Wow what a car….
Before yesterday I had actually only driven the car a few short times, and not really hard, until now….

First off… those of you who have not removed fuse 19, do so now.. I have a sport exhaust fitted, Elite RR rear box, and it is absolutely wonderful… no drone, not too much in your face, sounds like the car properly did just before a senior VP intervened and said that the sound was to close to an Aston..

Let’s start with the negative…
Poor radio reception… I guess the elimination of the 2m 6f3” antenna meant just that.. no antenna.. no worries, the exhaust note is much better than music anyway.

The car is thirsty… but I knew that before, and I don’t care, merely an observation..

Satnav is rubbish and hard to figure out.. and whole computer system is, for lack of better words, slow and outdated…

Good news is that the old man who owned he car before me, never removed the plastic protective cover for the nav/info screen… so it looks brand new.. thx m8…

What I really did not like is that in S mode and manual. The car does a kick down without me asking it for that, as well as upshifts if it hits the rev limiter… I want to control those two functions in manual mode.

I am used to be able to place the front end of the cars that I drive with millimeter precision, but the XKR is more a GT car, and therefore somewhat more relaxed approach… not really negative remark, just an observation.

The positive… and this by fare outweighs the negative

What a wonderful engine… so much linear power… sliky smooth just wants to keep going and going, just can’t get enough of the sound and feel…

It has a very very nice ride, comfortable, yet firm, in spite the 20” rims and sports suspension. Driven it around town a lot, and it is surprising nimble… Drove a regular XK, and that was nowhere near as nimble as I perceive this one to be…

Gearbox is sliky smooth in D and quite fast in S… much improved over the same ZFbox that Porsche uses in the 996 997 and 987…

I am 6f 2” 190cm, and have always had problems sitting comfortably in all my previous cars (not BMW, that all have has great and supportive seats), and the XK is up there with great seats, a real deal breaker in the 997 I wanted to replace my 996 with…

The car has a really good luxury feel to it, nice steering wheel, leather dash, buttons ect … everything expect the alu trim in the dash board, but other than that I am really positively surprised, better that what I expected..And no squeaks and strange cabin noises to be heard.

Finally it is just so beautiful to behold, and Jesus it gets much attention. Now I just have to tell my wife that I bought it… 

exhaust

 

Looks sharp! Enjoy your new ride!

 

Haha, Now thats the real way to do it. Buy it first and then handle the wife afterwards. :P Brilliant mate and welcome to the club. I have the convertible and I must say that I really really enjoy riding around just listening to the car. And
yep... no fuse 19. It's gone and it's never coming back

 

The 5.0 models have solved that 'not so manual' issue. In Sport with manual shift, if you select Dynamic Mode, the car will not upshift; I assume it doesn't downshift either (not tried that). When you hit the redline, the gear indicator flashes orange.

It will still upshift at the redline if it's in Drive/manual/Dynamic.

 

Yep, I am surely not the only one who thought that it was an issue, happy to hear that they have resolved it. Nice to be a bit more in control youself..

 

They also fixed the rear end issue!

 

What year XKR did the 5.0 start?

 

Around summer 2009. So some 2009 cars are 4.2, some are 5.0.

 

I've got a 2008 4.2 XKR, pretty sure mine doesn't kick down in S after I've used the paddles, unless I let the revs fall too close to idle speed. Even if I floor it from low RPM it stays in the selected gear...

Anyway, lovely car that, good choice