OK I've had the XKR for a little over 2 years and I have yet not burned out at a light. I also have not turned off the traction so am I the only one who hasn't done this. I don't know if I'm concerned about losing it or just don't want to accelerate the tire wear. So am I the only one?

 

Well sir, I only have the XK so I'm not sure it's possible with mine. Perhaps I'll try on a wet lot someday and add some bleach to the pavement for some smoke effect, but it would be so embarrassing if it was a miss....

 

Nope. Only had my XK 4 months but I have yet to turn off traction. Not sure if I ever will.... In fact, I haven't even tried Sport mode. That is on my to-do list. My wife is the main driver but when I'm in it I do switch to dynamic mode.

 

 

I deserve that. I said it's on my to-do list!

 

Well, I have never done that at a stop light, I would feel like a real douche if I was in with a bunch of cars and burned away.

I have turned off the traction completely in an empty parking lot early in a couple of mornings to test the limits. Both with traction partially off (short press) and all the way off (long press). The control you have over the car with no traction is better but you have to know the limits or you will spin it in a turn or curve, or just end up losing control at a light overpowering the system. While 385 hp is not as excessive as the 5.0L XKR is still plenty of juice to kill you. People aspired to that much HP back in the old muscle car days.

 

I've had a 2011 XKR 175 for 1 year and a 2013 XKR for 2 years. I own nice cars to appreciate and to feel good about. I would never think of abusing or disrespecting such a great privilege XKR ownership has given me. When I sold my cars they were better than new with perfect paint and care. I'm having a hard time finding another used XKR 2014 or 2015 at a reasonable price that I can feel comfortable in buying. I'm not interested in buying an abused car. I'm not saying everyone who did a burn out doesn't take car of there cars I just don't see any enjoyment from doing it. During my ownership of my XKR's it felt good to get it them knowing they were it the best possible condition. I may be a bit OCD but my XKR's never seen rain, snow and have never been parked in the sun (always garage kept). Looking after my cars made be feel good. I guess we're all different.

 

I passed an older XK the other day on the highway, and in trying to show off, punched it while changing lanes. I was doing maybe 40 mph and damn near lost it, as the back end started swinging around. Yeah, I guess I looked a little foolish and not the cool I had hoped for.
I keep forgetting not to punch it with my 22k original Dunlops.
New tires in the spring.

 

I used to be a little OCD but I am beginning to lose that feeling. Most of my cars until about 15 years ago were my work DD's. They say 4 seasons but I kept them up as much as possible. After I bought my 1st real toy it only saw sunshine and I was always cleaning it. Then age hit and now I am not worried about who gets the car after me . I keep it clean but am not saving it for anyone. I don't track it nor do I do a lot of "spirited " driving. It's even gotten to the point where I don't wash the car myself but just take it to the car wash once a week. When the rears wear down I'll turn off the traction and let it rip just to see what it does.

 

Not to insult people that like stoplight burnouts, I had never spun my tires. As a long time road racer (track racer) I equated any sounds or feelings of loss of traction as bad driving. Tires that spin are not propelling the car forward in racing or in canyon driving.

Yes, I turned off my traction control after putting on the Continental DWS tires which have relatively poor traction (compared to the stock Dunlops) and kept activating my traction control in almost every corner when driving hard. Car is very controllable without the traction control, as long as you treat the throttle as stepping on eggs.

 

Nope. I'm also a member of the OCD club - driven only On Clear Days. I'm sure there are lots of us on this Forum.

 

I am with you, keep the car up but use it to it's fullest. To characterize using a car in the rain or elements other than clear skies and not babying it as abuse is just silly. I respect the opinions of those that feel this way but in the end this is a car, whether it is an XK or XKR. Nothing more.

I take care of my cars outside, inside, and mechanically. If you like to use the car as designed and get the maximum performance you have to practice. This means taking your car to the limit of losing traction (with the controls off) to see just how far you can go. This is not abuse, it is DRIVING. I am sure none of us are 18 year old kids showing off everyday in high school, I do not believe that the infrequent times that I push the limits are in any way beating on this car.

You guys can keep your garage queens, my car will look as nice as yours and perform the same. If my style of driving causes something to fail I will fix it, but during my 5 or 6 years of ownership I plan on consuming every bit of the $20,000 depreciation I am owed.

 

+1... please everyone reread the above opinion.

Ok, I have done one real burn out in two years of ownership. All by myself in the country where I grew up at an intersection that may have 15 seconds of law enforcement per day. All by my self because I had no idea how it was going to go and did not want to look foolish. Well that ended up with a 200+ foot burn out and a unreasonable acceleration ticket handed to me by the local sheriff who just happened to be in the neighborhood. See my post "unreasonable acceleration"


Now I drive my car. Then I wash it. If it's raining I drive my car. Then I wash it. If at the red light grand prix and the opportunity to play with others presents itself... I drive my car, however with no burnouts as this affects acceleration which is the reason I bought an XKR. Then I wash it. I do not beat my car ever. I have never beaten any car I have owned. I respect the fact with my Jags that I only have a period of time to enjoy them before I pass them along to another.


