Hi guys

Just wondering for those with automatic transmission, do you, or have you, ever used your low gears?

I dropped down to second once going up a hill and she practically flew up there like a rocket. Once I got to the top of the hill I had to pull over as she started overheating (since got that problem fixed, blocked radiator) and I haven't touched since then.

The other day I was doing a cruise session on a racetrack and we had a spot on the straight where you could floor it. Only a cruise so I just stayed in drive (being overtaken by others! )

Can't help but think if I had of dropped her into the lower gear (just 2) she would of took off but....she is my daily driver and I'm a little afraid to get those revs too high for too long.

Anybody know what sort of damaged can be done or had similar experiences? (Obviously we are assuming you have all fluids in check and your radiator is working ok)

 

Do not baby the V-12, it likes to run. There are several "kick down" mods out there that will provide a more "sporting" experience w/o having to drop the stick so to speak.

 

Sometimes. It will kick into the next gear around redline, so no worry about overstressing it. Only issue is it does break traction a little bit during shifts at redline.

I generally only put it down into first if I REALLY need to pull out somewhere, in which case it will flat haul *** out of there.

Based on it doing NOTHING if I put it in second while i am still or barely rolling, it seems first gear is almost never used. So putting it in first may actually let a lot of owners feel just how quick the XJS can be without doing it in 3rd gear...where it runs up to 150+

 

What about getting those revs near the red zone? Probably shouldn't be there too long though right?

Can't remember what my revs went up to going up that hill.

So JTsmks you ever drop down your gears?

 

Once only.

My Red HE.

Coming out of Dubbo, looooooong line of traffic (I counted 9 cars) behind a Semi, all doing 90KPH.

No one wanted to overtake, so out I went, pulled it to 2, and STOMPED on it. Somewhere around mid line of traffic, I flicked it to D, still stomping on it, and by the time I came past the truck I saw 220 on the speedo, NO idea of the tacho, its a V12, let it "sing".

Like I said to you when you got the Goose, you must be VERY brave to hold the gas pedal on the floor in a V12 for a long period of time, they will scare the s..t out of you the first time. Especially our cars without all the "smog" stuff those up "North" get.

The Goose is one quick V12, I have driven it, and it is a "quick one".

 

Cheers Grant

Kinda kickin myself i didnt drop er down to 2nd on the track but maybe next time

Yes I remember that one time i dropped her down going up the hill it was like a rocket launch....only thing that wrecked my rush was the temp gauge (back when I had issues)

BTW

Is there any pics of the famous Red Devil on the forums? I remember seeing one in that book (Essential Buyers Guide). Yours was 85 too right?

 

No, dont worry about the redline. There is a limiter so it'll be fine. Thing is all forged and oversquare, it loves to rev and can totally handle it. They often run better after some spirited driving and an unintentional italian tune up

 

Where? How?

First I've ever heard of a rev limiter

Cheers
DD

 

lol! "Italian Tune up"

i like it

 

I do it all the time in both of mine (6.0 and 4.0) as a matter of routine driving. Not much if I am just cruising around but if I am driving sporty at all I often shift down from D down to 3 to decelerate into curves as it gives more control than using the brakes alone, or sometimes keeps me from needing the brakes at all, and then I get the extra power as I accelerate out of the curve. Also use it to decelerate sometimes when coming off a power climb. Usually it's from D just down to 3. Less often, at much lower speeds I have also been known to go from 3 down to 2, though not nearly as often as D to 3. I'm a retired professional driver (advanced mobile security specialist) and to me it's just how these cars was meant to be driven and mine both respond very well to this style of driving. Yep, I'm the nutt who's had the video on YouTube of my V12 model cruising at just over 143 MPH on a closed stretch highway with new pavement on a full-moon night. Just do a search for 143+MPH Jaguar 6.0L XJS-V12 Sportspack edition Convertible on YouTube.

 

Rev the wheels off it Paul. Up to 6,000 is fine. I regularly do it to mine when held in second on the shifter. On the GM 400 it will NOT upshift automatically if the stick is in second. 110 -120 mph (yes Mph) in second is quite possible

The engine loves it, and so will you! The engine is oversquare (meaning essentially it is a short stroke screamer) and therefore made to rev. It only really takes off power-wise above 3,500 rpm and runs out of breathing capacity at the high 5,000s. The AJ6 larger throttle bodies and ECU mods definitely help a great deal at high revs. On my car they absolutely transformed its performance over 90 MPH.

No need to baby the Jaguar V12. Going fast is what it is for!

Greg

 

Sounds interesting mate. Ill check it out. So on both of yours you have 3 speed?

As in the picture my 85 is D --> 2 -->1

Greg in France! Good to hear from you mate. Always like your input.

