ROAD TEST - Jaguar F-Type S Coupe

I recently had the opportunity to take a brand new Jaguar F-Type S Coupe for a road test along one of the best roads in Australia. It's a tough job sometimes!

This particular model is Supercharged 3.0L V6 variant with All Wheel Drive, making a healthy 279kW (375hp) @ 6500RPM and 460N·m (339 lb·ft) @3500–5000, propelling the car from 0-100km/h in 4.8 seconds, and maxing out at a top speed of 275km/h. It should be noted that the Type S is available in multiple V6 and V8 variants, making up to 423kW (567hp) and 680N·m (502lb·ft) with a 0-100km/h time of just 3.8 seconds.

With its lively and responsive power curve, the car was immensely rewarding to rev out, with usable power throughout the rev range, but it did feel a little underpowered for a car of this calibre, and I was left wishing I could have a go of the V8 variant.

None the less, the overall driving experience is fantastic with the car feeling well planted through the corners, lively in the rear despite its AWD grip, and over-all very well refined.

Turning a blind eye to luggage space, it's rare to come across a car that truely ticks all the boxes. But the Jaguar F-Type comes bloody close! It is a comfortable and classy place to sit in traffic, with all the modern conveniences and creature comforts you'd expect from a car in this price bracket. Unlike the vast majority of other cars of similar performance capability, you could daily drive an F-Type on the daily commute in perfect comfort with no regrets at all, and then take it for a blast on the back roads on your way home. I've never driven a car that was so capable, yet so comfortable before. There really is little compromise with this car which really impressed me.

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of this car is the ZF8 transmission. Many would argue that the car deserves a DCT gearbox. Personally I am a touch biased towards the ZF8 transmission as I absolutely love it in my BMW M235i, and I am happy to report that it performs equally as impressively in the F-Type. Shifts are smooth, with no noticeable latency which is of course vitally important in a sports car, but without the frustrations of low speed jerkiness in stop/start traffic. Just like the rest of the car, the transmission performs smoothly when you want it to, but will happily give you a kick in the back when you get stuck in to it, the perfect choice for the car in my opinion.

The steering and suspension feel well connected and provide the right amount of feedback. Both are variable when switching through various performance modes and this behaves as you would expect, with the car transforming from a comfortable cruiser to a nimble sports car with the press of a button. The steering is perhaps a touch on the light side, but with its tight ratios and total lack of dead zone, you quickly forgive this.

But my favourite thing about this car is undoubtedly the sound. The Supercharged V6 sounds beautiful. The engineers at Jaguar have done a fantastic job when it comes to striking a balance between cabin and exterior sound. While there is quite a bit of road noise inside the cabin (I were driving on a particularly rough surface which was no doubt a significant contributor to this), the exhaust note is beautiful. Not overpowering, but purposeful and mature. The signature burps when you change gears are perhaps a touch understated, but as a daily driver I feel anything louder would become tiresome.

Outside the car, the sound is far more dramatic. At one point we drove the car through the valley and in to the distance. Even 2km away we enjoyed the sound of the V6 singing the song of its people, with loud cracks on the gear shifts. If this is not your thing, you can of course close the butterfly valves to reduce the external sound significantly.

Overall I greatly enjoyed my time with the Jaguar F-Type and found it to be well and truly capable regardless of what you throw at it, both rewarding as a performance car, and comfortable as a daily driver. You can't ask for much more than that.
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