Why XK Jaguars?

Dear Jaguar lovers, we all love the great XK Jaguars; yes we all have solid reasons to like these cars so much. XK Jaguars are definitely more than just vehicles that people use and sale to buy another one. Now what are those reasons, I mean that could probably be questioned by people who don’t like XK Jaguar cars as much as we all do? Therefore, today I’m willing to write something to show that our love for the XK Jaguars isn’t meaningless. 

Well, from the renowned XK120 that introduce the XK name to the world, through the modern range of convertibles & coupes, time after time Jaguar’s XK sports cars have set the benchmark when it comes to blending comfort, performance and impressive touring capability.  

C.J. O’Donnell, Executive Vice President, Marketing, Sales and Communications, Jaguar North America once said about the XK Jaguars "The XK is Jaguar's leading beautiful, fast car. With sensuous lines, rich appointments and thrilling performance, it has remained on the shopping list of automotive enthusiasts for more than six decades." Now think that a person who holds a key post in a big organization can never give statements to be published with some wrong facts. Truly, XK Jaguars never stopped inspiring people and never failed to give them desirable performance. Today, after decades Jaguars’ XK model range is still popular and gaining more and more shares in car the markets world wide — giving tough time to all the contemporary competitors, AS ALWAYS!

Jaguar also launched 2006 LIMITED EDITION JAGUAR XK 'VICTORY' in order to Celebrate Jaguar's four championship wining moment in the North American Trans-Am road racing series. That special edition Jaguar was offered in 4 amazing limited edition exterior colors – Black Copper Metallic, Frost Blue Metallic, Satin Silver Metallic and Bay Blue Metallic – in addition to many current exterior colors, with Carbon Fiber interior trim standard for the all XKR models. An upgraded, 19-inch 'Atlas' style wheels with a sporty chrome finish for the Jaguar XK8 and new, stylish 20-inch BBS alloy wheel for Jaguar XKR also with cross-drilled Brembo® brake rotors, while the XK8 adds power-fold exterior mirrors. 

Checkered flag info on the Jaguar Growler badge and the polished door treadplates, just to enhance the uniqueness in limited editions. Premium soft-grain leather seating surfaces also offered in Victory edition XK Jaguars. Moreover, The XK ‘Victory’ edition was not only for celebration of the XK’s success in Trans-Am road racing series, but also for enduring success as one of the world’s most sophisticated GT cars.

Today, XK cars are more refined as the Jaguar believes in constant improvements in work. Now XK Jaguars are equipped with many of new technological features. The 6 speed fully adaptive shift system gives smooth and lightning fast gear changes with efficient performance. For utmost driver participation, gears can also be changed manually using paddles mounted at the back of the steering wheel. The XK Jaguars’ Adaptive Dynamics analyse speed, steering and body movements 500 times/sec and control the suspension with electronic dampers to attain the perfect balance between soothe and accurate handling.

The automatic transmission is now upgraded with precision engineered, chrome, rotary JaguarDrive Selector™, which makes driving so comfortable, gives new Jaguar cars very elegant and stylish look. 
The XK and XK Portfolio feature the Jaguar Performance Braking System for the perfect constancy of control and performance. On the XKR and XKR-S the Jaguar High Performance Braking System, with 380mm front discs and aluminium calipers, provides more sensitivity, control and reliability. Active Differential is now standard for the XKR and XKR-S in order to provide superior tarmac and loose surface traction. It is intended to sense any slipping and to make cars’ performance better and even more stabile. Now you can say that Jaguar is equipped to contend courageously with the other car manufacturers of present time. 

Last year Jaguar XKR-S has awarded with the title of  '2011 Sports Car of the Year' by the German motoring magazine, Auto Bild Sportscars, following a poll of more than 70,000 of its readers. The XKR-S is the most influential car Jaguar has built – contended in the 'Production Sports Car Coupes' group, where it achieved more votes than the Mercedes C63 AMG and Audi RS5 in their home market. Mike Wright, Executive Director Jaguar Land Rover said, "Winning the first prize in a segment dominated by premium German competitors makes us particularly proud. The vote for the XKR-S proves that Jaguar’s desire to build powerful but beautiful cars resonates extremely well with those who have a passion for sports and performance cars." In fact, Jaguar always tries to provide conformance to specifications, and to ensure the quality that is considered synonymous with the customer needs and expectations. 

