The Jaguar F-Type Was Way Better Than You Thought And Now It’s Almost Gone

It was always going to happen. And it was always going to sting a little bit. The Jaguar F-Type has entered its final model year, and when the last one rolls off the line in 2024, a 75 year history of petrol-powered Jaguar sports cars will end. As a sort of celebration/commiseration, Jaguar’s launching the ‘75’ edition. To give the car a decent send off, Jag laid on something of a road trip through Spain with the opportunity to play in an R (and the P450, but the R was more fun) over 500 (ish) miles. It also served as a bittersweet journey through time.

[Full disclosure: Jaguar asked if I wanted to spend some time in F-Types and I said yes. Flights, accommodation, food, booze, the whole nine was covered by Jaguar.]

Available on the P450 V8 or R models, the ’75’ edition gets some natty black wheels, the option of ‘Giola’ green paint, special seats, ‘75’ badging, and, if you get the ‘R’, blacked out R badges. The powertrains haven’t been played with at all, which means you either get a 444bhp V8 (in RWD or AWD), or a 567bhp (AWD only) one with silly performance to match.

The F-Type’s been around since 2013, and was hailed as the next great thing. Initially launched as a convertible with a couple of V6 motors and a perky V8, it cut a figure that hadn’t really been seen before. That’s thanks to legendary designer Ian Callum and his team. It was a tightly packaged machine, with every millimeter used to fullest effect. Grace, pace, and space was the old Jag motto, and while the trunk in the drop top was a little small, it managed the other two perfectly.

A year later, the Coupé came out and, hoo boy, was it a looker. With the hardtop came the R, a 542bhp rear drive angerbox that boasted the sort of soundtrack that your middle aged neighbors will complain about years after you’d moved out. It shifted, too, cracking 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds before heading to 186mph. And that was before the SVR rolled around with a more aggressive body, more power, and a 200mph top speed.

After the XK had been around for so damn long it was a breath of fresh air for the brand. Under Callum’s eye, the company’s design direction had shifted from the kind of car your dad drove to something more modern, dynamic, and, dare I say it, pretty damn cool. With the F-Type, Jaguar had a sports car again, and one that packed some serious punch. When it came out, Aston Martin’s VH-platform Vantage was coming up on a decade old (showing no signs of being replaced), and Porsche had just dropped the 991-generation 911–a car that, while most wonderful, made the 911 feel a little less sporty, and a touch more GT-ish. The market was Jag’s for the taking.

Today’s F-Types are largely the same as they ever were. Sure, the suspension’s been tweaked, the instrument panel is now all shiny and digital, and the facelift’s headlights are different, but the feel of the thing remains the same. The coupé still has one of the finest rear ends out there.

Getting in is like wrapping yourself in a blanket of pre-world-going-terrible nostalgia. There’s wonderful theatre in there–when you press the pulsing start button the HVAC vents rise from the center stack, the pipes bark (though thanks to an emissions-helping GPF not quite as loudly as they used to), and the car settles into a delightful burble. The F-Type is unashamedly old school, and won’t be taking any crap from anyone asking about electrification.

Its eight-speed auto remains sublime at town speeds, seamlessly shifting up and down as the car requires. For a car with ALL THE POWER, it’s quite soft in the city, should you need to nip to the store or take an elderly relative to church its just fine, though the massive 20-inch wheels do make the ride a little harsh from time to time (big wheels are an Ian Callum hallmark–if the arch isn’t full, he isn’t happy). Its steering is just so, which is neat. Town does highlight the F-Type’s biggest issue: It. Is. WIDE.

At nearly 76 inches across, you find yourself breathing in when traffic comes the other way, or if you need to go between… kerbs. In fact, the whole thing’s pretty big, yet there’s not much space inside. It’s a big-small car, a bit like an Audi R8. This is because every tiny bit of available space is being used for the powertrain, and to make sure it looks awesome. I’m OK with sacrificing luggage space so it can move.

The F-Type R’s party piece is its incredible power. Now only available with AWD (the old 544bhp car and RWD was an… interesting combo. Especially in the wet.), it puts its power down effortlessly, noisily, and rather savagely. Yeah, a 911 has better balance, an Aston has a better badge, but on noise alone this shits all over the pair of them. It’s exciting, visceral, and makes you do big silly grins every time you nail the gas. Pull the shift paddle and the car will lurch forward like a race car, drawing you into the moment, the silliness of it all deeper and deeper until you realise you’re going very, very quickly and you should probably calm down before you end up in trouble.

Thanks to also having to drive its front wheels, the steering isn’t quite as sweet at speed as in the RWD P450, but you can certainly feel what’s going on. Its brakes are decent, too, and easy to play with. You can spec carbon ceramic discs, but other than for bragging rights or extreme track use you’re best with the standard set up.

Watching the world go by through the F-Type R’s windshield everything feels… right. It’s not perfect, but those imperfections make it feel just peachy. And that’s no surprise when you consider where it came from.

The 75 edition F-Types celebrate Jaguar’s incredible, groundbreaking sports car past. The XK120, the firm’s first sports car got its name from its top speed: 120mph. It was, at the time, the fastest production car in the world. Hell, a heavily modified XK120 averaged 172.4mph on a test run in 1953. The C-Type, the competition version of the XK120, was not only a Le Mans winner, but was a test bed for automotive disc brake technology–something that saves lives on a daily basis today, but was instrumental in competition back in the day. The D-Type was a masterwork of aerodynamics, and won Le Mans three times. And the E-Type..? One of the most celebrated sports cars of all time. It wasn’t a star on track, but if you see an E-Type in the wild you’ll see a hundred eyes scouring every detail, and camera phones capturing it for posterity. Each one left a huge mark on the world.

With the F-Type, Jaguar entered a busier market and held its own remarkably well. It was never going to upset a 911, nor have the caché of a Vantage, but it was from an attainable brand at a keener price point. And it looked a damn sight better than everything else out there. In 40 years a 911 will look like just another 911 (sorry Porsche people, but your cars all look the damn same). An F-Type will look special.

Jaguar’s future is still largely shrouded in mystery, though the next car will be a GT revealed next year–that much we know. If it doesn’t continue a legacy started three quarters of a century ago and build a sports car somewhere down the line it’s not only missing a trick, but dishonouring what got it there in the first place. For now, let’s enjoy the F-Type while we still can.

On a personal note, the F-Type has been around for most of my career and the R is one of my all time favourite cars. Here’s what I made of it in 2014 (huge props to Nick Wilkinson for putting it together).

Photos: Alex Goy, Jaguar