Jaguar landed some nice new metal in local
show rooms last month in the form of the sleek F-Type Coupe. Actually these
cats aren't made from any old ferrous material, being alloy and all, and the
Coupe follows up the F-type Convertible which launched last year, injecting
some much needed oomph into the Jaguar line up. The Coupe continues this
momentum, vying to make the leaper a more desirable badge. It's a vital
platform to lay for the upcoming XE executive sedan, to be revealed in London
in September and coming here next year.
The
F-type R Coupe feels incredibly quick and offers high levels of grip
Big things are expected of it, the engine
line-up for which has recently been revealed. The new range of engines, dubbed
lngenium, will be used throughout the Jaguar Land Rover product portfolio and
are based around a common engine block architecture that shares the same bore,
stroke, cylinder spacing and 500cc cylinder capacity. This will allow for quick
and easy development of smaller or larger displacement variants in the future.
These have been designed to work with rear-, all- and four-wheel drive options,
manual and automatic transmissions and electrified hybrid drive systems as
well. The diesel and petrol engines will feature turbocharging and development
focused on reducing internal friction to improve efficiency.
Swept-back
headlight clusters give the F-type a pleasing front-end design
The XE is a make-or-break car for the
brand, which can't expect to survive on its current line-up of large sedans and
exclusive sports cars much longer. These sportsters help with the image but
don't contribute much in the way of volume (though probably do in terms of
profits). The local distributor, Motorcorp, sold just 15 F-type Convertibles in
its first year here, with a further 10 more in 2014. New Zealanders do prefer
coupes, and Jaguar expects its tin top to sell in better numbers, easily
doubling the Convertible retails, but it seems supply constraints might curtail
any sales ambitions, with the initial allocation mostly spoken for.
The Coupe line up mirrors that of the
Convertible with two V6 models and a big V8 range topper. The V6 twins use the
same powertrain as the Convertible with the supercharged six delivering 250kW
and 450Nm in the entry-level variant and 280kW/460Nm in the S. These Coupes are
lighter, stiffer and faster than the Convertibles, and $15,000 cheaper starting
at $125,000, with the S model set at $140,000.
The
interior is the same as the convertible; it's a comfortable and beguiling place
to sit
The V8 is a bit of a different beast and is
distinguished by the R badge on its rump. It is $5,000 more than the V8 S
Convertible, but it's even more powerful, the 5.0-litre supercharged V8
adopting the same tune as used by the XFR-S and XJR which sees it chum out
404kW and 680Nm of torque, 40 more kaydubs than the V8 S Convertible. Jaguar
quotes 0-100km/h in just over four seconds and the R enjoys the full range of
the company's chassis technology, including adaptive dampers, an electronically
controlled active rear diff and rear axle torque vectoring via the brakes. On
the subject of braking, the R and S models gain the option of new Carbon
Ceramic Matrix (CCM) brakes which Jag says reduce total unsprung weight by
21kg. These however add $16,000 to the cost of your S and an extra $13,000 on
the R.
All models use an eight-speed auto to
channel drive to the rear-end and the S model utilises a mechanical LSD
featuring a 26 per cent lock-up. The Coupe gets a deployable rear spoiler to
keep it from taking off at speed, rising at 115km/ hand lowering when the speed
drops below 85km/h.
The
R's supercharged 5.0-litre V8 is a muscular, endearing powerplant
The R is monstrously powerful, the big rear
tyres squirming constantly under the flow of all that torque, while the
stability aids get a good working over when driven with anything less than 100
per cent finesse. Where we thought the V8 S Convertible was fast, this thing
boarders on being brutal. And the noise? Truly awesome. But then even the V6
can belt out a decent tune, revving loud and long. On our launch drive there
was also an F-Type Convertible to sample and the reasons to buy the Coupe over
the topless version include a more stable ride, and better steering. Too much
shock and vibration filter up through the column in the Convertible, while the
rear moves around more too. With a proper roof, the Coupe's better insulated,
and has a more usable hold with 315L of space under the tailgate compared with
196L in the Convertible, and there's a much better opening too, as you'd
expect. You can expect a road test of the monstering R next month.
