Hey everyone,

Thought I'd commit a few minutes to post one of my now-common long posts, summing up a list of experiences and observations on a short road trip from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, then Monterrey and back. Two day trip more or less, but I got some VERY quality time behind the wheel.

First, I headed down highway 1, a great driver's road in many ways. Dangerous, of course, between "Devil's Slide", the crazy twisty ribbon of angled two lane traffic (one in each direction) with no partition. Rock wall on one side, hundreds of foot drop on the other. What I'd pay to be able to drive that feared section of road with no traffic!

Highly rewarding in the Jag. Complete control and comfort, traffic limits any hard driving, but the supple suspension and flat handling made what for normal cars is a white knuckle experience into a fun and beautiful ten minutes of the trip.

For those not familiar with the area, California's highway one runs right along the water South from San Francisco, following the water line, with the beach never far from view.

The road is mostly straight, with some smooth bending curves. One lane each direction, no divider. Don't like such roads, safety is dependent on the guy going the other way not spacing out or texting and driving over the dotts for a head-on @ 60 MPH in each direction. Bad stuff.

Thankfully, by now it was dark and there was virtually zero traffic. Best of all, there are short passing lanes every 15 miles or so that let you overtake slower driver. Yes, I used them often and enthusiastically

The dark limited how much fun I was willing to have. Ticket bait in the dark, I tried to keep it reasonable unless there were signs that there were no cops around.

Stopping for gas here and there brought more compliments than usual, very kind people really hyped over the cat. They asked if it was an Aston, if it was the new design for the R8 Audi (?), then if it was an Ferrari. Obviously people who appreciate cars but don't know 'em well. Compliments always welcome regardless.

Dropping down to sorta-legal speeds, my passenger and I enjoyed the smooth and silky suspension and dead silence of the XKR.

Suffered my first curb rash parking for dinner. Ouch. Not too ugly, but a couple inches of abrasion that I'll never forgive myself for. Grrrr!

The next day I headed down to Monterrey alone. Just me and the road and 500+ horses... I hit the road pretty hard, maybe 25% more aggressively than usual. Had some hilarious 'races' against antagonistic but mortal cars, all with predictable results.

Guy in a modded Lexus (do they do that?) was behind me as we were stuck behind a slow car in the fast lane, with a slower set of cars in the slow. Few hundred yards ahead, there looked like there'd be an opening for us to overtake the slow driver in the fast lane; in addition to the slow lane, there was a short (1/4 mile) exit lane. This all on a steep up slope.

I'm signaling my intention to change and pass slow car on the right. As soon as the opening is there, the idiot behind me in the lowered and loud Lexus aggressively veers into the last of the cars blocking us in the slow lane and forces into the lane right next to my rear bumper (with signal blinking). His exhaust wailing as he floored it to pass the car that was in front of me, it seemed like I'd lost my chance to get in front...

Then the opportunity occurred to me.

Change to the slow lane (behind Lexus @ full throttle), then calmly moved into the (empty and short) exit lane, grabbed a gear and nailed it. Shot passed the Lexus with plenty of room to spare, glided in front of him and into the fast lane, where I should have been the whole time. I could tell how mad he was, thinking he'd taken the spot only to have his car WALKED away from, he never even passed the slow car and stayed two cars behind. LOL.

That's really one of the biggest pleasures. I don't drive aggressively (swiftly is a term I'd prefer). But when it comes to XKR vs. regular 'performance' car, the results are just CRUSHING. The XKR (my 2010+ and I'm sure the 4.2S) pushes SO HARD from mid-freeway speeds to red line, that it is a thing of amazement. The notion of someone in a non-exotic car blocking you out is a thing of the past. If you want to move to a space first, you'll be there; no race.

Would love to see stats on that aspect of it's performance.

Arriving in Monterrey, after a gentle race with a couple young kids in a lowered Acura (you know the type), I exited to walk the beach and rest a while. They followed and came over to worship the Jag! Turned out to be really cool car enthusiasts, they had endless questions about the J.

I gave in and gave each (one @ a time) of these kids (~19?) a rocket ride they said they'd never forget. Surprisingly, expecting crude tastes (acceleration, exhaust), they were both, INDEPENDENTLY and overwhelmingly blown away by... the BRAKES! Points for them knowing what makes cars really fast.

But I digress...

On the way north, not far north of Monterrey, I notice a HUGE new strip of freeway 40' from highway 1. Unused. Empty. Little equipment. No cops.

Game on! I found a dirt access strip, measured the road and found a dead-flat section, and got out my iphone based performance meter, Dynolicious. Before getting into numbers, I must say that I could NOT mount the iPhone perfectly as instructed: square to the car, firmly in position and not moving, and not being held in position by pushing it into position by hand. Hopefully I came close, not sure. I'll buy a mount or use an old G-Tech or something to corroborate.

But the opportunity to measure speed on a PRIVATE FREEWAY, dead straight and with no chance of hitting anyone, was not to be passed up on. First, top speed. I hit the speed limit quickly. First hard run and I'd guess that the car started to interfere closer to 145 than 155, but hard to tell when my eyes were mostly on the road.

Car felt solid as a rock at ~155, rushed to top speed like an enraged panther, no flat spot in the acceleration.

0-60, however, was a disappointment! Didn't have a known method, so I tried a half dozen runs with traction on/off, dyno on/of, trans set to S vs. shifting manually, etc.

Best I could produce in a limited time was a very disappointing 4.7! All runs were right around there, but between wheel slip and gearing, I couldn't rip off a run that felt up to what the car is capable of. I've run faster than 4.7 with far lesser cars, and the seat of the pants does not peg this car at a high 4 second ride. NFW.

If anyone has a method that works for a 2010+ XKR, let me know. For launch, I was braking and revving to ~1,800, feeding more when I took foot off brake, and manually shifting to second as I closed in on redline.

Almost always caused the car to make a counter clockwise spin as traction was lost, left it in 2nd through sixty.

Here are the numbers:
0-10 MPH:0.81 sec 0-20 MPH:1.47 sec0-30 MPH:2.26 sec 0-40 MPH:3.04 sec0-50 MPH:3.88 sec 0-60 MPH:4.74 sec0-70 MPH:5.89 sec Elapsed Time

60':2.37 sec@29.8 MPH330': 5.82 sec@68.2 MPH

No way I can't touch 4 flat with this much power. All evident when rolling, but I have to figure out a better launch strategy, maybe test early instead of after hours of high speed driving, rear tire pressure, etc...

Any experts out there?

Al in all I couldn't imagine a better car for the fast, rolling curves with an occasional hairpin, dark unlit roads blazing under the awesome headlights, truly a perfect road for the XKR.

I'll do some more runs, maybe with my old G-Tech to compare results. Oh, and I'll stay on it and post some 1/4 mile results. Once traction is established, she flies. But my lousy 0-60 times have me baffled.

Anyone used a meter to test results?

Thanks again,

Skeeter

 

Thanks for the detailed topic , you had a good pleasure of driving your cool ride . They mistaken your XK with Audi R8 , lol that makes me laugh

 

No question it was a combination of perfect roads and perfect conditions for the XKR. First time in my life I've had my own stretch of freeway all to my self! Not an opportunity one gets often, I had to use it. Wish I'd played longer... It kills me to think how many of these powerful cars get driven gently every day. Life is for the living and I wouldn't buy a 500+ horsepower car without the desire to push it to the limits when safe and opportune.

Even around town, the occasional burst of throttle is always enough to get a smile out of me... Love the exhaust sound and supernatural thrust. I'm guessing my tires won't last long at this rate, but as long as I exercise discretion and avoid a ticket I'm happy

Skeeter