Lea Daniels posted a note about the XJ-S transmission. First of
all. I agree with the performance comments. My XJ-S shifts
somewhere around 3800 rpm when left to it's own devices. This
is a feature of the GM400 transmission. It balances performance
with "fuel economy". This phrase must be, of course, in quotes
as this relates to a definition of the word "economy" that I was
not previously aware of.
However, if one manually overrides the automatic shifting of an
automatic transmission, it will shift when you tell it to.
That's two sentenses that I have used prepositions to end them
with. No, make that three. Well, anyway, I have held my XJ-S
in "low" to (almost) red-line, pushed the shift lever to "2nd",
all but damaged my neck as the back tyres chirped then
accererated to speeds beyond my chicked s#!t courage limits.
I let off as I shifted into "Drive", checked my pulse and
considered getting the seat covers cleaned...
Needless to say, I am completely sold on the GM400 automatic
transmission and it's ability to perform with the big boys.
Someone might check me on this but I have read that Jaguar didn't
put an automatic in the XJ-S for the 'soft' American market.
They used the automatic because of the high torque output of the
V12 engine. Again, it is a bit convoluted but the problem was
not that the 4 speed gear box couldn't handle the torque. The
problem was that the overdrive would be stressed beyond it's
design limits and overdrive would be required to get the economy
and prestegous top speed of 157 mph (max.). Modern day XJ-S's
are available in Europe with 5 speed gearboxes as well as here
in the States as after-market products (Lister).
Oh well, logic and common sense have nothing to do with it. It's
about iron and love and oil and emotion and leather and romance
and ...
Rick
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Richard O. Lindsay / __ __ __ __
Senior Research Scientist / / /_/ /_ / / /_/ /_/
Amoco Production Research / / / / /_/ /_/ / / / \
/ /_/
/
My opinions are my own, untill they're worth something, at
which point they become the property of my employer...
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