I have 'comfort' suspension in my X308 and I'm going to replace all the shock absorbers. I would probably like a little less comfort and would welcome a little bit better handling, and my idea is to put 'sports' shocks, staying with 'comfort' springs.

Has anybody done such an experiment? What's the outcome? Is it doable at all, as 'sports' springs are probably a little shorter, so shocks also probaby have slightly different extension range?

One more thing, aside from shocks, how about adding rear anti-roll bar to 'comfort' suspension?

 

Some people on the forums said it makes the ride quality way worse than the bad shocks.

 

Welcome to the forum Michael, I would suggest looking into second hand parts and ship from the UK. There are plenty of Jaguar breakers/parts specialists that would send you all the parts to make the switch.
If you plan on sports suspension then you will need all the bits, springs/dampers and ARB for the rear subframe. XJ8 Sport/XJR have the kit you need. I only suggest SH as new parts are very expensive, but good SH can be located cheaply.
Hope this helps.

 

Thanks! Swapping everything is an obvious no-brainer. As my 'comfort' springs look fine, I was thinking about landing somewere in between these two setups, using only 'sports' dampers. But such experiments are quite expensive, hence my question, maybe someone tried it already.

 

I did it and had no problems except that the ride suffered a bit. My XJR actually rides better than the XJ8 with sports shocks did.

 

I put sport shocks on my SC VDP and absolutely hated it. The rear was way to stiff and the ride was ruined. Now I run a hybrid set-up that I am very happy with. I have the comfort CATS shocks on the rear and standard XJR sport shocks on the front. I have resistors on the front CATS wiring to fool the computer so there is no fault and the rears operate in CATS normally. I also have rear anti-sway bar with a custom mount to the stock sub-frame.
I have been running this for about 2 years. It is a great set-up but took a while to get there