One of the fun things with my old Ferrari with 4 Weber's was the exhaust over run during downshifting. Also with the carbs and because it needed to run a little rich they would shoot flames going from 3rd down to 2nd and then to 1st. As I listen to a lot of the youtube XKR exhaust posts the exhaust sound at over run sounds great. Is it fair to assume that a lot of the folks here have a tendency to down shift more then necessary just to hear the exhaust note? Just wondering

 

No, it's not fair to assume that. Most owners leave their cars in full automatic all the time and think the paddles just get in the way!

Personally, I drive the car in manual and downshift constantly because otherwise I can't hear the awesome sounds it makes.

 

I'm one of the lazy ones - I only tend to use the paddles when I'm in a tunnel or on the rare occasion where the car isn't figuring out what I need it to do. Mostly, I prefer to concentrate on other aspects of driving; thinking about gear selection is a distraction.

 

There is no thinking involved in driving. It is all muscle memory, motoric and reflexes, thinking while driving is too slow.
I am 47 and this is the first automatic I bought for myself. I don't like that it always shifts in to the highest gear when you are just rolling ... It just turns the car into tire roll noise maker ... I hate it ... BAMM down shift ...

 

Stick it in Sport - different animal. And the 75 is fairly 'growly' at all times, so I'm not bothered.

I agree that the act of shifting gear is muscle memory, but the decision to do so is conscious. I've been driving stick since I was 15, and I'm 54 now, but I have come to realise that the modern auto box shifts gears quicker than I can, never misses a shift, and in Sport mode is very rarely in a gear I wouldn't have selected myself.

The other attraction of the auto box is that I can left-foot brake, which shaves a fraction of a second off reaction time - it has saved my bacon more than once. It also allows me to get from brake back onto power a little quicker.

Manual transmissions are starting to go the way of manual spark retardation, non-synchromesh gearboxes (double-declutching, anyone?), manual choke, non-assisted non-ABS brakes, non-assisted steering - and I'm old enough to recall all the cries of "It's not proper driving!!" when some of those changes happened. But now you really miss these 'soft' technologies when they're not there. An ABS sensor went on my XK8 2 years ago, and I drove around with no ABS and no traction control on wet streets for 2 weeks - it was bloody scary.

I've tried London driving with the paddles, and it's just a pain in the **** - speed bumps, pedestrian crossings, traffic lights, it's all too stop-start to make it enjoyable. Most of you guys are in a different environment, so maybe it works better for you.

 

I use the paddles maybe 50% of the time for down shifting.

 

I use Sport mode plus paddles 100% while driving around town. One reason is that the inherent 1200 to 1500 rpm drone makes me nuts and I can counter that with paddles. The other reason is that I love the sound of my exhaust, even with closed windows, when I am goose-ing it in a low gear, especially first.

 

The only time I am in D mode is when my wife is in the car.
She does not like attention being drawn to her when the car is in Sport mode. Its hard to disguise an attractive woman in a black XKR

I am always downshifting and not just for the sweet exhaust sound but also for the jolt. It is a big sensory rush.