Palmball
MB Enthusiast
After nearly 3 months of swanning about in courtesy cars, I had reason to celebrate a couple of days ago when my long(ish)-awaited new XKR-S finally arrived! :bannana:
To say I was having withdrawal symptoms from V8 power is an understatement and, nice through the XF-S (diesel) or my other half's (slow) RRS are, I was craving for the sound and performance of a decent petrol engine. In all honesty, I've hardly slummed it with either of those but when you've got an XKR-S in the pipeline, they're just not going to cut the mustard are they! At least the extended wait should help me appreciate the car more and therefore less likely to want to change it as quickly as usual (no bets being taken though
)
I was hoping to take delivery last week but alas, the dealer never called so I assumed it hadn't turned up and I'd be looking at another weeks' wait
But no, I finally got the call today saying it had arrived on Friday but they couldn't turn the pre-delivery stuff round in time for the weekend and that it was now ready for me to collect. So, despite being back-to-back at work all day, I made my excuses and managed to find some time to pick it up late afternoon
As the day progressed, I then received a most unexpected call at around 3pm from the sales director who was sounding very sheepish and apologetic. He sounded like this as he tried to explain that, in moving the car to the handover area, he had personally crashed it
......into a plant pot (or something similar) resulting in a scratch to the carbon fibre front splitter.
Honestly, I laughed and genuinely found it amusing....just imagine after everything that has happened how he would have felt making that call to me - he must have been beside himself! All I was bothered about was that it wouldn't delay my collection of the car and, when I got to the dealer, I could hardly see the mark - despite this, they are replacing it (luckily it's a simple bolt-off, bolt-on job) but it's costing them nearly a grand due to it being quite a large chunk of carbon fibre :bulge:
After what has to have been the shortest handover, I jumped in and drove it home. And....erm, I've hardly driven it since as I've been working in the big smoke so decided to be sensible and take the RRS rather than put 'work' miles on the new car. Here's a couple of pics from the day I got it - Sorry about the quality but it's dark and I ain't no photographer! I will take some better pics in the light at the weekend, when I'll hopefully get to drive it!
Initially I wasn't that much of a fan of the looks over what I think is a purer-looking standard XKR. However, seeing it real life (and this is the first time I've seen a blue one up close) I don't think that pictures really do the R-S justice because in reality, this is a VERY striking car. Even on a relatively short drive home it attracted more attention than anything else I've had (Maserati included), the colour making it particularly, erm.....flash! All the aero add-ons definitely make it less 'sleek', less naturally 'pretty' than the standard car, but instead it replaces those characteristics with a brash, hard-as-nails look which has it's own unique appeal. It also has no chrome which makes it look cleaner and more sporty (rather than classy in the case of the normal XKR). Most importantly, I like it....I mean, just look how 'phat' that rear wheel stance is
The interior is obviously very similar to my last one but the key differences are noticeable - I love the blue stitching and piping in the R-S (which is much more noticeable than the red stitching in my previous one) and the carbon effect leather on sections of the seats and door trims looks cool. I'm again amazed at the Bowers and Wilkins stereo which is so much better than the similarly-branded system in the XF - it's odd, but you'd expect the XF's newer design to have the superior audio installation but the older XK ends up having the better sounding system.
Although my driving experience has been limited so far, it feels instantly familiar. My last XKR had the factory-fit Dynamic Pack and Performance Exhaust options so it was very nearly an XKR-S in terms of chassis set-up and sound....and so it proves to be as this car feels and sounds almost exactly the same as my previous one (less the creak). Now, I believe the additional power and the fact the torque limiter is removed from the gearbox does make a big difference to the way it goes but so far, utilising all of the lower range of revs as I run it in, I can't say I've noticed it being much quicker - I'm sure that'll change after it's run-in and I use it 'properly' (it has all of 100 miles on the clock now after 3 days of ownership!) but, after 3 months of driving the XF and RRS, this feels insanely fast even at such low engine speeds. The sound!....the sound is just awesome after months of diesel power....damn, it's just great to be back in a proper V8 again
And thats it for my first impressions so far - it's quite odd that my initial focus has been on the aesthetics but, other than the extra power which I've not had the chance to experience yet, it is the looks of the thing that are most different to my previous one so, it's a bloody good job I think it looks awesome!