Mate I should of started this post before i took her on the race track. Now I'm itching to get home (now at work) to try it.

Rarely has my car seen these realms of revolution. I think she is ready...

So, if your trying to take off from a crawl, and want to gun it, would you just rely on the kick down (foot to the throttle) or would you pop it down into 2nd?

 

Not sure if there are any snaps of The Beast. Here are some from the file.











The rev limiter mentioned is a TH400 feature. The torque convertor "supposedly" cannot handle more than 6500RPM, so it upshifts regardless. This is what I have read/been told, but I have never bothered to find out.

The manual cars will rev to 7200RPM without any fuss. From memory (haha) the Bathurst Cars were gear changing at 7200 RPM all day long.

 

Nice! So this is what the Wizard of Oz's XJS looks like? Very nice bud.

I see you were a leaper fan, I won't go there!

That picture of the rear was the same one in the book I mentioned.

Also I like how you changed the gear stick to the round type handle as opposed to the t-bar handle. Did you do this mod? Much more sporter I think.

So, It has a HE badge on the back. What year was this one?

You should upload them to your Jag Forum Photo

Thanks for sharing Grant!

 

Thank you. It is really missed. If not for the "Mongrel" right leg preventing painless access, it would still be the DD.

LEAPERS RULE.

The gear knob was a no brainer years ago. I was bored, had a spare S2 gearlever in the junk box, and an XJ40 knob. So cut the lever, welded a UNC bolt to it, slid some heatshrink over my "impeccable" welding, and screwed the knob back on.

Fitting the S2 lever to the TH400 gate was NOT simple. 2 bottles of JD later, I simply pulled the "gate pin" out of the lever, and slid the lever onto the pivot pin. Now it goes from P all the way to 1, without that DUMB left/right/left nonsense. The detent INSIDE the transmission is more than sufficient to let you know where you are. It is really good to use, but I am a simple person, contrary to opinion.

Build date May 1985. Those boot badges are argued about more than, "What oil is best". I reckon the cars got whatever the apprentice picked up in the factory on that particular day, and then the dealer network changing a stick on badge is not rocket science either.

Must snap the 2 S Types and do a "Garage upgrade".

 

I still say you drive like my Grandma,
I was holding it in second flat to the floor through all but one corner on the track and keeping it flat until it hit about 5200 rpm before shifting to 3rd. No need for a rev limiter, they let you when you are hurting them.
Always pushed all my vehicles to redline at times and only ever broken one engine...snapped a crankshaft once.

Eastern Loop is the only corner I had to back off on as the rear end was starting to drift when it got a bit light going over the hill top.

 

The later model cars had a four speed and it's set up as, D --> 3 -->2.

And, for what is worth, the "94 Model Update" states that the Rev limits for 1st, 2nd and 3rd are 6000RPM (bottom of page in the attachment). Don't know why, don't know what happens is you exceed it, don't know if it applies to any other models.

Bill

 

For absolutely max acceleration, shove it in 1 on the stick and floor the pedal and LEAVE IT floored, never lifting. The 3 speed TH 400 will shift into 2 automatically, regardless of the stick position at the correct moment. Then, still holding the foot to the floor shove the stick into 2 (the gearbox is already there as I said). In stick 2, the box WILL NOT change up. When your nerve breaks or 5,700 to 6,000 rpm (whichever comes first, shove the stick into 3, foot still hard down.

At this 2 to 3 stick shift at those revs you will be doing well over the ton, maybe 120 MPH. With the decent breathing mods I mentioned, the thing will pull like a train to 150 plus MPH. The correct rated tyres in top condition being VERY important at these speeds!

FWIW, 120 MPH does not feel that much faster than 90 MPH in an XJS, to me. But as soon as I got to the 130s and beyond (I was a good deal younger then) I found the qualitative difference was HUGE, and hardly dared take my eyes off the road to even glance at the speedo. Basically things seemed to happen very fast indeed at those speeds.

The Jaguar marketing people junked the HE badge in favour of the V12 badge about half way through the 1985 year of manufacture. My car, like Grant's departed, is an early 1985 build date, but later 1985s and onwards (build date) all had the V12 badge. new OEM HE badges are pretty rare to find nowadays, but there are lots of V12s around, also lots of owners swapped their HE badge for the V12.

Greg

 

They did have special-order cranks balanced within a 100th of a gram and journals ground to a tolerance that makes jet engine rotors look like garden machinery though! Plus they cracked main bearing caps pretty regularly (according to Allan Scott's brilliant book), but in our real world, nothing we can do is going to remotely inconvenience the engine,that's for sure.

Greg

 

Paul,
What is that switch on your car to the left of the speed control rocker switch on the console for, please?

Greg