Now for all of you who don't play at the red light grand prix. For all of you who don't drive your car in the rain and snow. For all of you OCD's, thank you so much as these are the cars I buy every single time.

 

I'm some what in the same frame of mind. A little bit of sliding is moderately higher grip at the price of increased heat/wear, but any more and you're falling off.

I'm used to heavy rear weight, and found the XK very frustrating to drive, until I turned the DSC off for a few days in a row, and got a better idea for what the car wanted from me. After that, instead of frequent frustration at DSC, I wasn't kicking it on.

I have done one slip of the rear tires that caught me by surprise, and lasted far too long in my mind. Because I share the avoid excessive wheelspin/slip, it felt like an eternity to bring the rear wheels back to a stop. Maybe it was a second, or a second and a half, of sitting at a stop light with the back tires spinning.

Short story Long, I was at a new intersection that wouldn't of been blocking my path were it not for some corruption at play. Roads got re-routed to run by a new shopping center some one built for cheap in a mostly untraveled way, then got their real estate turned into a high value location by having roads removed and re-routed by. This pisses me off about darn near every time I go by.

To add insult to injury, they made sure people have time to read the signs of shopping center by "traffic calming". This means that stop lights from both ways on either side are timed to turn green, and then the middle set at the shopping center are timed to turn red as you get there. Its impossible to drive through, and if you get caught by the full duration of the first light, you are also guaranteed to get caught by the full duration of the second light.

I had the first light turn red, a very long wait for absolutely no traffic to get on the road what so ever. I already knew at or near the posted speed limit, even though I was looking at the 2nd light being green, I couldn't make it through, so I took this one easy. As expected it, turned red, I was the front car, I waited, and waited, as the light cycled through with an extra second of yellow and an extra second of red per cycle. The wait continued, finally, if there had of been opposing left turning cars, they would of got to go. At this point, I start the long hold on the DSC button in frustration. No cars are turning left as that area is not yet constructed. I was watching the right turn arrow for the traffic that would of been leaving from my right. Finally the countdown for long DSC is done, I let go of the button and see DSC off.

That right turn arrow goes yellow, I count "one...two...three...why isn't it red?" It goes red, I count one...two(some gas and additional brake)...three(more gas)(Tire spin)(the light should be green)(it isn't)(less gas less brake.) I was still trying to add additional brake pressure/back off the gas when it went green.

The result was an embarrassing perhaps 1 second of wheel spin without actually going anywhere, as I'd forgotten the extra second of red, and kept my foot on the brake until the light went green.

I was hoping to make it through the third light, but nope, it went red too. I did get to see the surprised "What is that thing" look on the driver who pulled up behind me, I could see their eyes tracing the Jaguar written on the trunk, then looking down to the "XK" badge.

I have very soft summer tires on my XK, full right foot in first gear in a straight line won't break it loose, but the torque converter allows it to happen from a stand still apparently.

 

Regarding driving the Jag or keeping it as a garage queen.. Mine is a fair weather car and stays in the garage for the NJ winter. The summer of 2015 I drove it to Canada, meeting up with my friend in his Porsche in NY. We had a nice time cruising around and were well behaved probably due to our wives supervising us. So that year was about 4k miles. My 2010XKR currently has 21k on it. I bought it 3 years ago with about 9000 miles on it. When I changed the battery the other day, and drove it back into the garage for it's winter slumber, I realized that I had only driven the car about 1100 miles in the past year. While I like keeping the car a somewhat "special" treat to drive, for me, anyway, 1100 mi a year is a bit of a waste, and I've vowed to enjoy it more next season, or I will be guilty, as my buddy claims, of saving the car for the next guy.

 

Until this XKR, I haven't had a car or vehicle that I enjoyed just looking at in a long, long time. Back when I had my motorcycles and to a much lesser extent my Boxster, I tried to keep my vehicles absolutely pristine and would cringe whenever I'd run into a sandstorm or find myself behind a dump truck or rock hauler. But once I was able to resign myself to having rock chips here or door dings there, it was almost liberating, and I was able to enjoy them much more as vehicles and not just things to stare at. With the Boxster especially, the feeling of specialness wore off early as it was my daily driver, and I barely gave it much thought as the miles piled on. That is, until I joined some autocross events and completely fell in love with the car all over again but in a different way. By then I had probably put 60k miles on it, and it was far from pristine, but it was glorious testing its limits well beyond what I could do on the street. I had my brother come out to one event with his long forgotten and neglected 20 year old Corvette, and it was the same for him.

So with this XKR, I'm somewhat in that stage again of agonizing about newfound flaws (found a rock chip on my hood yesterday) but I know it's not a collector car and bought it to drive. So to anyone who wants to do donuts or a burnout, I say go for it - just don't be this guy


or these guys!

 

Always nice to see idiots get what's coming to them. Idiots.