The new F-Type is as essential to the firm as the 911 is to Porsche, according to Adrian Hallmark, Jaguar global brand director, who also revealed that it will go on sale in the middle of next year as a roadster.
Video: Watch official footage of a prototype F-Type in action
Recalling the famous E-Type of the sixties in its philosophy, the new car marks a change in naming strategy from Jaguar, with the F-Type badge finally used on a production sports car over 50 years after the E-Type first went on sale.
We’ve produced exclusive illustrations of the new drop-top, and also got the lowdown from the company’s bosses, including design director Ian Callum. One thing is for sure – the F-Type is set to be a genuine driver’s car.
It was previewed by the fixed-roof C-X16 coupe concept at last September’s Frankfurt Motor Show and the positive response from the media and public led Jaguar to accelerate the development programme.
“This will be the first true Jaguar sports car for more than 50 years,” Hallmark told Auto Express. “Why did we choose F-Type? Because if you look at the C, D and E-Type, these names have always stood for Jaguar’s most seductive models. The F-Type is the next step in our long sports car heritage.”
Jaguar released the first images of the new roadster at New York, in a disguise – the camouflage is made up of F-Type lettering. We’ve based our images on these pictures to give you an idea of what to expect.
Callum said: “Sometimes a production car can be a big disappointment after you’ve seen the concept, but the F-Type will include 95 per cent of the C-X16. I can promise that you won’t be disappointed.”
As you can see, the dramatic double intakes either side of the front grille will be carried over, as will the sculpted bonnet, side gills embossed with the Jaguar name and narrow LED tail-lights. But the quad exhausts have now been swapped for twin pipes in the centre of the diffuser.
The new two-seater is likely to cost from around £55,000, rising to £70,000, and will be positioned below the XK in the line-up. Jaguar says it’s been deliberately priced to sit between Porsche’s Boxster and Cayman and the 911. “There is no direct rival to the F-Type – we have done our research and believe we’ve found a sweet spot in the market,” said Hallmark.
Jaguar anticipates that many F-Type customers will be new to the brand – people who might otherwise buy a 911, a Mercedes SL, a Lotus Evora or a BMW M3.
“The F-Type won’t sell in huge volumes, but it’ll be enormously important to Jaguar and the way it’s perceived,” Hallmark told us. “Jaguar without a proper sports car is like Porsche without a 911.
“We have done research that tells us this car has the power to change people’s expectations of Jaguar. It will centre our range.”
The rear-wheel-drive F-Type will be all-aluminium, using a cut-down version of the XK’s chassis, so it will be lightweight. As you can see from the pictures, it will also have a fabric roof, although a coupé version like the C-X16 concept is on the way, too.
“A convertible is much harder to engineer than a coupé, so we chose to develop the roadster version first,” said Callum.
Hallmark added: “A coupe version will appear. Buyers in this market tend to keep their cars for 12 to 18 months, then they want something new. We’ll leverage that by offering a coupe. That’s going to be vital to keeping the car’s lifecycle going.”
Jaguar hasn’t revealed details of the F-Type’s engine range, but it’s likely to get a new 3.0-litre V6 – essentially the XK’s 5.0-litre V8 with two cylinders removed. This new engine will be offered in normally aspirated form with around 250bhp and also as a supercharged R, producing around 375bhp.
The latter should propel the car from 0-60mph in under five seconds and on to a top speed of more than 180mph. Both models will get a six-speed auto gearbox.
While the C-X16 had a hybrid V6, Hallmark told us that such a powertrain is still a long way from production. “We’re committed
to the idea of a performance hybrid, but it needs a lot of development,” he told us.
However, the F-Type is still set to take the idea of a Jaguar performance car to new heights. “If you take the XK, for example, the standard car is a very good GT, while the XKR-S is a different vehicle entirely,” said Hallmark.
“The F-Type will be more like having the XKR-S as the base model. That’s how much of a sports car it will be. And there’s room to take the performance beyond that of the XKR-S, at least in terms of the philosophy.”
So buyers can expect a very precise and agile experience. Insiders have already reported that the car sounds “sensational – almost as loud and aggressive as a D-Type”, thanks to a new performance exhaust system.
The F-Type will be built at Jaguar’s Castle Bromwich factory near Coventry. Full technical details will be revealed later this year.
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At Time4leasing we are very excited and proud at the same time about Jaguar's plans to roll out the new Jaguar F type in a few months. The Brits once again are showing the world that they can make powerful sports cars and this will also bring more work to the West Midlands. We hope to get our hands on to the new Jaguar F type and be able to lease to our customers on a personal car leasing basis.
A pretty good effort but I think it needs tweaking round the grille area. It looks a bit too heavy and "guppy-like". The design of the grille is critical, as that is the first thing the eye picks up and the rest of the design flows from that.
It will also be very expensive to repair minor fender bender accidents, as the edges of the grill are in effect, triple skinned.
Wilson
Dunno about that. May be selling in enough quantities to be able to make serious money for the brand and to be a pain in the ass to Porsche and BMW. Which is good. The Germans are completely dominating the luxury car and GT market. And that should make other brands worry.
That look alright to me, I can't nothing wrong with it. I hope look that way.
