Hi Guys, another What is question from me. I got thinking about this one whilst driving my Bus actually after a person pulled out in front of me too late, and stalled. I had to them emergency brake a fully loaded double decker bus (78 passengers) and I had to put the nose into the street they were turning out of to avoid hitting them! There was also a 18 wheeler coming the other way who also had a dirty pants experience.

Anyway it reminded me of my X308 incident not long after I first bought the car. I came over a small bridge in a national speed limit zone and was approaching 50mph. I saw 2 cyclists ahead of me, and when I was about 25ft from the rear one he turned into my path without looking and I honked and began braking. No reaction from him, he could neither see or hear me. I had to swerve to avoid him and actually ended up with all 4 wheels on the pavement (side walk) on the opposite side of the road! He had seen me at this point and was wobbling around in the road. I had avoided him, but he still hit my mirror as he came past. It turned out he was a 70 year old man wearing a cossack hat which explains why he couldn't hear me, and he never thought to look over his shoulder before turning. My heart was still pounding 30 mins later!

That incident is closely followed by the old man driving a motor home as big as a coach who almost wiped me out near Whitby because he took a bend too quickly.

What is your Scariest Experience? It could even be a Halloween one!

S.

 

So far my scariest experience has been driving to a gas station and not being able to go into reverse and everyone stared while I was pushing it. I've only had the car a few days, I'm sure there will be other scary experiences, but lets hope not too many.

 

My 98 VDP gave up its life!

I was driving in the city and a kid ran a red light -- I swerved but still hit the back end of him. Thankfully no one in the back seat of the other car -- both cars totaled.

It happened in an instant -- I had just pulled out of a parking spot.

 

Pulling up the dipstick tube when changing the cam cover gaskets.
The hole is hidden and I am never quite sure that I can find it again.

 

Looking at the transmission rebuild and tensioner replacement bill.


I've had to dodge things that have fallen out of a truck on two different occasions on the freeway while going 70 mph. Car felt pretty stable but the level of body lean was a bit scary. I would have flipped if I were in a SUV. The rear end of these cars seem pretty good and seems to resist oversteer very well. Understeer on the other hand.....

 

Wyoming, while cruising at @105mph on a straight, level, deserted 2-lane road, two Mule Deer jumped out of the ditch, in front of me. Under very heavy braking, I nonetheless was able to steer BETWEEN the two deer, avoiding both (thank you, Bob Bondurant, for your pursuit driving course!!!). The R accomplished this with complete aplomb and nonchalance - the wife's only comment being "too bad I didn't have time to get my camera out!"

 

taking my date home after the prom, on the interstate traveling at 70mph or so, rain became very heavy, apparently three cars somewhere in front of me all hydroplane and spin out or something, as I suddenly come upon three cars stopped and parked at awkward angles on the interstate. I slowed down a considerable amount to avoid these cars, next thing I saw was headlights getting brighter and brighter in my rear view mirror, so I accelerated back up to speed very quickly, as the guy behind me in a huge truck didn't see that I had slowed down.

I credit the goodyear eagle F1 all season tires and very good jaguar brakes for superior rain handling and my supercharged V8 for sometimes necessary for safety acceleration.

I definitely think a high performance car makes you more likely to be successful in dangerous road situations

 

Except in snow and ice . Thats what my range rover is for. I remember my XJ6R, got stuck and slid backwards trying to go up a hill in the snow. At least a big truck wasn't barreling down on me though! Glad to hear you got yourself out of the mess.

That is true about Jags in most situations, you can get yourself out of a sticky situation easily. Like when someone cuts you off! I always love it when souped up Hondas and Pontiacs try to out run our 05 XJR up a particular long stretch of up hill road. Love the priceless look on their faces when the Jag effortlessly blows by them. I'm starting to get into the habit of taunting them and making faces at them as I ascend.

 

I have never used my XJR in snow/ice but I agree it probably wouldn't work out very well.

There is nothing better than the look on people's faces when you easily outperform them in what most people think is a slow Jaguar, I remember a souped up el camino with some unreasonable guy driving it trying to impress his girlfriend, doing a burnout at a red light while waiting for it to turn green. I pulled up next to him (with 3 passengers in my car). Mr. El Camino had a huge wheelspin at the green light and my XJR silently left him in the dust. the guy then made a turn of shame off of the road.

 

Just now: I was out using my snowblower in the driveway, hit a bump, and almost smacked it into the XJ8's driver's door!

 

Luckily, my only scary experiences occurred with the bonnet open!

 

At around 70mph on a twisting road, I lost control in a tailslide, and hit the car to my right, and immediately the rear wheel of the car hit the kerb at about 50. The car spun several times, and although there wasn't much visible damage, I can't believe the car didn't flip. This happened in mid december, and the car is still in the shop (this shop is extremely busy, for some reason) nearly totalled the car, with only a small amount of damage to the front right fender. $6,600 damage, not counting the dead spot in the steering. I was relatively certain I wouldn;t get out of that car in the end either.

 

I've had my car for about three months now and I've already had the scare of a transmission replacement, just now I hit a pot hole so big that i bent my rim and knocked the car out temporarily...and then I still have the underlying fear regarding my secondary timing chain tensioners...which I'm really short on cash for after the transmission replacement. GRRR...was not expecting to replace the tranny after two weeks ownership.

 

My scariest experience in my XJR was about a month after I bought the car. I noticed immediately that it was a 'heat score' for every boy racer on the street with a tuner. Because it looks big and black and mean, they all feel the need to show what a real car (Nissan or Mitsubishi or some other dime-a-dozen buggy) will do.

I was driving along minding my business, and happened to pass a 'tweaked' Infinty at legal speed. As soon as I was past and he noticed me in front, he gunned it and came up beside, engine sounding like a choked lawnmower. He looked over with a look of knowing disdain and made sure I looked at him. Then he put his foot in and buggered off down the road. To be fair, it was a fast car.

With all the idiots I'd seen in the previous month spinning in my head, I guess I'd just had enough. I popped it in 'sport' and hit the gas. I caught him immediately, and by that time, because he'd been watching in his rear-view, he'd already floored it again. Now, it was on a nice wide four-lane major artery near my house, and there was no other traffic to speak of on the road at the time, or I wouldn't have done it. I'm old enough that I don't need to prove anything to anybody, least of all some snotty generic mook.

As I said, he'd floored it and was planning to embarrass the Jaguar having baited me successfully. I blew both his doors off in a heartbeat and smoked him so badly I felt terrible for him (just kidding). When I looked in my rearview he was half a mile back still trying to make something happen. The XJR was so fast I had to back off the throttle, not believing that I'd covered as much asphalt as I did in so short a period of time. He took the first opportunity to find an exit ramp and disappeared.

That was scary. Scary and really satisfying.

 

This weekend going from Atlanta to Jacksonville FL and the Restricted Performance/Check Engine Light started flashing light twice. Someone else had the same issue. I pulled over and turn off the car then restarted and all was fine. Hopefully this doesn't happen on my way back to Atlanta tonight.

 

Thank goodness I don't have any hair raising experiences... yet!

Markus... that's a great story... I love it when the split second decisions turn out just as you would want and you can then talk about them in situations like this!

 

Buying it