Think of Jaguar’s evolution in terms of its lettering nomenclature for the sports cars and you realize that it’s an extremely relaxed evolution. The E-type (also called the XK-E) bowed in 1961. That’s more than half a century ago. Now we’re just one letter down the alphabet, with the F-type. At this rate, we’re centuries away from the Z-type.
The news in all of this is that Jaguar is about to fill its stockists (that’s Brit-speak for showrooms) with the new F-type coupe (more here, in this Autoweek piece) and it’s really quite the car. Quite fast, that is.
The F-type comes in three drive train iterations: a 3-liter V6, with either 335 horses or, the S version, with 375 horsepower. Then there’s the R coupe, with a 5-liter supercharged V8 sporting 543 horsepower. The cars drive through an eight-speed automatic.
Jaguar says the V8 coupe will do 186 miles an hour (roughly 300 kilometers an hour, a designation for the speedometers on Jags sold in Europe, which is mostly where you can do 186 miles an hour and get away with it. Try it in the U.S. and you may succeed, but American cops frown on that kind of driving and, if you’re caught, they will fit you with a pair of steel bracelets.)
While we’re on the speed issue, it’s interesting that cars like the F-type and its competitors (think Porsche) will still sell out their stocks, regardless of how slowly their new owners will have to drive (all things being relative) if they want to stay insured and licensed. I tested a new Corvette a few weeks ago and got nowhere near the peg of its 200-mph speedometer. I’m convinced the car would have handled fine, well up into the 150s on the speedo; but I’m not sure I would have handled as well as the car.
This is not something we’re going to settle today or in the near future, this issue of speed, but if you spring for the new F-type (in showrooms in about a month, at prices ranging from about $65,000 to $100,000), it’ll be interesting to see how you approach it. As the old saw says, keep the rubber side down.
In other news: I couldn’t resist including this zany boat from Gizmag.com. The boat is an 11-foot jet-drive craft that will break down into three pieces. You can stow it in your SUV, drive to the water’s edge, put the thing together (in a few minutes, the maker says) and take off. It runs about $4,800. More here on the Gizmag site.
