Now that I got the secondary tensioners changed and the thermostat replaced, this will my winter car this year. How does the XJ8 handle the snow. Its got pirelli all M&S tires.

RR

 

In my own experience the XJ8 handles the snow quite well but, also in my experience, it often has as much or more to do with tire performance. This will be my second winter with Michelin X-Ice dedicated snow tires on the XJR but I also ran those in the winter on a my previous V12 Series 3 daily driver.

 

I put dedicated snows on a spare set of wheels. TCS and skid control do a lot to help out and the XJR is acceptable in the snow, but I'm glad I have the option of working from home or taking my pickup truck when I know the weather will be bad.

 

I would swap the TCS for a limited slip differential in a heartbeat.

 

Grew up in Wisconsin and old enough to remember putting on metal studded snow tires and 200 pounds of sand in the trunk of the family Buick Electra.

 

I remember those metal studded snow tyres as well: We had them in Germany back then. The "German" word for those metal studs is actually an English word, namely: Spikes.
Tyres with spikes were made illegal in Germany in 1975 - I remember that they offered a special tool back then, which you used to pull every little spike of the tyre to be allowed to still drive those tyres - with the spikes all pulled. The tyres with spikes were made illegal in Germany, because they destroyed the roads. They provided quite a natural "soundtrack" while driving on snowless roads - kind of like driving in a tank, I guess.

I just googled and I was amazed that tyres with spikes still seem to be legal in France, GB, Denmark, Spain and Lithuania.

 

Robin, if you only have 43k miles on that car, you seriously need to get that car rust proofed asap! This is of course assuming that you don’t have any rust on it now.

 

Spikes are allowed troughout EU. Strightly regulated but allowed and somewhat preferred too.
Rally style spikes are of course illegal.

I guess that spikes are called as studs.

michelin x-ice

 

^ ^^ ^^^
Even if they are allowed, studded tires aren’t necessarily a better choice. Other than on ice or previously well packed snow, they don’t offer better performance in new or loose snow and they provide poorer performance on clear pavement as well as being intrusively noisy and hard on the pavement.

 

Yes. And this is why I drive with non studded winter tyres.

 

I had studded snows on a 61 Ford Galaxy: good on ice, PIA rest of the time. In Colorado, one winter in 1966, my Michelin radials were perfectly fine for climbing the mountains. But a good set of snows on the rear are necessary -- I would think -- in MA, especially in hilly areas. I haven't seen snow with my 03, yet; but my first two were pretty good in snow. One had Cooper all seasons, the first had Pirellis and then Pilots, both were good for the little snow we see in SE VA.

 

Driving in snow: SLOW !

Takeo.

 

Our Jaguars, being rear wheel drive.
Are less than ideal, for snow, & icy road conditions.
Wait till roads are clear, & dry.
Or take the much better in the ice & snow, front wheel drive car myself.

 

i beg to differ ken i drive a awd 351xj r sport on nokian studded tires and the margin of safety they provide is mind blowing they are not at all noisy the level of grip and braking are far beyond that of run of the mill winter tires , not many get to realize how good they are because they are very expensive but once you experiance them in a climate like edmonton you would never be without them i have lived 2 hours north of you for over 30years and would never dream of driving my 308 xjr in an Alberta winter and consider it as extreme cruelty to a modern treasure . I know you all dislike the 351 but as a super safe modern car to trust your loved ones lives to there are very few better , modern pick ups are laughable in all but ground clearance the way the abs works with the nokians is absolutely astonishing , you dont know what your missing

 

I'd love to have both, they'd compliment each other nicely.

The only car I had with a LSD was an old Sierra XR4i I put the LSD from a XR4x4 in, so controllable in poor conditions.

 

Good set of tires and a bit of attention while driving and you gonna be absolutely fine.
Those car behave much better on snow than i was imaging.

 

Snow tires just on the rear was once considered acceptable but don’t be tempted. It’s not just acceleration that won’t be equal, braking and handling, road holding and directional changing are all severely compromised when snows aren’t on front and back.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/autos/othe...e6dc5691&ei=68

Interesting "real world" analysis of snow tire width vs effectiveness (spoiler - width matters almost for naught vs quality and driving style).

 

Back in 2010 when the UK experienced an unusual amount of snow, which to anyone from Sweden or Norway was a light dusting, I was out in my first X308 which was an 01 Sovereign. The car did ok with the standard Pirelli tyres on, but at one point I got stuck on a slope coming out of a car park because the traction control kept cutting the power. In the end I turned it off and I was able to get the car up the slope because I could control the power myself.

Nowadays I have my mighty Volvo which is unstoppable on snow.

 

Exactly why I would have preferred a limited slip differential to traction control. I find myself turning off the automatic traction control on my ‘01 XJR quite often for the same reason even with the snow tires.