Poor car looks like it's sliding all over. Instructor intervention is interesting...

Pity the driver forgot to put the window up. This car is handling much better.

XK-Ahhh, yours.
Flickriver: Most interesting photos from PalmerSport & Bedford Autodrome pool

 

Yep sure is,

 

Do you have any detailed pics of the wing and how it mounts to the hatch? Maybe some dimensions as well? I'm torn between a honking big GT class wing like yours or an RS-GT fiber one fabbed from aluminum.

I haven't been able to find anything online for either.

 

It isn't amazingly detailed but this is the one for the RS-GT wing.

 

I don't have any pics of the mountings but can tell you that there are four studs on the bottom of the stanchions that simply go through the trunk lid and are secured with plates and nuts on the underside. All of the interior trim has been removed. The wing itself is made up of a carbon wing section with two carbon end plates and the whole thing sits on two aluminium stanchions. The whole assembly is very light.

What you have to remember is that these cars were set up to be driven quickly by amateur drivers with a wide range of experience and ability in all conditions at the same circuit. Therefore although the suspension is bespoke using Bilstein and Eibach, it is not adjustable neither is the wing. The aim of these mods along with the chin spoiler and Yokohama tyres was to make the car handle in a very predictable way on the Bedford Autodrome track which is an ex airfield, i.e. a windy wide open space with a 4.5 mile circuit and a very long main straight.

Suspension and aero is an area of black art that I don't begin to understand however the package on these cars is unique and was the result of the collaboration between Jonathan Palmer's race engineers and Jaguar cars even down to the bespoke Alcon brakes. How that translates to what Jaguar do with body kits and wings to "sex up" the road cars or you may be able to buy as aftermarket "bolt ons" is anyone's guess.

 

 

Thanks very much for sharing the pictures and answering questions!

My understanding is that the suspension of the PalmerSport cars is the same as the 4.2L XKR-S, which is the yellow-coloured Bilstein B6 shocks, and the black coloured Eibach springs, which I recently fitted to my XKR.

You can see here https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...prings-189696/

I am also lead to believe that the suspension module for the PalmerSport and XKR-S has a different calibration to the regular XKR, I hope I can flash this to my XKR in the next day or so, that the suspension module program is therefore matching the suspension setup in the car.

Regarding the Alcons i'm lead to believe that the brake setup on the PalmerSport was a predecessor to the Alcons that were on the regular road cars, same calipers but instead of the 2-piece rotors, a 1-piece cast rotor was used to reduce costs.

One last thing, we "found" some unique calibration files for the PCM (Engine) and TCM (Transmission) which we believe are the ones that were used in the PalmerSport cars.

Any chance you can connect an SDD diagnostic tool to the car and read out the calibration ID of the PCM and TCM to confirm this?

Are you able to send me a PM with the VIN of this car? Maybe I can check the as-build information in SDD and this will give us some answers...

 

Hi - Forgive me but I really do not want to get too involved with the technical side of things because as I said at the beginning I am unqualified, nor am I particularly comfortable sending data or numbers around the world. What I will say as a note of caution is if in all of the acronyms you are talking about mappings for the engine management you should be aware that the Palmersport cars were originally set up to run on LPG not petrol. All of the other points you make sound quite plausible - certainly the Alcon brakes are two piece and I know from previous research that the ZF transmission has a non standard mapping with a modified Dana differential.

Hope that helps

 

Well, unlike everyone else, you actually have the car sitting in front of you. Makes a huge difference. I appreciate the materials for the wing. Like I said, I'll make something out of aluminum so it's much easier to know the dimensions so the replica at least looks proportional. I'd love to do the RS-GT one but I think it's beyond my ability. A simpler straight wing would be 'easier' and I could adapt the RS-GT struts to it.

Thanks,
Jamie

 

Hi James

Dimensions of the wing are approx 59" long x 13" wide stanchion height is 9" from trunk lid to the underside of the leading edge of the wing. Stanchions are spaced 23.1/2" apart.

Hope that helps

 

Pic of the wing arrangement

 

Double thanks. Now wonder where I could find a blank wing section like that.

 

Ranch check on some of the ricer sites. I've seen similar type wings on their cars.

 

I do find one thing interesting in this thread.... the blonde chick in the first picture.

 

Made me look. And I agree, that is a fine young lady, who also seems to be getting 'handsy' with the cat. She clearly has sophisticated tastes!

 

Rare sight these days, 3 of the Palmersport XKR's together all taking part in a a track day organised by the JEC at the Castle Combe circuit UK on 25th October 2017.

Note photobombed by the XJR race car, but we forgive it





image courtesy of Rod Wynne Powell

 

Why does the left-most XKR look smaller than the other two?

 

Kj07xk,

It looks to me to be a bit of an optical illusion. The XKR on the left has a larger center stripe, making the whole car look smaller. It also might be parked just a bit farther back than the other two.

 

Camera perspective distortion. See: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_distortion_(photography)

 

They are obviously identical so trick of the photography and livery