Jessica Ennis — Lucky & Talented

The girl in picture is £1 million Olympic Golden Girl 'Jessica Ennis' who is the first female athlete to earn huge benefits from lucrative sponsorship deals. Last week one of her sponsor companies donated her a lovely Jaguar XKR. She drove her five-litre, super-charged V8 engine vehicle after whole day’s training at the English Institute of Sport in her hometown of Sheffield. The 26-year-old heptathlete Jessica Ennis is on course to earn a staggering £1million from profitable sponsorship deals this year and became the first female athlete to do so. 
In women’s heptathlon in London Olympics 2012 she left all her rivals behind in the game of money making. As she has signed major sponsorship deals with world’s most famous companies like Adidas, Aviva, Omega, BP, Olay, British Airways, Powerade and Jaguar. The other team GB athletes could just secure around half contracts than her.

 

Although, Jessica Ennis seems the luckiest athlete, but she is so dedicated, focused and hardworking girl, who believes in constant improvements in work, instead of just making money from sponsor companies. Therefore, almost everyone who is following her in London Olympics 2012 seems with having no doubts about her performance through out the event. 
Matthew Glendinning, of sponsorship experts Sports Marketing Frontiers, said: ‘The heptathlon competition  will keep her in the limelight for two full days and her ability  to appeal to men and women of all ages make her possibly the biggest female Olympic star Great Britain has ever seen.’
Britain's golden girl of athletics Jessica Ennis is Ambassador of Jaguar Academy of Sport, she has won many awards including Jaguar Academy of Sport 'Most Inspirational Sportswoman of the Year' at the inaugural Awards at Lord's Cricket in November 2010.

In 2011 British Athletics star Jessica Ennis, has also been set to mentor the next generation of hopefuls in Leeds as part of her patronage of The Jaguar Academy of Sport. This unique Bursary programme brings together the perspicacity and experience of their Patrons and Ambassadors to develop specific skills within the Rising talented boys and girls. Ennis is playing an immense role in this amazing mentoring and education programme and helping each of the rising stars to go on to become future British champions. 

Jaguar's ultra exclusive XKR 100

Jaguar's ultra exclusive XKR 100 was built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Sir William lyons' birth, meant that it had to be more than a mere marketing ploy. The Jaguar XKR 100 is arguably the most desirable version of the XK8/R model which has everything so amazing, especially it's aesthetically pleasing design with Leather Recaro sports seats, 20 inch R Performance ‘Montreal’ BBS alloy wheel, and the perfect engineering with some new features like innovative adaptive cruise control [ACC].
Jaguar XKR 100 is superb in acceleration as its 370bhp and 386lb ft are delivered with fineness. Road holding is amazingly good and it's really easy to steer, definitely a firm controlled ride. Any XKR still draws admiring looks wherever it goes, but even more so in limited edition '100' guise. Mean, sleek and powerful looking, but you must like black. Very much a classic car in the making – the XKR 100 is, after all, a car that replaced the Jaguar XJ-S. 

Technical Specifications

Engine	3,996cc, 32v, V8, supercharged
Power	370bhp @ 6,150rpm
Torque	387lb ft @ 3,600rpm
Acceleration	0-62 in 5.4 seconds
Top speed	155mph (limited)
MPG	22.5mpg (average)
Fueling	Multi point fuel injection
Transmission	Five speed electronically controlled automatic with sport mode
Kerb weight	1,640kg
Brakes	ABS equipped Front – 355mm vacuum-assisted cross-drilled discs Rear – 330mm vacuum-assisted cross-drilled discs
Steering	Speed sensitive variable ratio power steering
Length	4,760mm
Suspension	Computer Active Technology Suspension (CATS) Front – independent wishbone with control arms, coil springs and anti-roll bar Rear – independent wishbone with driveshafts, control arms, coil springs and anti-roll bar

 

Jaguar XKR-S, an ultimate sports car

Dear Jaguar lovers, XKR-S came into existence as a result of great struggle and hard work that Jaguar motor company was doing from many years to achieve best compliments from customers and even viewers. The XKR-S badge was first used on the 2008 special edition XK. Now, Jaguar launched XKR-S 2012 model with all the graces abound with. The beautiful XKR-S has everything that a car lover could wish for; I mean a driver-focused technology, assertive, sporting design and luxury that a Jaguar owner deserves.

