2015 Jaguar F-Type Reviews

If a real sports car needs a manual gearbox then the F‒Type Jaguar finally qualifies.The classic British belter is finally picking up a slick ZF six‒speeder with a clutch for its 2016 model update, as well as all‒wheel drive for people who worry that too much fun is more than enough on slippery surfaces.Jaguar expects between 20 and 30 per cent of F-Type buyers to go for the "stick" globally, although that number could be slightly lower in Australia when the updated F‒Type coupes and convertibles arrive in May.Before then, and well in time for winter weather, the F-Types with added front-end traction land in March.The 2016 update, which seems awfully early at the start of 2015, also includes a switchable sports exhaust on all models, a parking pack on V6S and R versions, and memory electric seats on the R cars.Just like Porsche with its 911, Jaguar has also fitted electric power steering — mostly for the economy and emission benefits it brings.Globally, there is extra stuff, including a smartphone app that allows you to start the car remotely and fire up the aircon, but the final specification for local cars is still being confirmed.The manual F-Type will not be cheap, with pricing from $119,470 with a V6 engine, but there are already people with cash to splash. And Jaguar believes it will give the brand a more competitive car against Porsche, which sets the benchmark with its Boxster/Cayman/911 triple act."There have been inquiries about availability of a manual version since launch, and since the announcement that we will be introducing a manual version the dealers report that inquiry has increased," says James Scrimshaw, Jaguar spokesman for Australia.He says 168 F-Types were delivered through 2014 and there is a considerable order bank for cars, as the production line in Britain is working at full capacity."We expect these new derivatives to perform well and increase overall F-Type volumes in 2015," he says.The clutch is light, and the gear ratios work with the force-fed V6 engineThe new F-Types were rolled out for a track-based preview in Portugal during the teaser program for Jaguar's landmark XE compact sedan. There was a wet handling course with track laps and a short road loop. The cars ran from the manual V6S coupe on the road to the AWD V6S in the wet to the AWD V8 R on the Estoril circuit, a grand prix track built back in 1972.The manual F-Type was the pick, but there was nowhere near enough time to get to know it well. I can say that the clutch is light, and the gear ratios work with the force-fed V6 engine, but not much more.Well, apart from the location of the lever. For me, it's awful.Jaguar says it has put the "stick" in the best location available, and also shaved the top of the centre console to clear elbow room, but that did not help. I had to cock my wrist awkwardly to shift in the 2-4-6 plane and I never felt comfortable.It's a good thing that, like the vast majority of Australians, I'm happy with a crisp paddle-shift automatic in most cars.The V8 F-Type was a delight with all-wheel driveThe wet handling track proves that the F-Type has the chassis balance and all-wheel drive system to suit a sport car. Most people would never know it's feeding so much power to the front wheels and it's possible to give full throttle on a soaked road without worrying about the steering wheel tugging or the back stepping out.On the Estoril track, one of the fastest used by carmakers, the V8 F-Type was a delight with all-wheel drive. There was no sign of a manual box, because even the ZF cannot handle the extra torque and that's why the ratios and tuning were optimised for the V6 S.There was a little front-end push in slow corners, and also at better than 140km/h on a very long right-handed sweeper, but most of the time the car stayed planted and obeyed my instructions. Once again, there was no hint of the all-wheel drive package as the car is tuned to stay rear-drive until the tyres reach overload and then to feed drive forward.On the steering front, I could not detect any loss of feel with the switch to electric assist.

Peter Barnwell road tests and reviews the Jaguar F-Type with specs, fuel consumption and verdict.

