First Impressions - Road trip Chicago/StLouis/Nashv/Atlanta
 

Our flight touched down in Chicago near midnight Thursday night and Mohamad and his trusty corolla delivered us safely on our first ever Uber ride to the northern suburbs where our new to us 07 XK awaited. Entering the door at my brother-in-law's house, the note was on the table with key, that the Jaaag was in the garage. While it felt like Christmas eave, it was 1am and after two long flights, bed seemed a better option. The next morning, coffee in hand, I got the first look at my new trusty stead. The liquid silver paint showed off her sexy curves while the charcoal interior created a pocket of luxury that cradled my tired body and excited my spirit for the fun to come.

Despite the grey and wet conditions, I had to drop the top to see her in her full glory.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...90eecd7017.jpg


First drive was simply great. Performance was perfect for our grand tourer. Plenty of power on tap for enjoyment, once we've had time to bond and get to know one another. We tooled around town (top up) and all was well. Paid a visit to the former owner to drop off the notarized paperwork, and confirm his status as a fellow petrol head, by sniffing the pipes on the rest of his fleet, including a couple of sweet classics in the garage.

Later in the day when the roads were dry and sun out, I dropped the top and put my toe delicately in the waters of sport mode. Pleasantly rewarded with visceral sounds and a gear holding shift pattern and manual touch that tells me this cat is ready to leap out when coaxed.

So far the only negative is that the boot (trunk) is even smaller than anticipated. Fortunately we are light travelers, and always have the back seat (well seat is an overstatement).

Looking forward to the first leg of our road trip, down to St. Louis, beginning Tuesday. We'll be on to Nashville by Friday - with the serendipitous Cars n' Coffee set for Saturday morning ("but honey, we're here to spend time with the grandkids" - "I'll only be gone a couple of hours love" - yea right!). More to come!

Welcome to the fold. Enjoy!

As you'll see, It only gets better the more you drive! Enjoy it at all cost.

Have fun and good luck. Enjoy the ride

Welcome, and excellent beginning to your new relationship!

Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride.

Made it from Chicago to St. Louis!

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...01034748b3.jpg

Good drive down today. I'm impressed by how smooth the car feels, but yet still fully stuck to the road. The interior was quieter than any convertible I've had, and I've had more than a few. Good power and good kick when you need to squeeze between the trucks and clowns. We managed to get all our gear in the boot with some room to spare, so we've now got a good idea on how to pack for future trips. Surprisingly enough, we didn't get pulled over once - yet. With no plates on the car I expect to get stopped at least 4 times before reaching Atlanta a week from today. Some running around St. Louis to catch up with friends over the next few days and then on to Nashville Friday.

Only issue so far is the need to change out fuse 9 so the cigar lighter power outlet now works.

I've neglected to mention that some of the apprehension I had during the last week prior to picking up the car has all turned out to be for naught. Probably spurred on by the trials and tribulations I've read about on this list, I half expected to run into the loose rear window, or shrinking dash, when first seeing the car. I'm glad to say neither of these concerns was warranted. Reading a lot of posts at least made me knowledgeable enough to recall the fuse 9 issue - so it's all good. :)

The drive from St. Louis to Nashville (Franklin) on Friday went smoothly, well apart from the shit-ton of traffic getting thru Nashville. Crazy manic drivers for sure. So now 4 states and still we haven't been stopped by the authorities. Maybe I need to drive without plates all the time.

Saturday morning I snuck off to Nashville Cars & Coffee. It was freakishly amazing. I can't recommend this event enough. There were awesome autos of all make, model, and generation. I saw several that I'd owned before (96 Impala, 76 Firebird, NA Miata, 350Z convertible,90 vette convertible, and a Land Rover Disco, etc.) and all the many vehicles I aspire to own - including a sweet GT40, and for all us Jaaag enthusiasts, this little puppy:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...82f9fd8b2a.jpg


There were a few XK.s including another liquid silver one identical to mine, with a temp tag (ending in ...6R). Bumped into the guys from the local British car club, between an older XJ and a newer F-type. I could have spent the whole day there with ease, but I only had one hour of 'me' time before getting back to the family.

The XK continues to impress. We've been tooling around in the last couple of days, topless of course, and the tone of the 4.2 is so sweet. We were running thru some back roads to go to Lucky Ladd Farms with the grandkids and I knocked the shift over to sport mode. Despite being cautions of the speed limit, the drive was just awesome.

It is truly a grand tourer. For example the drive from Chicago to St. Louis usually kicks my but, arriving tired and cranky, but on this trip the miles just roll by smoothly. I also discovered that the flap that demarcates where the convertible top is stowed is actually retractable. This massively increases our storage space, but means top-up for maximum stowage. I guess I missed that in my perusal of the owners manual. I also have no idea about how to shut off the climate control, but driving around top down with the ac on is truly decadent - totally fitting for the luxury of the jaaaaag.

One more day with the grandkids, and then Tuesday our next long run down to Atlanta. More to come...

Glad you continue to love getting use to your new ride but I'm hoping you didn't get your shoulders sun burned being topless (couldn't resist that). lol

Climate control is turned off via the touch screen "climate" menu and turned on using the hard button you've probably already found where the fan speed control is.

The top shade in the trunk can be tricky at times.....if you have any trouble with cycling the top always check it is in place first.

Continue to keep us informed how it is going.

FINAL UPDATE

Made it go Georgia (ATL) last Tuesday with no issues. Here's photographic proof in front of my obligatory breakfast stop when in the south (scattered, smothered and covered):
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...de119fdc98.jpg

This was the morning I embarked on what became a 5 hour mission to get the car tested, titled, registered, and tagged. Emissions was a breeze, but the tags required a local ID, adding multiple trips thru Atlanta traffic. Eventually she became fully legal:
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...3085a41c7a.jpg

In total I covered 5 states (IL, MO, KY, TN, GA) without a tag on my car. I thought prior to the trip I'd be stopped at least 4 times. But Blondini escaped again without a single incident.

The car got a wash and some goop on the leather before I flew out the next day. Already looking forward to my next road trip. Even the wife is happy with our decision so that's a stunning endorsement of the XK for sure. I'd be negligent if I didn't mention that driving without seeing a temp/oil gauge still troubles me, but I'll eventually get over it and transition to a more meditative state in my luxury ensconced ignorant bliss. Yes, I know I have the option of plugging in my ODB wifi and watching my phone screen like a hawk, but I'll trust that the idiot lights will alert me to any problems. I guess I'm far to used to closely monitoring the ultra-guage in my daily use Land Rover D2 to fend off any cylinder sleeve or head gasket problems (side note: If you have an LRD2 the 180 degree thermostat is your best friend)..

One highlight of the trip (well apart from the friends and family time) had to be the hour I spent at cars & coffee in Franklin (Nashville). Simply awesome collection of vehicles. Almost tops my sojourn to the Barrett Jackson auction in AZ. Certainly in future road trips I'll be keeping an eye out for similar events in other locals. Next road trip in August will give me more time behind the wheel - this time with a legal tag!

Until then ...