A 5.0 litre V8 supercharged engine of XK range makes the new XKR-S one of the most powerful Jaguars ever made, with an increased power output of 550PS and maximum torque of 680Nm. Top speed of XKR-S is 186mph (300kph) with acceleration from 0 to 60mph in just 4.2 seconds (0–100kph in 4.4 seconds). But not only speed, the amazing designing strategy of Jaguar’s design department makes the new XKR-S an artifact of power and beauty.

Well, it is believed that the ‘Control’ is one of the key performance elements of any vehicle, and you’ll like to know that in order to give an amazing control to the new XKR-S, Jaguar provided a combination of lightweight aluminum body construction and revised suspension settings, these re-engineered front suspension features are capable to enhance camber and castor stiffness for precisely steer the car with greater driver-connection and responsiveness. And not just the front suspension, the rear suspension design of XKR-S has also been revised for increased camber stiffness.

In order to reduce steering sensitivity at very high speed Jaguar also reprogrammed The Active Differential, this helps a lot in increasing stability and driver control of XKR-S even on very high speed. 

The Dynamic Stability Control has also been re-engineered to get the compatibility with the car’s increased capabilities. Actually, Jaguar has not just given great speed to their new XKR-S but also made everything compatible with each other, you know a vehicle cannot be considered good if it failed to provide you good control with superb road holding on high speed. 

Jaguar’s High Performance Braking System features lightweight aluminum twin-piston sliding front calipers and single-piston sliding rear calipers, to deliver superb high-speed braking performance. Vulcan 20" alloy wheels are added to increase tyre widths about 9" in the front and 10.5" at the rear, and to provide Jaguar XKR-S great road grip.

The XKR-S’ is provided a six-speed automatic transmission, controlled by the JaguarDrive Selector™, a  feature aesthetically designed to give the driver more convenience with ease and style. It means that driver can simply turn the selector to choose mode, Drive or Sport automatic gearshift. 

 

But, this doesn’t mean that Jaguar neglected the aspect of driver’s involvement, because in Jaguar XKR-S, a driver can also control gear changes manually with the one-touch paddles given behind the steering wheel. In fact, Control™ is given to make a choice of modes best suitable to the road conditions and also the driving style. Winter mode is best to be selected for the winter’s slippery roads and the Dynamic mode is best suited for the quicker gearshifts in sporting drive.  

Dear Jaguar lovers now let’s talk about some other features that make the new XKR-S Jaguar a best performing car with beauty, style and convenience. An Active Front Lighting system features dynamic pivoting headlamps and cornering lamps, Bluetooth® telephone system, satellite navigation and climate control.

7" Touch-screen controls to provide more convenience and to shorten excessive feature knobs or switches, a Portable Audio Interface peripheral devices like iPod® or other MP3 player via the Touch-screen, Bowers & Wilkins 525W sound system featuring Dolby® Pro-Logic II Surround Sound enhanced by Kevlar® cones in the larger speakers and aluminum domes on the tweeters, a Reverse Park Camera with high quality results, the 16-way adjustable Performance seats with nice Softgrain leather, an amazingly designed unique front design features twin nacelles, side intakes, and carbon fibre splitter and lower spoiler and a unique rear wing with carbon fibre inlay and distinctive rear apron with a carbon fibre rear diffuser balance front and rear lift. Truly, Jaguar produced a masterpiece; I would just like to say this at the end of this post.

  

Jaguar Bumpers – fitting parking sensors

Dear Jaguar lovers we all must avoid scratching our modern Jaguar bumpers by fitting parking sensors. Today, bumpers are not one of the most solid parts of car as old day’s vehicles. The old hypothesis of making chassis as strong as possible and then bolting a hefty bumper has now less in style of modern car manufacturing. Because studies showed that in case of accident (when car hit something), they often did more hurt the passengers than any other external source. Therefore, in the running age car manufacturers make the central cabin as strong as possible with the progressively weaker ‘crumble zones’ front and rear to absorb the shock, so in case of accident only car would damage not the persons along for the ride.

