I’m considering buying 1992 XJ-40 4.0 litre sport, to replace my 1988 XJ 40 which has over 350,000 K on it. Any comments from 1992 sport owners, or anyone who knows the car well, would be welcome!
Also, does anyone know of a source to download the owner’s handbook?
Hi Alan, my car is a 1993 JaguarSport xjr. JaguarSport was a company formed by Jaguar and TWR racing to build sportier versions of both the XJ40 and XJS. I don’t think the XJR was sold outside of the UK ? but I could be mistaken. The XJ40 Sport model which was assembled solely by Jaguar and definitely available for export had most of the suspension and steering modifications as my XJR IE. Stiffer road springs, Bilstein dampers, a thicker front anti roll bar, a LSD and different valves and gearing for the power steering rack to give a slightly heavier feeling to the steering, but unlike the XJR the engine was not modified in any way.
After owning a standard 4.0l Sovereign for 9 years the first thing I noticed when I swapped over to the XJR was the feel to the steering, it’s by no means heavy, but you will notice it immediately if you test drive one ( assuming the sports rack hasn’t been changed for a standard in the past ) if you are a sporty type of driver I’m sure you will appreciate the suspension mods, I’m far from sporty myself but I did notice a major improvement when it comes to twisty country roads, but it feels harder on smooth flat roads and even more so over any little bumps and I prefered the Sovereign suspension if I had to choose, more an indication of my age rather than one set up being better than the other.
Maintenance will be no different to your current car, however when it comes to Sport specific replacement parts you have to be careful you are buying the correct part if you intend keeping everything as ‘Sport’ spec, and sometimes it’s not as easy as finding suspension and brake parts as for the standard cars.
I don’t know a source to download a handbook, but the contents won’t differ from your current handbook if that is your main concern.
Alan, if by 'hand book you mean the small one that comes with each car, then yes they will be different between an 88 MY and a 92 MY, but there is only one workshop manual is what I should have said.