Well it’s time I introduced myself here to the X308 forum after a quick hello in the new member area.

On Saturday I finally picked up my new to me 1999 XJR. I’m not well known for telling stories quickly, so I do apologize for the wordiness and length of the story and introduction.

The search for my next car began in 2015 as an open minded look at every car on the market, and quickly narrowed in scale to find cars that best meet the criteria I was looking for. In no particular order:
1. Luxury- this is for the most comfortable interior but without complete sacrifice of driving feel
2. Unique- the car this is to replace is a grey on grey Honda Accord. As a result, a car with character that isn’t on every street would be preferable
3. Technology- the existence of relatively modern technology and features, or the ability for them to be retrofitted is a slightly lower priority
4. Styling- of high importance is a car that outwardly looks fantastic, a timeless design is key here
5. Reliability/Ease of Maintenance- I am not a mechanic. I have the motivation and tools knowledge to learn and attempt many repairs myself, but a car well maintained mechanically is of much higher value to me
6. Cost- As part of this project, modifications/upgrades/maintenance are all counted against the price of the car. The hard cap on expenditures for this project in the first year was designed to be in the ballpark of $10,000 CDN, depending on the car I ended up purchasing.
7. Performance- I have no intentions of attending track days, and playing for raw numbers does not mean much. However, a car with enough go to throw around town and cruise for hours on highways is high on the list of requirements

The short (and incomplete) list of cars that remained candidates included:
BMW e38 & e39
Mercedes W220
Porsche 928
Lexus LS (3rd gen)
Jaguar XK & XJ

The search was for Canadian vehicles only, and preferably in the prairies or BC because I am from Saskatchewan and driving or shipping an eastern car would add many thousands to the capital investment into the car. Purchasing an out of province vehicle would also be a minimum of $2000 added expense, due to inspections, travel cost, and fixing the vehicle (or de-modifying it) to get it past inspection and on the roads here. As a result, the search became a waiting game with the provincial classifieds for the right car to come for sale. Due to the relatively small population here and lack of supply of any luxury vehicles, the few cars of this type that go up for sale are grossly overpriced.

Enter the Jaguar XJR-

Listed in a town about 2 hours drive from my house, it took a weekend day trip to meet the seller, have the car on a lift to inspect it, test drive it, reach a final price, and then go home again. The car had a cracked windshield the day I went, so 7 days later, on the following Saturday I took my Honda and some friends back up and bought the car and had both cars driven home. With my new car sitting in my garage I could begin cleaning her up nice and come to familiarization with my purchase.

Now the details:
This car was sold new in Texas and remained there for 11 years when it was imported to Canada, had full engine replacement and started being driven in Canada starting in 2014. I purchased the car off of a journeyman mechanic (who imported the car originally) and who had replaced so many parts on the car, and owned literally boxes of spares that he gave to me with the vehicle to help keep it running, or to sell. Some of the new parts done to this specific car include:
- Air intake
- Air filters
- Transmission filter
- MAF sensor
- All coolant hoses
- Brakes
- All suspension (control arms, bushings, tie rods, engine mounts, stabilizers, steering rack bushings, shocks, etc)
- New rear diff
- Spark plugs
- Supercharger belts and pulleys
- Engine pulleys and timing chain tensioners
- Ac compressor
- New throttle body and position sensor
- Both fuel pumps
There was obviously more work done besides these, but the raw amount of maintenance done to the car gave me more confidence in buying a much less reliable car than a Honda.

The bigger job performed on this car was a complete engine transplant. A new engine out of an XJR that was rear-ended was taken and placed into this car in 2014. This required replacement of the entire electronics harness and all the computer systems in the car (all the old computers could be made for sale here if somebody is interested). The body of the car has 171,000 kms (just over 100,000 miles), whereas the engine has just over 100,000 kms (somewhere near 65,000 miles).

As the car sits on my driveway now it has a few issues. First off, the paint is severely sun damaged- the clear coat is essentially destroyed. Pictures will be brought here shortly to illustrate the extent of the damage. The two front seats are worn, but have X308 designed seat covers installed.