As a result today’s Jaguar bumpers are light weight, yet strong enough to absorb the trivial knocks and are attached to the body with mounts that are designed to shatter at a certain force. Although, the idea of modern auto engineers is robust - gives better styling to the modern designs, but the matching colour bumpers look bad if scratched even a little. 

As we all know that whenever technology and human thinking updates, it brings some more and more things with new innovations, thus the ‘parking sensors’ were invented to protect modern car bumpers from scratches or parking damages. But matching colour bumpers with lightweight material need extra care while fitting parking sensors in them. Today, I’ll share some useful tips with you, related with the parking sensors fitting issue.

Here we go:

•        Rear bumper is secured with bolts adjacent to each tailpipe and slip joints behind the rear wheels. Safely remove the rear bumper to fit the sensors. Pull the wheel-arch liner out from behind the bumper lip, and then use a swivel ratchet to remove the two vertical bolts. The threaded hole behind the removable cover is for the towing eye, normally stored in the toolkit.
•        The entire bumper assembly should then slide off. It isn’t heavy but, when refitting, always have help to align the returns to the slip joints.
•        Use plenty of masking tape to protect the paintwork and provide a surface to mark the holes on. Read all the instructions thoroughly and take care positioning the sensors as a mistake at this stage could be expensive.
•        Use a hole-saw with relatively fine and teeth central point drill to drill holes. A small file will be needed to open up a slot for the positioning lug. The sensors are directional so must be fitted in appropriate direction.
•        In order to protect your car colour while painting, most sensors come with barrier rings to cover the insulators. If you got parking sensors without barrier rings then do not paint them, but if you do, please ensure that all the traces of paint are removed. Push the sensors carefully until they engage positively in the outer cover. You must ensure that all sensors are fitted in correct order as they’re numbered. 

Positioning the sensors

The sensors used car directional with sharply defined arcs of operation. To work effectively though, the sensors need to be positioned according to strict rules, which can include:

•       Min/Max distance between sensors
•       Min/Max distance to ground
•       Vertical alignment
•       Horizontal alignment

The last two are particularly important as a curved bumper can easily throw a sensor far enough off vertical to each end, far enough around the corner to read adjacent cars as an obstacle. Most kits come with wedges to compensate for angled bumpers – use them carefully. Also be careful, while keeping within the manufacturer’s spacing, to position the sensors away from any internal reinforcement inside the bumper beam.

•        Bring all the leads together to form a common loom, clipping it to the bumper sub-frame where necessary. Then remove the boot trim and drill a hole in the rear body behind the bumper large enough to feed wires and plugs through. Paint the bare edge then prevent water ingress by using a grommet sealed in with black silicone. There will usually be more than enough length to feed the wires in without refitting the bumper.

Important:

Unlike the XJ and XK range, an S-Type has reversed wiring layout, where power is applied permanently to all the lights, which are then selectively earthed when needed. Obviously, this effectively throws a spanner in the works for sensing system that relies on the lamp feed for its power supply.  Luckily, the solution is simple; just connect the red (positive) wire to the 12-volt supply and the black (earth) wire to the earth signal wire, basically a simple reversing of the normal routine.

•        Both the XJ and XK use this type of bumper mount, though the actual dimensions differ from each other. Bolted to the body is relatively weak composite bracket with an aluminium adjustable platform through which the bumper is bolted. To prevent problems in the future, note the height of the platform then unscrew the inner section and coat with Copper Ease, or similar, before refitting.
•        Likewise, give both the mounting bolt and spacer a through coating, as steel and aluminium do not a happy couple make. Sit the bumper back in place, feeding the wires through as it goes, then, before fitting the bolts, make sure the body gap is even all the way round.
•        The control unit will have numbered plugs for each sensor lead plus a further one for the beeper/display unit. I strongly urge you to go for the basic beeper and hide it under the rear parcel shelf between the body and the cover panel.
•        Regardless of how car is wired, the reverse light circuit needs to be identified. This can be done easily by tracing the metal strip back from the reverse bulb to the plug, then refitting the bulb holder and checking the wire with a circuit tester or test light while the lights are illuminated.
•        If you got parking sensor unit which has two wires, the red (positive) is spliced into the reverse light feed while the black (earth) is spliced into the common earth wire. All the joints are soldered without cutting and then insulated with tape.
•        The XK8 has a convenient recess with the fuse box. Feed the wires up from below and mounted the control box using the adhesive Velcro pad supplied. With all the boot trim back in place the installation will be completely hidden.
•        If you think, you can’t do all this then please leave this job to a skilled professional.

