I always felt that part of driver education should be volunteering to ride with the local ambulance crew for a month or so. Once you are faced with reality it changes your mind set.

The human mind simply cannot program (or blocks out as a defense mechanism) the horror of what something like a car wreck truly is.

I have seen it to many times to count and besides haunting me it also still seems, in some ways, unreal. Almost like seeing it through a piece of glass or being there in some weird third person type of way.

Have fun, be smarter than the other guy and stay safe.

 

The whole "Wanna race?" thing has been going on since men found out they had ********* I guess. Running, horses, Model T's, everything right on up. I think we all have been tempted, and most of us have put the pedal to the floor to see how we stacked up against a challenger. Some of us go looking for the race for all kinds of reasons (mostly ego). It's the heathen in us.


I am certainly one of those who has played the game more than I can count. But I have been very lucky for sure. No accidents of any consequence, and actually no tickets while racing. God has been more than merciful to me while I was being stupid, but then maybe He expected it since He gave me all those hormones. Maybe it's age, maybe it's experiencing the disasters of others, or maybe it's appreciating my cars more for what they are rather than what they can do. Whatever...I have slowed down and am not so prone to the need to "beat" the other guy anymore.

But that doesn't mean I don't love the knowledge that I CAN beat a lot of others on the road if I really wanted to. The Jag is just so pleasurable to drive that I don't care if some idiot thinks his ricer or Lexus is faster. It just doesn't matter.

One of the things I enjoyed most about the ZR-1 before I finally sold it was knowing how fast it really was. No, it wasn't the greatest light-to-light street racer...that's not what they were built for. Too much power to the rear wheels (even at 12" wide) was usually more about keeping the car under control and going straight. But the best part was when someone would come up behind me on the open highway (or if I passed them and they felt the testosterone building) they would see that wide back end and the little "LT5" emblem and know they had no chance if I really wanted to push it. Of course there are more cars now that can do the high speed blasts, but I never found anyone who wanted to sustain anything over 150 or 170 or whatever it took (this is a car that AVERAGED over 175 for 24 hours on a track....without the modifications I had). Thank God I have it out of my system..and survived it.

Changing to the Jag is like leaving the sparring ring for good, and trading up to a good Japanese masseuse. Pleasure over brutality.

 

Too true, and there are many ways to enjoy a Jaguar






To show your appreciation of style and beauty you decided to buy a Jaguar. Excellent choice :-). Others, to show appreciation of power, superb suspension design, outstanding brakes and fast driving bought....a Jaguar. Another excellent choice :-)





Yikes! Glad you made it out alive!





I agree. But "never offensively" doesn't necessarily mean driving as though there was a bowl of goldfish on the seat :-)







If by "stupid drving tricks" you mean street racing, I agree. If you mean taking full advantage of the power, roadholding, and braking abilities designed into the car, I disagree.

Besides abundant grace and beauty Jaguars have a long performance heritage and are built (some more than others) with fast driving in mind. I'm hard-pressed to think that Jaguar builds cars with 300-400-500+ horsepower while at the same time intending or anticipating that the owners will drive them as though they were made out of glass.

My own opinion is that Jaguar is cheapened and dishonored by the notion that they are all elegance and style but no substance, so, in my opinion, the power and driving attributes should be on public display whenever and as frequently possible :-).

This does not mean being an irresponsible, idiotic, or otherwise disagreeable driver because, just as you say, that would indeed cheapen Jaguar.




Great advice


Cheers
DD

 

Doug, I appreciate your comments. We're actually pretty much wired the same. :-)

 

wrong thread

 

"I LOVE MY XKR and STUPID PEOPLE !"

