Hi All. I say sort of new because I had perused this forum quite a few years ago. I purchased my first Jag -- a '98 XK8 carnivale red coupe used in '04. My brother was working at a jag dealer at the time and I found a deal I couldn't pass up. Then onto reading about Nikasil, tensioners, wheel bearings, water pumps, I was too nervous to read too much.
I purchased the car with 43k on it and planned on keeping it forever, so I did the tensioners at about 65K. They weren't too bad, but hairline fractures evident.
Then last year I came across my dream car on the auto trader -- an '05 XKR coupe which was Jaguar racing green. In a whirlwind I gave someone a great deal on my Xk8 and drove 6 hours to go pick up the new baby. I put the '98 on ebay and craig's list on tuesday night and had cash in hand thursday evening and went to pick the XKR up saturday. wow that was fast, but luckily everything worked.
Boy what a difference, I loved the XK8, but the R is absolutely breathtaking. I got lucky too because the jaguar racing green color, Detroit rims, brembo calipers with handling package and interior color, along with bezel, pedals and trim are SS and I love the color and grain of the wood -- I wouldn't have ordered a thing different. This is my perfect car and I am afraid it is possibly irreplaceable.
Well, that's my story. And now I know a little bit about these vehicles after 6 years of working on them and keeping them going, so hopefully am able to contribute to the forum. Hopefully the R has most gremlins fixed by being an '05, but already had it to dealer under select warranty and found a bad fuel injector. Let's hope that's it for a while. Oh, it now has 50K on it.
Nick

 

Welcome jnporcello, looks like you have got the bug. Glad you finally decided to sign-up, let's have a few pics when you are able.

All the best,

 

welcome back JNP.....nice intro

 

Welcome jnporcello. It sounds like you have quite a beautiful XKR. I'd love to see some pictures of her.

 

Howdy Nick

I'm VERY fond of the BRG color! Welcome to the forum.

 

Welcome,happy many miles or kilometers

 

When I went to pick it up, I was planning on the BRG color. It was advertised as Jaguar Racing Green and I thought it was just a misprint. But JRG is/was a new color for '05, which has a little lighter, but deeper color to it. I love BRG too and that is what I thought, but I LOVE this JRG even more. My brother has an '02 XK8 convertible BRG and he likes my color better... but he won't actually say that

And it just rounded 50K miles the other day. I just got the interior put back together from having Madera Concepts refinish the passenger side veneer and tastefully mounting a GPS in place of the outdated OEM. Now I'm working on the door lock/key fob gremlins.

Trying to figure out how to post pics. I just haven't given it enough time yet.