Calibration

Some parking sensor kits (like marketed by Cobra) require calibration before use; there are four simple steps.

     (1) 

Park your car 50cm from a convenient wall.

     (2) 

With reverse selected, turn ignition on until unit sounds constant tone for approximately two minutes.

     (3) 

Turn the ignition off and cut the blue looped wire exiting the control box.

     (4) 

Insulate the cut wire ends. If a sensor has to be replaced this wire will need to be reconnected and the above procedure repeated.                                  

  GOOD LUCK!                                                                                                                                                                                 

Jaguar XJS V12

Definitely, Jaguar XJS is a stupendous car to be owned. Anyone, who ever had this lovely Jaguar can never forget his/her experience of having an XJS. I know many people who have sold their XJS Jaguars but still keep it in minds as a pleasant memory, even some of them always wish to buy this car again in life. Although, they faced some troubles while having this car, like mechanical faults but they enjoyed bearing all those problems that their vehicle had created for them. Here I want to share with all the Jaguar lovers, a pleasurable memory of XJS Jaguar ownership.

The owner speaks!
It was a cold winter night of 2003 and I was going back home leaving from office. I came down to the parking lot, took my black XJS out. Usually, I never tried to drive my car so fast unless having a true reason to rush. So at that night I was in a hurry to reach home as soon as possible because my wife was suffering from high fever. Therefore, I was worried about her and trying to reach home possibly soon.
I was going fast on road in my XJS V12, and suddenly I saw somebody trying to get me by crossing my Jaguar from the wrong side. It was a BMW 745Li of the latest model, and the person on the driver seat was looking a reasonable man. Actually I was shocked to see all this but the graceful face of that BMW’s driver made me relaxed a little. 
As I stopped my car he stopped too, came out with excitement and hugged me twice. It was an astonishing situation for me really, so I asked him the reason, why stopped me like this???
He replied in a humble tone, “Actually I owned a Jaguar like you many years ago, in the same colour and condition, that’s why your car attracted me so much when I saw it very first time. So I started chasing you when you crossed me in very fast speed on the wet road. Are you interested in selling your XJS to me?” 
His question made me smile but I wasn’t in a position to answer him at that spot or you can say I was trying to reach my home shortly and not willing to waste more time with that BMW’s owner. I handed him my business card and invited to come there in office timings. He was looking as thankful to me as I did something very beneficial for him. Anyways, I went home after leaving that meeting place.
In the next afternoon when I was in my office, my secretary told me that someone is there for me in the waiting room. I said her to send him to my cabin. That waiting person came in and shocked me again by showing me his graceful face. O man you didn’t even wait for one day? I questioned him. “Yes” he said and asked me the same thing, “Interested in selling your car?” I said him to be seated and offered him coffee, and started telling him in very clear words that I am not willing to sale my XJS because I love it too. 
He was looking so disappointed, tried to offer me very good amount which was much more than my XJS V12. Finally, he left my office, left me thinking that why this man who owns an expensive BMW is so much interested in buying and old XJS.
This question really stirred up my curiosity, and I started trying to find its answer. Fortunately, he gave me his contact number that whenever I found myself interested in selling my car, I will call him for sure. I called on his phone, invited him on dinner to my home. 
He came with joyous expressions as he thought I now selling my car to him. But I told him while starting our dinner that I didn’t call him to sale my car but to know the reason of his great interest in an old XJS Jaguar of mine.
He then told me that he loves this car so much, he never feels as good in even 7series BMW as he felt in his XJS. Anyways, I sold my car to him but after 3 years and bought a new expensive car. Seriously, that incident never happened to me again even in Audi that I just bought last year. Nobody stopped me and asked “Do you want to sale your car?” But now whenever I saw an XJS on road it reminds me of some good past memories, of the great old days when I had this beauty.