After driving stick shifts for decades (a 5-speed stick in a BMW Z3 and a 6-speed stick in a Z4), I’m curious to try my shift in the automatic XKR. But, I have no idea as to shift points, whether there is a need for downshifting, etc. In short, how do I drive this car using “manual”?

thanks!

 

And, where on the rev band is the max torque?

 

As long as you avoid going over the marked redline on the tachometer, just experiment with manual shifting, have fun, and expect lower gas mileage with higher rev shifting.

My XK8 had shifting issues when I first got it and I literally had to manually downshift and upshift to pass cars on the highway or it would lock itself into 4th gear (under the hard acceleration) and never upshift until I pulled over, turned the engine off, restarted, and waited for the car I just passed to pass me, before pulling back out on the road and nursing it back to highway speed. It took two trans drain-and-fills plus a computer reflash (deleting over 15,000 recorded adaptations) and a new adaptation procedure to cure it. I still manually downshift a lot to take more precise control of the shift points.

Here are max torque specs for the 4.0L and 4.2L XKR engines:

 

George,

One way to find the shift points is to go out and put it in gear and runner-up till the Valves float...write that number down and the next time you do it shift out about 200 RPMs prior to the original number you have written down! That'll work if you don't throw a chain or bend a valve first!

Good Luck!

BC