Top Gear F-Type Review

R

Rob

Administrator
Now we've driven the F-Type, we know that it's a proper sports car all right. It's fast, lithe, quick to turn. It's beautiful and wonderfully desirable, and to heck if that means it isn't very practical. It's loud and sharp. Which is just what Jaguar promised throughout the endless F-Type preamble. It also doesn't mind coming across as a little bit scary. We didn't quite expect that.<div><br></div><div><img src="http://www.ftypeforums.co.uk/images/converted_files/uploads/1/top_gear.jpg" height="393" width="700" border="0" /><br><div><br></div><div>In other words, if old men are looking for a new Jaaaaaag to convey them to the golf club, this definitely isn't it.</div><div><br></div><div>So here we are, one of the most talked-about cars of the year. Top Gear has driven all three versions for thousands of miles in everything from snow to rain to warm sunshine, city to motorway to this country's most wonderful and epic roads.</div><div><br></div><div>It doesn't feel like a 'baby roadster'. But then it isn't one. It's wide and stocky. The track width is actually even more than an XK's, even though the wheelbase is a lot shorter and there are no back seats. It's not light, either, despite the aluminium body. It weighs 1600kg in base trim, which is 10 percent more than a base 911 cabrio, which you'll remember is a 2+2.</div><div><br></div><div><div>Still, there's proper power to shove it along. The 'poverty' model has a 340bhp supercharged V6. It's a new engine, launched recently to waft Jag's saloons gently through LA and Beijing. Here, wafting is neither its job description nor its natural disposition. One rung up is a 380bhp version of the same engine. Finally, and pretty ruddy bonkers it is too, is a 495bhp supercharged V8.</div><div><br></div><div>The 0-62s go like this: V6 is 5.3 seconds, V6S in 4.9. They both have similar mid-range torque, but the S keeps pulling to the red-line with more vim, though the difference isn't subjectively very big because the V6S has longer gearing. They both have strength and character, and they both answer your throttle requests smartly. They're sharper and more reactive than turbo motors, if not quite as exactly precise to the throttle the best competing NA engines. You know who I mean.</div><div><br></div><div>The V8 F-Type is up there in supercar territory. It's limited by traction, but even so gets to 62mph in 4.3 seconds. On the road, it comes up with instant and savage kick right around the rev dial. You need a very long straight and a lot of confidence in your rear-tyre traction before you give it the full beans. But when you do, the crazy-ass acceleration and barking exhaust will carve deep chunks out of your consciousness. Its power is a buzz, its exhaust is V8th deadly sin. </div><div><br></div><div>All F-Types have an eight-speed autobox. In normal auto mode, the shifts are a bit blurry and slow. They're designed for slurring around town, and on light throttle the car does that, moving quietly and elastically like a Jaaag. But out of town, that isn't what we want is it?</div></div><div><br></div><div>Read more here: http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/jaguar-f-type-review-first-drive-top-gear-2013-4-18</div></div>
 
It will be on this series if this picture is anything to go by;<div id="watchlr_dummy_element_for_plugin_detection"></div>
<div id="watchlr_dummy_element_for_plugin_detection"></div><div><br></div><div><img src="http://www.ftypeforums.co.uk/images/converted_files/uploads/1/Top_Gear_-_F-Type.jpg" height="498" width="640" border="0" /><br></div>
 
You can find it here:-<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2VqfsbYxPc&feature=youtube_gdata_player<br /><br />
 
I think the stig will give it a good seeing to in the next series, hopefully the V6S and V8S <img src="http://www.ftypeforums.co.uk/images/converted_files/smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" alt="Tongue" title="Tongue" />
 
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