Needed to go into our nearest town to fill up with red medicine -a good Bordeaux at €2/litre (eat your heart out Brits!) and it was a gorgeous Spring morning so XKR out + top down.
We're about 5 minutes from the RN145 - a relatively new dual carriageway but the old road going to Guéret still exists running parallel to the RN apart from a series of hairpins as it goes down to cross the River Creuse by a narrrow bridge and then climbs up again.
There is no traffic on it because everyone takes the RN and, more importantly, no Gendarmes.
I won't say in public how fast I went on the straights but the best bit was hammering round the hairpins (in sport mode, of course). By the time I got down to the bridge I was grinning like an idiot and when I came out of the last bend on the way up I was laughing out loud.
I've driven a few 'performance' cars in the past but never anything as completely pleasurable as this.
Sometimes this forum gives the impression that our cars are permanently in pieces - maybe we should talk more about the fun we have.

 

Hey Steve

I know what you mean, the XKR's are a hoot to drive. I have only had a few good Spring days over here in Connecticut to enjoy my 03 XKR. The drive from my house to the Mohegan Sun Casino gives me about the same enjoyment, as it is mostly back roads and beautiful country side for about 60 miles. We went down last Monday as the temp was around 65 degrees, top down and a big smile. On the way back the temp went down to about 59 degrees, a little cold, so had to crank up the heater. Hopefully next week will be nicer. Our XKR,s are pretty similar in appearance except mine is the Zircon blue. I sure would like to be back in Heidelberg and take my XKR down the Autobahn for laughs. Enjoy while you can.

Bill

 

Great days guys! My problem here in Mexico, is that all the roads are straight... Still the sunshine (most) of the year is a small compensation... LOL.

 

That is why I love it South Carolina, you can drive pretty much all year with the top down. When it gets in the high 90's head to the mountains in North Carolina, we have seen temp drpos of 30 degrees. And yes I would have loved to had the car when we where in Germany. The alps!!!! what a trip that would have been! We preferred the clear medicine and a real beer.

 

My newly bought 03 XKR was a Charleston, SC car, it still has its southern accent LOL. The first owner lived in Charleston and the second owner lives in Raleigh, NC. I hope the car likes it in Stafford Springs, CT. It will be put in a nice warm garage during the winter months, so that should not be to bad. I lived in Heidelberg and traveled the route to the Alps many times what a drive. I did not have a Jaguar then but had a BMW 2002. It was a nice drive in the Bimmer, but no where as nice as the XKR would have been. One of my neighbors had a 1968 XKE vert and I helped him work on it a few times. I really liked the lines of that car and now finally have two Jags that resemble it. Send some of that nice South Carolina weather up North please!!

Bill N

 

Love it! My top is only when raining, so far. 41 was a little chilly, but the experience is new enough to be worth it.
Have had a few of those great grinning moments. YES!

My bride says I smile and laugh more than before the XKR, even when not driving.

 

Northern Tools sales a 12 volt electric blanket. Wife loves it! Leather jacket and cap who could ask for more.

 

Ahhhhhhhh....Bordeaux and a Jag. Life's kindest dream.

Funny thing, though. I looked for Bordeaux at my local supermarket yesterday, but the closest I could find was Cabernet Sauvignon. Odd. Are you Frenchies holding back the good stuff from us?

 

Perhaps Bordeaux, a Jag and that excellent French institution -a mistress- to share the wine and the car.
I don't believe we're deliberately withholding our better Red Medicines. Last time I was in the US I was amazed to find some rather good French wines in restaurants priced below the juice from Californiyay. Being both a Brit and a French speaker and thus a hopeless double snob I suggested to my companions the wines were cheap because no-one could pronounce them. Bearing in mind they were US military and I still have all my arms and legs there may be some truth in this.