A little arrogant perhaps?
I guess stupid is probably defined by our own frame of reference.
I'm all for speed, love to go fast, enjoy fast things and like to live a bit on the edge. Raced motorcycles for years.
When it comes to fast cars and Jaguars, Jaguars aren't that fast. They ARE beautiful, elegant and very high performing, my favorite car in the world but when it comes to truly fast cars they are not even in the game.
Could it be possible that someone who thinks that their Jag is bad *** when it comes to speed might be viewed as stupid as one who thinks their ragged out pickup is as fast as an XKR?
2X

 

I dunno, 2X: The XKR has proven to be a formidiable challenge for many of the "fastest" factory cars on the road today. Tuners? Who cares.

 

In texas you never under estimate a pickup as not fast. I have 3. 400hp 700hp and 1250hp only the 1250hp in the elcamino is not street legsal. 700hp, and its in a suburban. My 05 nissan frontier is a 4.0 v6 i built and supercharged with 4.56 gears its fast for a 4x4 v6. Daily driver? My slow 96 vdp. I dont do really any top end spped runs. If i do anything on the street it a fast 1,2shift. And by that time theyve gotten the message

 

700hp in a suburban...don"t see that very often. Ever find the tires freely spinning by accident? I've always liked how snazzy your frontier looks. Aggressive, yet tasteful.

 

You Texans just gotta show off. All that "biggest state" stuff ya know. Oh, wait. Texas is only #2 in size isn't it?

 

bet youve never driven an xkr in sports mode ..it would frighten the sh@t out of you..the xk8 and xkr are not the same.. i know the xk8 can go but those schargers make a BIG difference

 

In 06 I bought a G35 as a third car to zip around in.
What I didn't know is that all young boys with modded civics and scions would continually challenge me to race. I'm no kid but maybe the lowered suspension and wide wheels influenced some of the challenges.

At first I ignored them.
Then one day, on the turnpike, I took on the challenge of 2 guys in modded Acura somethings...the little car. Their cars were making a lot of noise with loud exhaust and i didn't know if they were turbo'd...but i did know i have 35+ years of experience driving.
I royally spanked those kids and left them with saddened little faces.

On the way home i thought about what had happened. I only wanted a nice Sunday morning drive on the highway and i let these kids ruin it. Something bad could have happened and i won't ever do it again.

But i did have this big smile while i was reflecting that i couldn't wipe away.

 

tnx, ever see a yellow suburban "drifting" sideways tires blazing down the feeder road to the freeway of course the truck was only doing about 30mph, the tires? who knows I was watching the speedo

 

Whats a G35?

 

 

Funny you say that, I test drove my car without using the Sport mode and thought it adequate.
When I finally bought it I turned the TC off and pressed the sport mode. Wife said all she saw was white smoke and two dark strips of rubber and I was gone.........

It scared the doodoo out of me because I wasnt expecting that. I respect the Cat/Kate now. I love factory muscle like this it is predictable, consistant and works very well.


As for the OP, I rolled through several parts of New Mexico at 135+ in the middle of the night and still averaged 21-22mpg and NEVER felt out of control.

The only thing I wish to do is make more exhaust noise.......I love the exhaust valve on modern HP cars and I think Over the next year I will try and build something similar so I can cruise in quiet and romp with noise.

 

You had two dark strips of rubber? You must have a LSD in the rear of that puppy.

 

I havent checked, the PO is/was the manager at Motorcars LTD in Dallas

I have had other cars with open rear ends that would light up both rear tires.......My SRT8 with electronic Diff will do that same.......It has more to do with the IRS from what I have been told

 

Occassionally someone will mistake the STR for a ford taurus and expect you to pull over...
I just smile... If they bait me, one quick dab and leave behind and they get the message.
usually if I'm alongside a super car at a light I simply smile a big grin. If they know cars and the 'R' logo they know what's under the hood!

 

I am not sure what all the talk is when I see posts praising the "sport mode". To be sure I drive pretty non-aggressively but I have tried the car both with and without the so-called "sport mode" engaged and notice almost no difference except that the shifts might hold a bit longer.

For those big advocates of the sport-mode, what is it that I am missing here?

Doug