of my 2002xjr (in some secret place ).and still seemed to be picking up quite strong.and as solid as a rock no wandering whatsoever,steve.

 

You guys are nuts!

Our maximum here in Aus is 110kph, and that’s restricted to a very small number of sections of highway. One is part of the Newell Highway through Western New South Wales to Queensland where they installed a system that measures the elapsed time point to point (over quite long distances), initially for trucks which are restricted to 100kph, but now being extended there & elsewhere to cover cars as well. You get your ‘pet rock’ in the mail together with a ‘pay by’ message, and your demerit points with it no matter which State you hold your registration in.

Another ‘popular’ method is common in Western Australia where they paint markers on the road, use ‘spotter’ aircraft to time your travel point to point & take a photograph to ensure that you get your ‘rock’. It’s about 198kms from Ravensthorpe to Esperance, and I recall seeing about three houses & two cars one morning, but the spotter plane was up there about 8am.

We do have a hazard around dawn & dusk which one has to respect: a big red ‘boomer’ (Kangaroo) standing upright in the middle of the road, or even bolting across in front of you is a bit scary. They can be 8’ to 10’ tall out there, and if you hit one at speed, & you are lucky, you’ll get to walk home. You car won’t, even if you do have a roo bar bolted to the front. You can get away with it under about 80, but at 100 even a medium sized red roo will use up your no claim bonus. The only thing that frightens me more is an Emu. They are great eating, but not if you had to first scrape it off the inside of your car. The long legs put the big body just about perfect windscreen height for a car. You can picture the rest. Fortunately you don’t see too many of them on the road, but ’Roos are a different kettle of fish. I saw one go over the bonnet of one car, through the windscreen of the following car just north of Busselton one evening, and when I got home the TV news was that it had kicked the head off the passenger in the second vehicle as it died.

I recall that the 3.8 E Type with the C heads was good for 151mph, and was one of only a very few sports cars which could achieve those speeds. I’m not sure if there were any saloons that could do it. Even GM Holden’s Torana XU-1 could only make 116mph, and a 350ci Monaro was about the same. (and you’d want to have your life insurance well paid up in either of them – fastest 7 ton & 10 ton trucks on the road at the time, bad handling only exceeded by a Yankee Muscle Car like a Plymouth Fury III or a 428 Boss Mustang).

Cheers,

Languid
p.s. how the hell this ended up attached to the thread of the two videos of the accelerating big cats, I don't know. My computer froze, restarted in what I though was this thread, and posted into the other.

 

In the UK on Motorways (Highways) it is:
Car:70 MPH
Vans: 70 MPH
Coaches: 65 MPH
Trucks: 56 MPH
Cars with Caravans or Trailers: 50 MPH
Service Buses: 50 MPH

Remember: Speeding is only a crime if you're caught! :P

 

Well, if one were caught here in the US at those speeds, one would likely lose their license for at least several months... but it's a big country.

 

I just can't stand such videos with funky musics

 

Uuuppps... it's good to know that after all those years I had been driving across Austria (going to ski or just passing by) with 130-140km/h believing that your speed limits are the same as here in Bulgaria - 130km/h on all highways.

The truth is that here for 30km/h above the limit they take your license for 3 months and for 50km/h they take your license for 1 year. But it's such a fun driving so fast with such a great car.

P.S> There are rumors that the typical police radars can't measure speeds over 250km/h - I'm tempted to try it one day

 

If you do try it, use your one phone call to call one of us and tell us what it was like.

 

Languid is in Australia, not Austria

 

That's hard to understand. In my 2004 xj8 I ran at just over 120 on a racetrack. The car was in 3rd gear due to my having forgotten to shift up. When the revs passed 6600 the gas shut off saving my engine from deconstructing. I was both scared and relieved. However there was no feeling of instability or wandering right or left. Tires were carrying 38psi. On the street I run them at about 34.

I have hit 115 repeatedly with both front windows open. That is a track rule. The car was still pulling strongly but I was running out of straight track.

Tom

 

. . . and your wind tunnel-designed Triumph Herald will top 200 when its massive restrictor is disconnected. Whatever you're drinking, please send me some!

The X-308's coefficient of drag is .37, which is pretty poor. That's why, in heavy rain at highway speeds, a pool of standing water adheres to the back window. And why at a steady 75 mph on flat roads my '01 XJR gets only 22 mpg.

The speedometers on these cars are pretty accurate. My XJR was still pulling at 135 mph but the car was getting so floaty I did not dare take it higher. That was fine by me. I'll take the XJR's luxury and smoothness over a rough-riding M5 any day. Plus, visiting the local hoosegow, which is where I would end up if clocked at 150 or so here in California, is not something I would look forward to.

My 2001 XJR continues to provide a near-ideal combination of luxury and responsiveness for the real world, even 17 years into its life. I doubt if in 2035 the same will be said about the current crop of uber-sedans, with their highly stressed turbo V8s and rubber-band tires.

 

On the New Jersey Turnpike, in the early hours of a Sunday morning, you can witness cars going over 130 mph frequently.

I have, on more than one occasion, had police cars pass me at well over that speed.

Of course all speeds are estimates.

 

I'm Teetotal pal, so if you'd like some Yorkshire Tea then I'll happily send you some.

I like the way you've revived a thread from 6 years ago, most of the posters aren't even on here any more!

The cars are perfectly capable of the high speeds quoted, as long as everything is in good order. I had my old 4.0 at 150 mph once or twice and she was planted. More recently I had my little 3.2 at 140 mph for a spell and again she was planted to the spot with no floating sensation that others report at high speed. She regularly sits above the ton and more than a few Audi, BMW and Mercedes have had to pull out the way for me to pass them.

As for MPG, then that's down to how good you are as a driver and at keeping your vehicle maintained. I can get 30 MPG out of my XJ all day long on the motorway sitting at a sensible 70 mph. I went from my home to Overijse in Belgium on a single tank, which is a distance of 430 miles.

 

At high speed my 2005 XJR feels very "planted" with no float whatsoever. It feels safe with no scary moments even with high speed maneuvering.

I only drive at speed on wide open highway with few cars around but that does not stop some idiot from cutting me up because I had the audacity to overtake them on the inside when they are hogging the fast lane.

I also drive at high speed ,when I can, in the inside lane.