When we last drove the Jaguar F-Type Convertible, it hustled substantial arse on some choice mountain roads. The Jaguar emitted noises like nothing we've heard this side of an AMG V8 or an Aston V12, and its sinewy stance drew more gapes per linear kilometre than anything in its class.But the tightly strung switchbacks worked against those wide hips, making it feel a little too big for those branches, and a slightly softer setup left it playing catch-up with the abilities of the Mercedes CLA45 AMG and Porsche Cayman.Since then, we've had the chance to drive the roofed version on the Motorland Aragona track and the emptied-out quarters between it and Barcelona. More than five kilometres long, the F1-approved Motorland and its surrounding vistas fleshed out what we'd missed from the F-Type equation. It's all about the body, as if you couldn't guess.Before the rain blew in, we'd decided the F-Type Coupe R is the most affable, most tossable Jaguar ever to pass through our grip. Adding a roof adds tremendously to its stability. If anything, it's more subliminally sexy than the roadster.And it still has the inestimable, intangible value of one of the best exhaust notes you can buy.The F-Type Coupe hasn't lost any of its visual extravagance in the short trip from the concept-car circuit to the real world. It made its mark as a C-X16 concept, and the very nearly identical shape that's emerged is impure, and riveting for it.Call it a do-over: The gills and grille slash through the front end, sharply retracting the oval inlet cut into a whole generation of Jaguar XK grand tourers. But they're largely the same as in the F-Type roadster.Where it's different from the roadster, obviously so, the Coupe nails down the essence of what a Jaguar should look like. The F-Type Coupe is a somewhat short car, and doesn't have the luxury of languid lines playing out as the XK had. (It's being retired after 2015, now that the F-Type is assuming its mantle). Adding a roofline could have abbreviated the F-Type's shape in ungainly ways, but it hasn't--it's only amplified those powerlifter haunches."This car is almost classical in its proportions," says Wayne Burgess, who worked out the winning details, like the tiniest flap of a decklid spoiler that mimics the modesty panel in a union suit. It rises at 70 mph to provide downforce, and lowers at below 50 mph.The unseen effect of the hardtop is with the body structure. The F-Type coupes get a specific roof beam for strength, which nets out a body that's said to be 80 percent stiffer -- a real accomplishment, given the F-Type's already stout glued-and-riveted aluminum body.We cruised for a couple hundred kilometers in a rich wake of crackling overrun, a hornet's nest of coupes slashing across Spain toward Motorland, flipping between F-Type Coupes in V6 and V8 spec, with solid or glass roofs, all with automatic transmissions -- still, after a year, the only gearbox you can have is one that keeps more to itself.You don't have to be an apologist to be happy with the supercharged V6 in the F-Type Coupe. Rated at 250kW of power and 450Nm pf torque from 3.0-litres, it'll run 0-100km/h mph sprints in about 5.1 seconds and scream to a 260km/h top end, Jaguar says.Pull into the F-Type S Coupe, and you'll get 280kW from an uprated version of the same six, good for 4.8 seconds of 0-100km/h time and a 275km/h top speed. With Jaguar's chosen ZF eight-speed “Quickshift” automatic transmission and paddle shifters, it's a tap and a firm foot to access what we gauged to be about 75 per cent of that accessible F-Type S speed, on more lonesome stretches of road.What you won't get is the more guttural bark of the V8, or the V8-only F-Type Coupe R's superior suspension tune. It's about now that we'd be remiss in not pointing out some truisms: the coupe is almost always better to drive than the convertible or cabriolet, and when it comes to engine displacement... bring it.Consider it brought, at 5.0 litres, 405kW (uprated 40kW from the V8 S roadster), and capable of 0-100km/hh launches in 4.0 seconds, and a 300km/h top end.It all lines up according to gospel here -- and gospel truly is the analogue for what the F-Type Coupe R's vocal chops are capable of emoting through its active-exhaust system. We never mind the boggling numbers on tap for a few longish stints while running roughshod through rural Spain, just to listen. Even more so than in the roadster, the V-8 is nearly impossible to ignore. Minus the distractions of sun and breezes and gawkers caught mid-gape, the Coupe fills with the resonating throb of that thundering V-8, even when it's just waking up.Clever thing: when you push the orange-tinted metal start button, the F-Type Coupe R runs rowdily up to near its redline. Imagine four of those going off at a time in the pit lane of an F1-worthy road course. From the get-go, that chorus signals these Coupe R Jags are totally down for what's up at the Motorland track.The carillon rings out as we sling the Coupe R around Motorland, running it to redline down the mile-long straight, backing off sharply to cut through some supremely technical passages. The Coupe R is the best shoe of the F-Type family, no doubt. The springs are a few percent stiffer at each corner, and the fast-acting adaptive shocks are a lot less permissive (on the road, the F-Type couldn't feel more pleasant).The Coupe R simply does a better job of shearing off corners and gathering itself more quickly than any of the F-Type roadsters we've driven. There's no weight difference, V-8 to V-8, but the revised body structure and retuned dampers resolve some of the niggling convertible issues, like a mild side-to-side rocking that never felt quite settled on our Georgia drive last year. It's flatter, and happier, and in its element on a wide, freshly paved track with a few corners carbon-copied from our secret corner of Appalachia.A half-dozen laps are all it takes to understand what's going on at Aragon, big blitzes of full-on power, slashed and burned with big stabs of optionally fitted carbon-ceramic brakes, some leaning on the Coupe R's electronic torque vectoring to tighten a line here and there. The fast throttle wants to be in the game all the time; the stability control's sport mode is mapped out to be playfully loose with the tail. It'll give you more yaw angle than you can use, before it reins in the Coupe R from situations where it might otherwise rotate with Olympic speed.You could spend hours getting used to the Motorland surface and the crapload of nuances of its spookier turns, and that's a testament to the car's transparent nature.What you won't spend a lot of time doing in any F-Type, Coupe or roadster, is packing. It's an object to be coveted, not to be projected upon with a bunch of futile practical notions. Two golf bags might nestle in longways behind the front seats, but the Coupe R doesn't strike us as the golfing type, anyway. A roll-on bag and two smaller camera bags wholly consumed a cargo hold we'd call shallow to its face.That's simply fine, says designer Burgess. The Coupe is "designed to be a little selfish."We're perfectly okay with selfish. We'd pass on the base coupe, forgoing a college diploma or two for a child to be named later (these things usually sort themselves out), if we could hang on to the aural delight and invigorating handling of the F-Type R Coupe.Now that the F-Type Coupe has finally arrived, it's every bit the sportscar we’d hoped it would be.www.motorauthority.com