Here is where things get ugly- purists might be upset. I have plans for work to be done on the car. As an electronics engineering student, I believe in tinkering and experimentation and learning. I have zero intentions to perform something as blasphemous as an LS swap or cabriolet conversion, but there are a number of minor things working their way through my brain for this car.
1. LED headlights (the current bulbs don’t cut it in June here, and I don’t want to be around to see how inadequate they are in a winter here
2. Interior mood lighting, more of a fun piece than anything, but only if I can pull it off cleanly and safely (no fire risk)
3. Paint restoration. It seems likely the clear coat is beyond repair, so a respray of the British racing green might be in order.
4. Leather repair to attempt to fill the cracks and bring the original front seats back to their former perforated glory
5. Finding another set of wheels to even fit this car, that can have winter tires mounted to them for use 6 months each year
6. (I’m sorry in advance) Using vinyl wrap to temporarily cover the wood veneer trim. Current color potentials include Black wood grain, gloss black, dark marble, and black brushed metal.
7. New gear shift knob- the current one is fairly cracked
There will no doubt be dozens of other projects and minor modifications undertaken on the car, that hopefully can be documented here through my ownership of the best ‘modern’ Jaguar. I am always open to suggestions, advice, or anything else fellow owners can help me with. Hopefully in due time I can provide back to the community with my knowledge as well. So come along with me for the ride, and hopefully not everybody here hates what I have in mind for the big cat.

Thanks for having me here!

- Scott (Quantum)

 

Welcome to the forum! As for your plans..

1: The only issue would be finding an LED that will provide full coverage to reflect properly from the bowls. I do question though what bulbs must be in it now, since even the Sylvania silvers from the local Wal-mart here light up my area decent enough that I've never questioned it. Not sure what LED alternatives are out there, and I haven't searched to see if it's been tried, but interesting to look into.
2: That's always a good one. There's a member on here that added rear footwell lighting, and it looks amazing, and done properly, I'm sure you'll do just fine with yours too.
3: Well, that's just a no-brainer
4: Another great idea, and plenty of success stories and pictures to motivate you on here!
5: Definitely a good plan when winter is involved. Plus saves your summer wheels from salt.
6: Another one that's been done, and as you mentioned, it's easily reversible if you don't find it suitable. It's a personal preference, and unless you're doing it in bright neon pink, it'll probably be fine
7: Easy enough to do!

Fortunately the cars aren't very hard to do your own work on, even if you're learning and not used to them. There are a few projects that can be a little more difficult (wheel bearings, etc). But even those are possible with time and energy and saving money from a dealer. Of course if you have have an indy garage near with experience with these cars, all the better. On the whole, they're really not too hard to work on though. And it sounds like yours has been properly maintained, and should give you years of enjoyment based on that list alone. I would've paid double for mine if given a list like that!

 

Welcome Quantum, not short for Quantum of Solace is it? I do love 007...
Seems CharlzO has done a nice job of reviewing your post. I have the perfect solution for #5, ...move to Florida, no need for the winter set of tires...

For #7, I purchased a custom made 'R' knob off eBay a few yrs back, only to find out the guy lives 15 miles from me. I've visited him and he's super nice, I can get you his information and pics of the knob if your interested. He also refinishes the wood panels (and will customize them) if you don't plan on doing them yourself or get overwhelmed with other projects....you have quite the list.

To add to CharlzO's comments, be sure to review the Marketplace at the top of the page for selling and buying. Also, if you see a lot of 'Sold' on full panels of For Sale items, check with them anyways. I saw this a few months back and brought it up to the Mods and they said it must be some kind of glitch. Be sure to check out the "Stickies" at the top of this forum, mostly from the effort of JimC64 for helpful How To info and the like.
We hope you find lots of information here and in turn can provide us with helpful info as well and congrats on owning a Jag.

 

Welcome, you'll surely find this site as a vastly insightful tool.

 

Don't get LED headlights. They have crap color temperature, typically poor light distribution/optics, and most actually put out LESS light than the standard halogen.

The "nicer" 25-30 dollar halogens, basically the highest level halogens that you can buy, that are UNCOATED or mostly uncoated, will give you the best output. The blue coated headlights actually put out less light than the uncoated versions, because that's what filter coatings do. Combine that with proper headlight alignment and clean domes (the inside of the glass gets foggy over time, can be cleaned out) will give you one of the best reflector headlight outputs that I've see on a car. I have Philips H7 Xtreme-Vision on my low beams and have been very happy with them, they almost outshone the $300 HID projector retrofit in my other car.

No HID either.

 

I would certainly be interested in pictures of the knob you found!


@nilanium , what bulb did you end up using for high-beams? I will see what I can find locally for high quality halogens.

 

I may go with the same bulb for them when I replace the bulbs, but I'm currently using whatever came with the car when I got it. I've got other issues grounding the car that take priority, and still have to clean the high beam housings and get them sparking, etc. Plus, where I live, high beams are more likely to blind other drivers than to be needed for driving at night, so it hasn't bothered me much yet.

 

I sent you a PM with his info....

 

Thanks! Do you know if he has other offerings in the gear knob department? Darker wood? Black? I will have to get in touch with him and see what shipping up North would cost me!

 

All his contact info was in that PM, website, phone, addy...as for shipping, just go to the USPS.com site and check rates. I am unsure if their $8 flat rate includes Canada?