Total newbie here. I'm looking at buying my first XK8 (probably 1997-2000, for aesthetic reasons & since the Nikasil issues seem to be mostly in the past now) after about 10 years of driving Lincoln Mark VIIIs.

One of the cars I'm looking at is a '97 with ASC stability control but no traction control. Is it possible to add traction control to an XK8 that doesn't have it?

Also does anyone have tips on rust protection for winter driving?

I've seen several mentions of using wax based sprays on this board that are reapplied annually but I've also read that there are penetrating-oil-based sprays (like Krown uses) that are commonly used in Canada & might work better? Any thoughts, tips, wisdom to share?

I'm thinking I may want traction control to help me get out of street parking spots that have been plowed in with snow & similar low speed situations. I suspect that ASC stability control will do little or nothing to help in those situations.

Am I right?

On my old Mark VIIIs the traction control was very helpful with this stuff tho you pretty much needed to turn it off going up a long slippery hill or the TC would overcorrect and slow you down too much. I'm assuming an XK8 may behave similarly but have I never had ASC before so I'm uncertain...

Thanks!!!

Timothy

 

You will drive an Xk8 in snow one time, say "well that was stupid" and buy a $1500 FWD winter beater to drive instead.

 

Oil sprays are very effective.

And ummm no ... snow was meant for RWD cars.

 

I'm with Ungn on this one. On one hand I was extremely impressed with my XK8s traction control in 2 or 3 inches of snow, but these are just not the right cars for snow driving. Pick up an old rusty bronco for the snow, hey you'll appreciate the sunny spring days that much more. John

 

Ungn, Your post made me smile. Although I've lived in snowy places my whole life, I've actually never owned a front wheel drive car before. I don't see that happening anytime soon.

I tend to feel rather unsafe driving front wheel drive cars in poor road conditions because I don't know how to recover them if they were ever to lose their grip on the roadway.

I might keep my current car as a winter beater or I might not, but either way I may have a hard time leaving the Jaguar in the garage 100% of the time for at a months at a time...

Still haven't figured out what to do about washing it during the cold part of winter either (Minnesota). I'm assuming automated car washes are a terrible idea for the top though getting the undercarriage clean at a coin op, self serve wash may be tricky.

 

I am assuming in this instance FWD means Four Wheel Drive not Front Wheel Drive. 4x4 might avoid the confusion caused.

 

I lived in Nebraska and had 5.0L 5 speed mustangs in the 1980's/1990's. It was great fun and I only had to dig myself out of a snowbank once, when a farm truck pulled out right in front of me while I was going down the snow covered highway at the posted speed. I guess he figured I was going 15 mph. I eventually bought an AMC Eagle as a beater, and realized driving the mustang was dumb.

Drivers were different back then. Today, millions of people from the south, who didn't grow up with snow, now live north. The Cars are 10X better, but the lack of driving skill is 10X less than in the 1980's. Four wheel drive and ABS means that people who have no business driving in snow will be out clogging the road for you, Braking while crossing bridges, stopping going up hills and driving so slow they slide to the bottom of banked curves.

I would only recommend a car that could drive around these stopped /crashed morons, and an XK8 aint it.

I currently have 8 cars and the XK8 is last pick of 8 if it snows, behind 2 miatas, a 500 Hp ORR race car, 2 turbo rwd cars and a 420 Hp 6 speed mustang GT.

That and the body will rust like an old Honda.

 

I remember just after taking this picture that the car refused to go forwards, the incline must have been 1 in 100, in the end I had to reverse to an opposite incline to get some forward momentum to get out of the car park. Very embarrassing.


The car never went out in the snow again.

 

No, it means Front wheel drive. Something rusty and cheap that when some one with no insurance, no driver's license and barely speaks English slides into the side of it, you can just walk away from it.


Welcome to America 2016!

 

Front wheel drive cars have very benign handling and are far, far easier to drive in poor conditions than rear wheel drive.

 

You make a good point. During a big storm last year I do vividly recall seeing an extremely capable AWD SUV upside down but mostly unharmed looking) in deepish snow a good way from the road (& 1/3 of the way up a steep hill) and wondering what almost inspired level of idiocy they had used to managed it. They must've been going 70 at least when decent but aggressive drivers were going 30-40mph.

It's also helpful and interesting to hear that you would rank it so low among your other RWD cars for winter driving. BTW, super-jealous that you have 8 fun cars!!!

BTW, I'm assuming the answer on being able to add traction control to a car without it is no?

 

You are absolutely right. They are much easier (and way less fun) to drive in snow than RWD cars.

It's mostly a gut feeling thing. I know pretty instinctively what RWD cars will do and have successfully avoided accidents because of it. With FWD or AWD cars I don't have that knowledge at my fingertips and it makes me uneasy.

Even if I know that's slightly irrational because often FWD sticks to the road better, thereby reducing the need to know any of these things in the first place.

 

My choice for a winter car in Nebraska was a 2002 x-type. I love in the snow. I bought it reasonably cheap and did some repairs and have never regretted it. My xk8 stays out of the snow.

 

I haver a 2004 XK8 and live in London, Ontario Canada. I have to get out to work on winter mornings sometimes before the plows have been through. I cant imagine getting the XK8 through more than about 3 inches of snow. Some how an XK-8 Convertible doesn't seem right with snow tires. 2 years ago I discovered that the X-type is all wheel drive so picked up a 2004 as my winter beater. Works great; I drive a Jag all year and let the XK-8 tale a winter vacation.

 

Before the mid 1980's pretty much every car in the US was RWD. People in the north (where the majority of the population lived) all learned to drive a RWD car on snow and ice, without stability control, traction control or ABS. If you lived where it snows, you paid an extra $100 for a positraction rear when ordering a car.


People stopping on hills, braking on bridges or taking banked turns too slowly would quickly have their DNA removed from the gene pool. ABS, AWD, Traction control and stability control means that people with downright deadly driving habits now make it to breeding age and pass their defective genetic driving habits on to their offspring.


If and XK8 gets behind one of these morons in a AWD SUV who stops on a hill because the "back end got a little wiggly, so he locked it down" will be stuck, while the complete idiot who never learned to turn into a skid motors away up the hill.


Not worth the hassle.


Besides the fact that you are proposing to take a presumably rust free 1997 that some one has protected from this abuse for 20 years and dooming it to a future of panel rust and frozen bolts. One season of winter duty and I guarantee you will be cutting off bolts with an angle grinder for years.

 

Thanks, for the perspective.

Yes, this concern was already weighing heavily on my mind... And part of the reason I am asking these questions. I'm leaning away from driving it in the winter at this point but was curious how effectively it could be protected from that salt damage through a combination of chemistry and judicious washing. The answer I'm hearing is "not very well."

It's been a life-long catch-22. I dislike driving any car that isn't rare and interesting enough (IMHO) that I wouldn't want to drive it in the salt.

Walking all winter isn't quite gonna work for me, so I am leaning very strongly toward keeping my current (getting rather rusty) car as beater and not viewing the lack of traction control issue on one of the contenders as a meaningful concern for the XK8 purchase.

 

I bought my 98 XJR for winter duty, which is really not any better in snow. I run 4 winter tires on it and it gets by just fine. It's 100% rust free so I feel a little bad, but it's now got 94k and it's not really what a collector wants.

 

OK, please excuse my ignorance regarding that white stuff. Never even seen it up close and certainly never driven in it.