Not sure if this can be called a "muscle car", but it's quick enough
So earlier this year I had sold my clean 88 Turbo Coupe to a guy in Ohio who had a real hard-on for those cars, I ended up getting the same in U.S. bucks that I had paid in Canuckistan dollars the year before. It was a beautiful car that I loved the look of, but the 2.3T drivetrain was underwhelming even with the 3 pedals and more than stock rearend gear. Around town you had to lean on it just to keep up with traffic because of the weight of the car, on the highway it was a nice cruiser though.
Mid to late 90s Jaguar XJ sedans had caught my eye, gorgeous body style and classy as hell. Starting in 1995 there was an XJR version offered with an Eaton M90 supercharged 4.0L OHC inline six, 326 hp and 378 lb./ft. of torque, and then in 1998 when they got a fresher interior and a slight exterior redo, a 4.0L V8 with an Eaton M112 that was around 370 hp. I had been look at several examples of 6 and 8 cyl cars over the summer, loved the V8 to drive but was afraid of timing chain tensioner issues and other potential known trouble areas on them, huge labour involved to access anything on that engine.
Ended up going with this very interesting "aquamarine" coloured 95 that was in Windsor. Apparently never winter driven, all the lips and seams are very clean on it. Needed some repairs for safety, got that handled and now it's on the road as of this past week. Wheels are genuine BBS from a 2002 XJR "R1" edition. This series of XJ was the first that was designed and built during the Ford ownership period ... the previous XJ was a bit more squared off, and they decided to go back to more traditional styling which makes for a very pretty car. The chassis is very similar to the previous gen 88-92 XJ, double wishbone front suspension and the old style IRS out back. The inline 6 is classic Jag of course, and this was their first forced induction car other than the very limited production XJ220 supercar from the early 90s. This XJR is a fairly rare beast too, less than 7000 produced for worldwide sales over the course of 3 years. Still have a few noises / rattles to sort out, but overall this is an impressive car to drive. Jag was using a ZF auto trans behind the regular 6 cyl engine, but the R got a GM 4L80E with a switchable sport mode to handle the torque. 0-60 mph times were in the low 6 second range, which was very quick for a heavy sedan 20 years ago.
Anyway, enough blabbing from me, here are a few shots of the new cruiser, apologies for the crappy phone pics that get cropped when uploaded to photobucket:
http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/p...R/IMG_1215.jpg
http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/p...R/IMG_1216.jpg
http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/p...R/IMG_1157.jpg
http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/p...R/IMG_1145.jpg
cheers
Ed
