Hopefully you noticed how well the car does in the rain. Even the rear glass stays clear once you get some speed up. Just a cool grand tourer all around.

 

Thx. Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride.

 

Great first trip, hope mine goes as smoothly - thanks for sharing.
I grew up in Cambridge many, many, moons ago. We were back in NZ in January visiting family. Drove my sisters Falcon from Hawkes Bay up via Taupo, Rotorua, Papamoa and the Mt. and on up to Cambridge and back. Bloody road works on the Napier/Taupo/Rotorua segment nearly drove me nuts.

 

The clips are easy to drop - and they're fragile & break easily. They're a standard fastener: Au-Ve-Co 20518 - Ford Radiator Sight Shield Push-Type Retainer. I bought some from Auto Body Clips in the US:

https://autobodyclips.com/product/20518/

Unfortunately, the shipping costs to the UK were , so I got them shipped to a forum member in the US who was already going to send me something. There are some equivalent Ford part no.s that might be available in NZ (W705957-S300, W706519-S300).

3.0l V6 Ford Capri with a Celica 5-speed gearbox. Quite a bit of that trip was over the ton...

 

Yeah mate ,I love arriving home but it gets interesting when you meet a car coming the other way.I think the lack of bugs is just a time of year thing, come summer and you get nailed by the buggers. Cleaned her today and found a fair bit of sticky tar on the alloys which must have been from all the roadworks in Kaikoura. But otherwise she came up immaculate, could only find one very small stone chip which is showing some white under it. Other than that the paint work is 100% perfect.

 

Thing is I didn't spend much time looking behind me mostly because well..there wasn't anything behind me for long.

I did have a interesting experience when shortly into my first drive in the rain I was following a logging truck kicking up a huge amount of spray at 90 kmh, as we approached a two lane section of road I gave it some jandal and pulled out to the right to overtake...she stepped out on me and just for a millisecond had that sinking feeling that this could go badly.

 

Good luck on your road trip, I will be looking out for a report on how it goes for you, we love driving around the USA, its a really well connected place with its highway system .
We are suffering through many major and well overdue motorway upgrades in NZ but as they have been completing them over the last few years it has a made a massive difference of getting from A to B.

 

Thanks for that, I checked them all today and found many had broken retaining barrels so will order a new set in.

Crossply tyres, no ABS, airbags or crumple zones, ahhhhh the days when men were men and sheep were nervous.

I had a MK 1 Cortina with a 3 litre V6 crudely stuffed into it back in those days, that car was frightening especially when you wanted to turn a corner or maybe just stop quickly.

 

My sister just returned from New Zealand. (She was in Christchurch the day before the shooting). The pictures of the countryside were spectacular. of course she sent pictures from the Lord of the Rings movies, like Mordor and the Hobbit houses. But she also was impressed with the sheer beauty of your country. Driving a Jag through that scenery must be a fantastic experience! Thanks for sharing!

 

That was Dynamic Stability Control kicking in - not just traction control, but also yaw control, braking the outside wheels to pull the rear into line. It's a pretty slick system, even when you switch to TracDSC for track driving. As these cars have an excess of torque over grip, they very easily step out if you give just a bit much throttle, and DSC will save your bacon.

 

I at least had Wolfrace wheels & radials on the Capri - but yeah, that Essex V6 was a heavy old cast-iron lump. Weight transfer was so extreme that I could lock the back wheels through engine braking.

Incidentally, that's another stability system in the XK - it will briefly increase engine torque to avoid locking the rears if you come off the gas suddenly or manually downshift.

 

Here we go again, 14 months ago I started this journey which came to a tragic end last week.

Tomorrow I test drive the new car and if it meets expectations I'm bringing it home, this time in the depths of winter and starting out in the very deep south where its forecast to reach a high of 7 and a low of -4 celsius.

Same car, bigger brakes this time but not sure thats gonna help on black ice.

So its a 1600km journey this time round starting in Queenstown. Last years trip of 1000 kms was through awesome autumn weather, this time maybe a fraction more gruelling.




The first drive in the XKR May 2019

Tomorrows drive in the new car

 

Hope the trip goes well. There is snow forecast in some places in the south island tomorrow but hopefully it will be gone by the time you reach Lindis Pass!

 

Thanks mate, if all goes to plan I will be at Lindis pass at 10.30am Thursday, its been nearly 30 years since I have driven the route between Queenstown and Christchurch, I remember it as one of the most stunning scenic drives with big wide open roads through the Tundra, past beautiful lakes and very little traffic.

 

I see they've finished the road works ........





....... if you'd been doing a similar journey in England, they'd still be at it.

Graham

 

Hope the car checks out and can bring it home with you. Looks like great drive if the weather cooperates. Stay safe!

 

Honestly Graham its not much better here, not unusual for them to finish a road then 3 months later cut a trench right down the middle of it to install more reticulation, and then 6 months later they rinse and repeat until the lovely finished original tarmac is back to being a rough track again.

 

Lovely test drive today from Queenstown to Alexandra today, blue skies but freezing temps.

14 months ago I bought my first XKR, 14 days ago it was totalled and now I am the very happy owner of a second XKR, this time a portfolio model.

Same black on black, interior is a little nicer and it has bigger feet so does feel a little more sure of itself in cornering, but really my standard XKR on 19" never felt unsure of itself, just these 20" rims and wider tyres seem to have a firmer grip with maybe a fraction less body roll.

Northward bound tomorrow, will post some pics on trip if anyone is keen to see some NZ country side.

Heres a pic of the new beast...

 

I've had 2001 and 2005 XK8's on 18 inch Impelar and 20 inch Sepang, a 2007 XK on 19 inch Carelia and currently a 2014 XK on 20 inch Kalimnos. I prefer 19 inch as the best compromise for cornering and comfort. They are also less prone to buckling on our potholed roads than the 20 inch.

YES to the pics.

Graham

 

My dead XKR had Jupiter's with 35/ 40 profile tyres and I thought it was a really comfortable ride and handled well enough for the country road driving I typically do although there were times I would have preferred a more on rails feeling when cornering. This new car has the Cremona's with 30/35's so for sure its going to feel the potholes and we have plenty of those down here as well. Not 100% sure but doubt 19" rims will fit over the Alcons, but at some point I would like to fit 15mm and 20mm spacers and maybe this would allow for 19" rims.

Actually I am not sold on the Cremona styling, I thought the Jupiter's suited the car perfectly but having said that the Cremona's will be a lot easier to keep polished.