A track buddy just sent me an email about another XKR at Mosport this past weekend doing an event in the rain. I haven't experienced it in the wet yet myself, but his observations are encouraging. I'd like to meet the owner. DDT is the Driver Development Track at Mosport as opposed to the high speed Grand Prix course.

"Hey Bruce – I was at the DDT on Sunday doing the last Hanson track day. There was a guy with a white Jag like yours but I think his was a hardtop coupe. He drove with the instructors and the track was pretty/slippery. I was impressive how well the car handled in the wet. I thought I would have no problem catching/passing him but I had to really work my butt off. He must have had all the electronic gadgets at full a tilt. I didn’t see him slide/twitch the rear the slightest bit. It was very composed. Clearly he was a very good driver too which helped. What is the standard issue for tires on that car? They looked like they had a ton of grip in the wet. It rained pretty well all day long".


Bruce

 

No reason why it should not handle well in the rain as long as he was using good tires. Of course, driver's skill is paramount in the rain. The XKR has relatively soft GT suspension which actually should work well in the rain. Stiff springs, dampers and sway-bars are the ones to get you into trouble in the wet. You want more weight transfer onto the outside wheels during rain for more grip.

He may have used traction controls or may just relied on his skills to baby the brake and throttle in and out of the corners. I raced several wet races on my slicks when it begun raining after the start and would have taken too long for a pit stop to change to wet rubber. As long as you see the pavement texture clearly, meaning no standing water, you are generally fine. The absolute worse thing in heavy rains is to be stuck on the rear bumper of other cars and be blinded 100 percent by a ferocious jet of water being thrown at you, doing well over 140MPH. The only thing you can do is drive by looking out sideways, looking for braking and turn-in marks.

Than, multiply those issues by a factor of 5 when driving an open cockpit formula car! Those F1 drivers have my full respect for being able to control those twitchy contraptions at those speeds in the rain.

Albert

 

This course has a lot of tight corners with safe run-offs and is used practically non-stop by many car control and race schools. That keeps a lot of tire rubber on the track that's slicker than K-Y when it gets wet. I had the good fortune to spend a whole day in the rain there and swap between street Pilots and R-Compounds on the Supra to experience the differences and improve skill in the wet.

I've since learned it was actually an XKR-S, with stiffer everything than the XKR. It requires decent skill and seat time to keep the rear planted on dry pavement in a regular XKR, as you discovered when the DSC kept intervening on you at the Jaguar Experience you attended, so I think this guy was using surgical skill with the throttle... with DSC on or turned off.

I still find the throttle extremely sensitive when cornering at the limits of adhesion, and not entirely sure it isn't something with the car as I think I'm feathering it very smoothly. Hopefully I can meet this fellow to discuss his experience with throttle sensitivity on the track.

Bruce