Has anyone run their XFR on a track? After this guys commentary doesn't sound like it's up to the challenge for very long "15 mins".

Someone was mentioning their DSC light started blinking after about 15mins even with DSC "off / holding down dsc for about 15 seconds". They also mentioned a gearbox fault was displayed and severe brake fade that would come and go. After the car cooled down everything came back to normal.

 

what guys comment?

 

Different forum. Someone was saying they've run several track days with their XFR and was providing feedback on their experience. Not sure if other's here have had a similar experience.

 

Here are his comments..
Noise levels are a non-factor. The XFR will be one of the quietest cars in any track event.

If this is your first time on track you likely won't put any meaningful stress on the car, but in general here is why you will find and some recommendations, in case you do additional track days.

1 - Add 5PSI (cold) to your front tires and 3 to the rear. Jaguar performance academy adds 8PSI for autocross. This is to minimize your car rolling into the sidewall of the tires, and chewing up the outer edges. Yes, it will reduce grip marginally, but you are not racing, you are having fun, so reduced grip is even a plus.

2 - If you can, take your car to an alignment shot and try to get the maximum negative camber they can. Likely will be -1.4 front -1.0 rear. That helps the above problem and also makes the car respond much better. And no, it is not enough negative camber to cause any problems on the road.

3 - If I really push the XFR, I'll go through the brake pads in as little as 45 min on track (for a track with high speed straights and braking zones). But if you don't go crazy, you can get as much as 6 hours from them - but you have to baby them - i.e. don't go for full terminal speed on the straights, etc.

4 - If you drive hard, after 15 min or so you will see warning messages such as "e-diff failure", "DSC Failure", etc. This is nothing to worry about. It just means that the e-diff overheated and will from that point on be an open diff. Adjust driving accordingly. After the car cools down it will be all back to normal. Drive at least 5 minutes after the last hard brake application of a session (around paddock if you must), or your rotors will warp. In the US, Jaguar has replaced about 8 sets of rotors for me under warranty. Even with proper care, they will still warp.

5 - For set up, Track DSC/dynamic is safe and OK, except if you want to get back on power on turn exit. For me, it is unusable and I turn everything off and use paddle shifters. But you may tolerate the intervention if you want an extra safety factor. On low speed turn the XFR is very easy to catch if it slides. On high speed turns it is not - requires very fast hands.

Overall it is a very fun car on track for its size, and it sure is an attention getter, since it is such an unusual track car.

So have fun.

 

I have taken my XFR to track days. Several times in fact.

I've never adjusted much of the suspension settings and have only messed with tire pressures just a bit. While I was heavy into suspension tuning with my old Honda S2000, I feel the Jag is more entertainment rather than all out speed when it comes to track driving.

Mid-corner understeer is definitely something you'll experience with the car. This usually turns into huge oversteer on corner exit if you're generous with throttle application! As for reliability, I never experienced any E-Diff faults or DSC failures on the track even with many smokey corner exits. I have, however, experienced these issues in heavy canyon driving. Perhaps the higher speeds at the track allow for better cooling as to prevent these failures. It also helps that I usually go during the (California) winter time so ambient temperatures are in the forties.

The brakes remain strong even at the tail end of a 25 minute outing. Though the pedal travel will increase, the stopping power is not noticeably reduced in any way. It is true that the factory pads degrade rather rapidly on the track. I had to replace my relatively new set by the end of the day. The rotors held up nicely.

Trac DSC is much too intrusive for any serious track work.

In any case, it's a lot of fun to drive an XFR on the track! Just make sure you're ready to replace the entire set of tires and brake pads by day end.

 

Tracked my old XFR once, just to see what it was like (my track car is an Exige, so I wasn't expecting much).

Predictably, the car was a real barge, with plenty of roll and sensations of overwhelming mass. As noted above, mid corner understeer aplenty, with exit oversteer available on demand, plus some turn in oversteer on occasion, DSC completely off (impossibly nannyish otherwise). I was surprised at how well the brakes held up, all things considered. In summary, not a particularly enjoyable car to try and extract a good lap from. Fine if you want to showboat and oversteer, but the organizers/marshalls at most track days I have been to do not tend to look kindly upon that sort of thing.

As an aside re: "his comments", it's a real pet peeve of mine when people go on about 'warped rotors'. In general, rotors don't warp, the issue is uneven pad deposition on the rotor surface. Good lord, he replaced 8 sets of rotors? That sounds WAY out of line. About 10 years ago I used to track an RS6 a fair bit; that's a car of similar weight to the XFR and capable of generating almost as much speed, and in several years of track abuse I replaced the rotors once. Pads were another matter...

Re: the advice to ADD pressure to the tires, maybe that's fine for autocross, but if you are driving hard for an extended period, on a circuit where you can make serious speed, that will get you into overheated tires pretty quick! Quite the reverse, you may need to bleed air from the tires! Makes me wonder about this guy...

 

Yes Sir, the Avatar pic is from Dragging at AAA Raceway in Fontana. Patrick and Kaynite have Dragged and Road raced their XFR's

 

I took my R to Knockhill in Scotland and I had an absolute blast, easily the most fun I've ever had in a car. This was my first and thus far only track experience. TRAC DSC was fine for me, I'm no driving hero and didn't want to bend the car. I have no experience of controlling oversteer outside of a PlayStation.

I did find my brakes were hopeless though, 5 mins and they were completely shot with a very soft peddle, reduced braking and at the worst, steering wheel shake. The track was about 1 minute "long", with 125mph to 30 mph braking from the straight to the hairpin and a further 120mph to 60ish mph braking on the other side of the track. I had near new (about a month old) "red stuff" pads on stock rotors, the car had been recently serviced (and that included new brake fluid). Once everything cooled down, brakes did return to normal, although the pads only lasted a further 10 months before they had to be changed and then shortly after that the discs had to be changed as well (50k on original discs).

I had no issues with the gearbox / LSD and I scrubbed maybe 1mm extra off the front outside tyre.

Hugely fun, but I could see the brakes being a frustration once the "newness" factor of the experience wore off.

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys! I think the XFR is a great package. Perhaps not the best track car but a lot of fun just the same. In a straight line it always puts a eurocharged smile on my face. Jag did a great job with this one...