To say I was having withdrawal symptoms from V8 power is an understatement and, nice through the XF-S (diesel) or my other half's (slow) RRS are, I was craving for the sound and performance of a decent petrol engine. In all honesty, I've hardly slummed it with either of those but when you've got an XKR-S in the pipeline, they're just not going to cut the mustard are they! At least the extended wait should help me appreciate the car more and therefore less likely to want to change it as quickly as usual (no bets being taken though
)I was hoping to take delivery last week but alas, the dealer never called so I assumed it hadn't turned up and I'd be looking at another weeks' wait
But no, I finally got the call today saying it had arrived on Friday but they couldn't turn the pre-delivery stuff round in time for the weekend and that it was now ready for me to collect. So, despite being back-to-back at work all day, I made my excuses and managed to find some time to pick it up late afternoon As the day progressed, I then received a most unexpected call at around 3pm from the sales director who was sounding very sheepish and apologetic. He sounded like this as he tried to explain that, in moving the car to the handover area, he had personally crashed it
......into a plant pot (or something similar) resulting in a scratch to the carbon fibre front splitter. Honestly, I laughed and genuinely found it amusing....just imagine after everything that has happened how he would have felt making that call to me - he must have been beside himself! All I was bothered about was that it wouldn't delay my collection of the car and, when I got to the dealer, I could hardly see the mark - despite this, they are replacing it (luckily it's a simple bolt-off, bolt-on job) but it's costing them nearly a grand due to it being quite a large chunk of carbon fibre :bulge:
After what has to have been the shortest handover, I jumped in and drove it home. And....erm, I've hardly driven it since as I've been working in the big smoke so decided to be sensible and take the RRS rather than put 'work' miles on the new car. Here's a couple of pics from the day I got it - Sorry about the quality but it's dark and I ain't no photographer! I will take some better pics in the light at the weekend, when I'll hopefully get to drive it!
Initially I wasn't that much of a fan of the looks over what I think is a purer-looking standard XKR. However, seeing it real life (and this is the first time I've seen a blue one up close) I don't think that pictures really do the R-S justice because in reality, this is a VERY striking car. Even on a relatively short drive home it attracted more attention than anything else I've had (Maserati included), the colour making it particularly, erm.....flash! All the aero add-ons definitely make it less 'sleek', less naturally 'pretty' than the standard car, but instead it replaces those characteristics with a brash, hard-as-nails look which has it's own unique appeal. It also has no chrome which makes it look cleaner and more sporty (rather than classy in the case of the normal XKR). Most importantly, I like it....I mean, just look how 'phat' that rear wheel stance is
The interior is obviously very similar to my last one but the key differences are noticeable - I love the blue stitching and piping in the R-S (which is much more noticeable than the red stitching in my previous one) and the carbon effect leather on sections of the seats and door trims looks cool. I'm again amazed at the Bowers and Wilkins stereo which is so much better than the similarly-branded system in the XF - it's odd, but you'd expect the XF's newer design to have the superior audio installation but the older XK ends up having the better sounding system.
Although my driving experience has been limited so far, it feels instantly familiar. My last XKR had the factory-fit Dynamic Pack and Performance Exhaust options so it was very nearly an XKR-S in terms of chassis set-up and sound....and so it proves to be as this car feels and sounds almost exactly the same as my previous one (less the creak
). Now, I believe the additional power and the fact the torque limiter is removed from the gearbox does make a big difference to the way it goes but so far, utilising all of the lower range of revs as I run it in, I can't say I've noticed it being much quicker - I'm sure that'll change after it's run-in and I use it 'properly' (it has all of 100 miles on the clock now after 3 days of ownership!) but, after 3 months of driving the XF and RRS, this feels insanely fast even at such low engine speeds. The sound!....the sound is just awesome after months of diesel power....damn, it's just great to be back in a proper V8 again And thats it for my first impressions so far - it's quite odd that my initial focus has been on the aesthetics but, other than the extra power which I've not had the chance to experience yet, it is the looks of the thing that are most different to my previous one so, it's a bloody good job I think it looks awesome!