 

I'm a Brit living in Florida for 6 months each year so the roof is almost permanently down.Yes, the roads are boringly straight but just the other week I drove up to Polk City via the old roads(Arcadia,Fort Meades etc.) and the citrus groves - couldn't understand at first why I could smell orange zest in an open top car at 65mph(?) We then visited Fantasy of Flight and saw my childhood dream aircraft - Shorts Sunderland- the first Airfix kit I ever did :0). The drive back home in the fading light was magical - classic rock on the radio with the walnut and leather that is so Jaguar.I reflected upon the childhood ambitions achieved that day and crossed a couple of items off the bucket list :0)

 

That paints a wonderful picture - I think only honeysuckle has a more evocative scent than citrus. It grows very freely among the hedgerows here - I must try an evening drive with the top down. Honeysuckle, nightingales and a V8 - then back home for my Red Medicine.

 

Steve,

You're sounding so happy, either it's finally stopped raining down there or you've finished the Red Medicine.

Graham

 

Graham,
Though normally an eeyore by nature I think that, despite my advanced age, a small amount of sap has risen somewhere.
I've not even started on the red medicine. I think it was my hero Lavoisier, debunker of phlogiston and pioneer of stoichiometry (without which I'd be out of a job) who said 'taken with a meal wine provides 10% of the nourishment and 90% of the pleasure'.
Being a pious Catholic he didn't apportion taking of wine with a mistress.

 

Being a pious Catholic he didn't apportion taking of wine with a mistress.[/quote]


Now if he had been a pragmatic Catholic he could have just gone to confession once a week and got on with it the rest of the week

 

And wine is cheap in the UK compared to Canada! That same wine (if available here) would probably be $40-50 or more.

We see the same things here- the California wines are starting to price themselves out of the market and drop in popularity. 'New world' wines are being replaced by quality 'new-er world' stuff from South American or Eastern European countries cashing in on the market.

Red medicine forever!

 

I certainly couldn't survive in a country where wine was $30/bottle!
I think both Californian and Australian wines are somewhat overrated and overpriced.
They lack the seasonal eccentricities of France and Italy which gives each year its special character.
I agree with you that other countries produce some excellent wines - Chile for example which remains phylloxera free so doesn't have to use grafted grape stock.

 

Agreed on all points. Not all wine here is $30 or more, we can get decent stuff- Chilean for example- for about $9 and up. Many of us (including me) avoid the high prices by making our own every day table wine from kits, some of which are surprisingly good as compared to the horrid plonk of just a few years ago. Average cost is about $5 a bottle which is still far above what you're apying for medicine!

 

You blokes are lucky...

Here in Mexico local wines -in my kind of haunts- come by the glass generally freezing cold. The choices are typically yellow, pink or red. Rumor has it that the pink one is actually a mezcla of the yellow and red although that is unconfirmed. Things have improved over the years, as the small onions or beetroots that used to be present in the glass, are now removed prior to pouring.

For the real wine connoisseurs, Casillero del Diablo is about as good as it gets! Roughly $9US at the "mini super".

I'll have a Corona thanks...

 

batroute, if you are over near Ft. Myers, then I'm sure you have made the short but gorgeous drive up through Sanibel to Captiva for lunch at Mucky Duck. I love that drive as much as I hate the absurd toll to get there.

Mexk8, you don't get to complain of straight roads when you live in Playa Del Carmen. But, I can fix your problem with a road trip to the other side of Mexico around PV or Zihuatanejo.

I haven't had this much fun in a car since my 6-Series Bimmer from the mid-80s. Of course, even the 6 didn't have the engine of the XKR, not to mention the drop top. But, the 6 got sold off about 16 years ago. Since then I have been on a steady diet of Jeep Grand Cherokees which I love, and with the hemi engine, they are about my ideal all-around vehicle.

Then there is the XKR. Strangely, I find myself driving slower so I can extend the time I am in the car. But, on the right stretch of road, the peddle goes down, the supercharger starts to whine, the engine starts to growl. And

 

Done a number of 200+ mile night drives with the top down. Some with the seat up close to the full-on heater. The spectrum of scents is fantastic from sound to mountains to valleys. The cops at the midnight coffee stop were eyeing me suspiciously but I was sober, just looking for more heat.