Jaguar has given its most purposeful pussycat a “hard
hat” and created a terrifically racy tomcat coupe
Jaguar says that the styling of its F-Type was inspired by
the E-Type of half a century ago. In the video presentation at the F-Type
Coupe’s launch in Spain, it even relied on an extremely distended shadow of the
E-Type coupe to draw the visual connection between the two.
Unfortunately, the narrow-bodied, sausage-shaped and
puny-tyred E-Type never did it for me, looks-wise. Good thing, for my sake,
that I don’t think the F-Type Coupe looks anything like the E-Type.
The sexiest-ever
Jag backside comes with a hidden “tail” — a spoiler that rises at speed to
balance the coupe’s front-rear aerodynamics
Like its F-Type Roadster sibling that was launched last
year, the Coupe is stubby, squat and purposeful. It is visually identical to
the Roadster below the waistline. This means a brooding, feral face with gaping
oval grille and aggressive side “whisker” intakes; big wheels and tyres that
fill the arches nicely; and real sheet-metal muscle in the crisply defined
haunches that drape and flare over the rear wheel arches. On the Coupe, this effect
is accentuated by the glasshouse, which in plan view tapers teardrop-style towards
the rear.
That glasshouse is, of course, what sets the F-Type Coupe
apart from its Roadster sister, and it’s a beautifully executed affair. From
side-on, the curve of the roofline flows smoothly from the A-pillar, sweeping
down to meet the downswept tail and drawing the eye to those slitty, “concept
car” taillamps. That slim, swooping band of metal that defines the roofline is
actually a single hydro-formed aluminium alloy beam, which adds significant
stiffness to the structure, while at the same time weighing very little.
Two-seat cockpit
is well-appointed and driveroriented, with more than double the boot space of
the F-Type Roadster
On F-Types with the optional panoramic glass roof, the
visual drama is heightened by the unbroken sweep of shiny, black glass from
front to rear screens, like the canopy of a fighter jet.
Inside, the Coupe is just like the Roadster – except with a
fixed roof (trimmed inside in either Alcantara or leather, incidentally). It’s
still a strict two-seater, but there’s ample room for the heads and shoulders of
those two occupants, although the seats do not extend quite as far back as
those significantly over 1.8m in height may like.
The seats themselves are gorgeous items – slim but heavily
bolstered and sprouting a pair of “wings” at shoulder height for support, they
really wouldn’t look out of place in a racecar. The seating position is low-slung
but very natural, with the steering wheel and stubby gearlever falling comfortably
to hand. The leather and stitching on the dashboard, door cappings and seats
are top-notch, and the whole cabin looks and feels like a very expensive, exquisitely
crafted place.
F-Type R Coupe 5.0
On Road
If you’ve seen the letterbox-like, 200-litre boot of the
Roadster, the luggage space under the Coupe’s hatch will be a revelation.
Relieved of the need to also house a folding roof, the Coupe’s 407-litre boot
can take a large suitcase or two sets of golf clubs.
Ditching the soft-top reaps other benefits – the Coupe is
20kg lighter, model-for model, and its body shell is also 80 percent more
torsionally rigid at 33,000Nm per degree, making it Jaguar’s stiffest production
car ever.
But despite its all - aluminium construction and pert
dimensions, the F-Type is still no lightweight – the Coupe weighs between
1577kg and 1665kg, depending on specification and equipment. That’s markedly
heavier than the Porsche 911, for instance.
Like the F-Type Roadster, the engine range for the Coupe
consists of two 3-litre supercharged V6 models (same engine in different states
of tune) and a 5-litre supercharged V8. The two V6 models (called “V6” and “V6
S” respectively) are mechanically identical to their Roadster counterparts,
which means the “lesser” one delivers a still-impressive 340bhp while the full-fat
model boasts 380bhp.
But both pale in comparison next to the whopping 550bhp
figure of the V8, which itself has 50bhp more than the V8 S Roadster can muster
from the same motor.