Jaguar have proved without exception that with the Dagenham built six cylinder diesels they have world beating engines, regardless of what body they install them in. Now, for God’s sake, listen to your customers and put one in a car for those of us who like performance wind in the hair motoring and still want to go a few miles on a tank full of fuel. The wrong engine ruins a car and dinosaurs like Clarkson will have to get used to change of filling up with diesel. I want an exciting but smooth diesel two or four seater with a solid foldaway roof. If BMW and Mercedes can do diesels sports cars and please the market, so can you. I looked at a BMW 635D convertible the other day. Very cheap, good to drive just looks like a dogs dinner and despite the practicalities . So get your skates on and build us a winner that’s practical to own too . My XJ regularly manages 800 miles to a tank and I want the same range form a convertible. I am also looking forward to a turbine driving a generator/motor (with a smallish battery for peaks) setup, so I can be environmentally friendly and have fun in a jaguar too. Most of us only ever use about 25% of the engine output power, so why do we need a constant 300 bhp when I’m doing 70 (ish )on a motorway.
Without a badge on the grille, this would look like a Maserati from the front. Don't like the 'gills' - they distract from a clean look. Call me an old fart but Jag sports cars should stick with a flat oval grille opening!
Maybe Tata have a deal with Maserati ? We've seen the ToyBaru maybe we're looking at the birth of the JagErati.
In my view Mr Hallmark is making a glaring error of judgment if he believes there is a 'sweet spot' in the market between the Cayman and the 911. Lotus has already made this mistake with the Evora/Evora S to catastrophic effects. Jaguar has been missing from the pure sportscar market for some time and to break the stranglehold of Porsche and BMW the F-type will need to not only be priced head on with the Cayman but also be demonstrably better than that car when it is launched later this year. If not, I fear Jaguar will fail to poach the younger customers they are desperately chasing and instead the F-Type will like its older brother XK a fashion accessory for born-again fifty-something golfers...which of course will make the next-gen XK a redundant choice (that car in turn will at £90k + have to utterly trounce the competition in order for buyers to choose it over a 911, Aston Vantage, Audi R8 or even a Maserati Granturismo).
I don't agree with agf30 that a turbodiesel is necessary - hybrid or range-extender technology is the way to go with new models and to make Jaguar stand out in the market. They're doing it with their new supercar after all.
I do hope however that I'm wrong about the price issue (the E-Type corrected to modern prices would have been less than £40k) and this car does succeed since the on-paper specification is spot-on, it looks great and a triumph of British design and manufacturing.
You can keep all your Mazdas, Porsches, BMWs and Audis, this is the one, and it's British! Pity the company isn't British.
The windscreen is from another car and the lines inside the windscreen don't meet up with the rest of the car around it. Lazy work. The passenger headrest is a foot lower than the driver's!
Now, now Uncle take a closer look. Pics 1 & 2 are artists impressions of the F-Type. Pics 3 - 5 are actual pics of the F-Type (3 & 4 are of the dev car and 5 is a full frontal of the finished article) and the last three pics are of the interior of the C-X16 concept car (most of which is unlikely to make it into production). So, based on the fact that AE have seen the completed car then I am certain the artists impression is going to be there or thereabouts, don't you think?
The company is a British thorough bred and so are the cars! designed and built by British people. If you look at Tata way of doing business it lets the Business manage itself. When Jag needed a loan guarantee from the "British" government it turned a blind eye!! Talk about Britishness!! Thankfully Tata got the money from else and kept the "British" company alive. btw this F-type needs a manual stick shift, auto's make the car a bit boring. Jag plz take note!
Stupid comments saying it's not british. It is, the fact that the business is over looked by tata does not make it an Indian Maserati rip off. It looks nothing like any Maserati, if you were going to say the front bumper takes any influence from another car it would be the XK-RS. The cars are designed and engineered in the west midlands, making the British ! It is a beautiful looking car, and even better not just a concept. An no doubt will be teamed with awesome performance !
I just read "Pity the company isnt british" and that is a stupid statement. What makes a car.. the people building it ,the engineering & design they use and thats what makes the car... You should rather say lucky jaguar had a owner who knew how to revive the whole thing and not making it into a SAAB story...the new owners didnt ship any jobs abroad which was what people thought they would do, they didnt fire any people ,they created more jobs in uk by investing more money..they got the proper people at proper places and let the company be free...Tata bought jlr for 2.5 billion and current valuations are 16 billion in 3-4 years..And you complain ...ae mate its lost its britishness..looser
Agree with others here- jaguar ignore diesel/ hybrid/ small capacity options at your peril. The vast majority of folks who will buy this car will be for its looks, no one will be able to use the performance. Don't build a beautiful dinosaur. My Audi convertible looks great and does 50 mpg. No excuses.
I sometimes think they should have just built the E-Type again in the same design mold but using modern technologies, Im sure that would have sold in far greater quantities than another sports car that looks like everything else. But lets wait and see, Jaguar could pull a rabbit out the hat and design a car that deserves the badge. TATA deserve special treatment in the UK as they truely have saved the British brands from dying a painful death, well done TATA and keep up the good work!!.
Firstly'
Jaguar is British; historically so and from a design and engineering point of view. The cars are engineered, designed and built by British people in British facilities in Britain. Sadly, due to successive, stupid governments who only offer subsidies to Japanese companies, not British ones, we have sold Jaguar's profit margin to the Indian company Tata, and rightly so, they had the balls to put up the money.
Sadly the government lost us another 14 billion in profit. However, factor in 4 billion every year in our balance of payments on top of that for the next 10 years that’s 40 billion going East, and people wonder why we’ve double dipped! Shows how stupid they are. Let’s keep voting for the big three!
Secondly;
As for Jaguar making this car a diesel, err no this is an out and out performance car. If you want to save a few quid buy and Audi TDi convertible, it's a different league, Jaguar sports car owners do not want to pull up a set of lights with a car that sounds like a taxi! We leave that to lower echelons of society that drive Germanic 'sports' taxi's ala BMW, VW and Audi!