Paul, believe me I've tried auto. I only had one automatic car in my life. Back when I went to university in the U.S. I wanted a camaro V8 but all of them were automatic. If you wanted a manual it had to be a V6. It was impossible to find a manual V8. I kept asking myself who buys a sports car or performance car with an auto transmission and what for. But I wanted it so bad that I decided to just buy an auto V8 camaro. I hated it and could never get over it. I used to even pretend I was shifting, going through the different auto positions. It lasted 6 motnhs till one day I literally pulled over angry and told myself enough of this s...I have to buy a real car. 2 weeks later I had sold the camaro and was driving a nissan Z and it was a manual. I kept it till I finished my studies and enjoyed the heck out of it.

No more automatic cars for me. Unless it was a mini-van. Bu as I will never buy a mini-van...

It's interesting that buying a XJS from the U.S. is the cheapest. But I still have a problem buying a car sight unseen and like I said, if I have to go through the trouble of a manual conversion, what sensible reason do I have to not just buy a XK8 which is cheaper and do the conversion and end up with a better, more reliable and more modern car?

I think we all agree that a stick would improve the performance of this car. Aswell as 3:54 posi gears.
The XJS V12 uses a GM turbo400. Put in a stage three shift kit you have a clutchless manual transmission. I have stage two kit and shift it half the time anyway. It performs much better.

The shift kit seems to be half way the price of a manual conversion. Might as well go with that then? Besides it is still an auto.

The problem I'm having is why to convert a XJS instead of XK8 then? I can buy clean XK8s here for 75% of the prices of XJS cars.

I know XK8 conversions have been done but my understanding is that the electrical architecture...where the transmission is integral to engine management....adds a thick layer of complexity to the project.

Cheers
DD

100% true. The ECUs prevent the engine starting or anything else working unless they detect ALL the equipment is from the same car. So change an ignition switch, for example, and the ECU has to be "told" or the car will not start.


This is anti-theft and anti "steal and break" stuff.
Greg

I imported my RHD XJ-S V12 from Britain in 2013 to Germany. Best decission I made so far! All cars I looked at here, were overpriced rotboxes. Bubbly paint, rustholes in sills and wheelarches and co...

CXJ,

As I'm sure you know, XK8 manual conversions have been done but are much more expensive and complex to achieve.

These days, there are very good import sourcing agents who can do all the leg work, send you full photos and reports of prospective cars etc etc. It's a much more global market than it used to be.

Good luck in whatever you decide.

Paul

A shift kit will only cost approx $250-350.

Really? I just googled it real quick and the first result said $1995. Maybe it included something else besides the shift kit. But it is kind of pointless really if you are not clutching. It's basically pretending you are actually fully driving or controlling your car.

Yes, I known that. I couple of years ago I was really close to getting a XK8 or XKR and did some deep research about it. There are ready to go kits.

Yes, true. But the ready to go kits come with a "black box" that sends all the right signals and fools the system. They are ready to bolt on systems. This was a couple of years ago. Now probably it's even easier. I'm sure there is demand for it. The auto transmission kills the XK8 and XKR for basically any serious cars enthusiast.

I don't think I could put up with driving a RHD car in a LHD country. If I could I would have imported a XB Falcon coupe from Australia long ago. It's one of my favorite cars.

I didn't know that. Are those importing agents something I should look for locally or something on an European level that you could recommend?

Thanks.

That's right

The 3.6 at first was only available with Getrag 265 manual gearbox (not the dogleg style, like the BMW 635 CSi). In 1987 was introduced as a option a ZF 4HP22 4-speed auto. The 4.0 was always available in manual or auto form, with evolutions of the past gearboxes: Getrag 290 instead the 265, and ZF 4HP24 auto instead the HP22. Here in Europe there are more 3.6 manual and more 4.0 auto.

The very early V12 had a 3-speed auto Borg-Warner Model 12, and a 4-speed manual was available too, but just only 352 units were made in manual form. They are prone to clutch failures due to big torque.

In 1977 the automatic transmission in the 5.3 V12 was replaced by the GM400, also in 3-speed. Since 1993, the 6.0 V12 were fitted with GM4L80-E 4-speed auto.

Well, heck, there's your answer! Buy and convert an XK8/XKR. What are you waiting for? It meets your requirements as mentioned in your first post. RWD, muscular, and classic look....at least the earlier cars.



Cheers
DD

The point is that I wanted all the above plus a manual transmission. This is why I ended up not getting a XK8 and started looking again. I only brought the XK8 up because the XJS is going for more these days and I would still have to mess around with transmission conversions. So in that case between paying an insane amount for a older, less reliable and more outdated Jaguar and still have to convert it, the old idea of getting a XK8 and converting it doesn't sound that bad in comparison. Specially if the XK8 would cost less to buy.

But the truth is I will probably not mess around with any transmission conversion and just move on to another model where I can have a stock manual transmission. After all I passed on the XK8 and on the 560 SEC exactly because they are only available in automatic.

If I could find a XJS V12 auto for cheap, then I would even give it a shot. But not for the prices I'm seeing.

Summit racing has the kit for $82.95.
TransGo Performance Shift Kits 400-3 - Free Shipping on Orders Over $99 at Summit Racing

I have seen advertisement for manual gearbox conversion for V12 XJS that uses 5 speed manual out of Toyota Supra for approximately £2000

Yeah but really how much fan is it? You are not clutching so you are not really driving. So why bother shifting? Seems to be just pretending. At that point might as well just use it auto, no? I doubt it will impact the engine performance the same as a fully manual trans.
But I'm not very knowledgeable about shifting kits for auto transmissions since I hate auto trans. and only had one in my life.

So you can bolt on any trans? I thought it had to be the original transmission the early V12s came with or at least the same as the V6s.

But 2000 doesn't sound too bad compared to what I had seen which was more than the double of that. What's the catch?

By the way is this from the last generation supra?

The other question is, will a manual trans. make the XJS even more unreliable? Maybe clutch problems all the time etc?

With the horror stories you hear about the older Jaguars plus that old slogan that goes with it (If you can't afford a new one you can't afford an old one) last thing one needs is something to make them even more unreliable.

The reliability issue was the reason I started looking at Mercedes after looking at Jaguars for a bit. When I first looked at Jaguars a couple of years ago I learned about that slogan. People saying that Jags are cheap to buy for the same reason Land Rovers are. But when you need maintenance and you will frequently because they are unreliable, it will cost you the same as working on a new Jaguar. Jaguars have the worst reputation among expensive cars maybe only matched by Land Rover.

But when I found out the Mercedes 560 SEC (coupe) was also only made in auto I decided to look at Jaguars again.