The F-Type, Jaguar’s all-new aluminium two-seater sports car, will make its global debut in production form at the Paris Motor Show on 27th September.
The Jaguar F-Type's logo
It will be launched as a convertible with a choice of three petrol engines: 340PS and 380PS versions of Jaguar’s all-new 3.0-litre supercharged V6, and a new derivative of its existing supercharged 5.0-litre V8. All will drive the rear wheels through an eight-speed transmission and will be equipped with Stop/Start technology.
There’s a lot of expectation around the new model and Jaguar is playing a cagey PR game to help build interest.
Indeed, Jaguar have put in the work for the new car – albeit in a virtual world.
The test programme saw more than half-a-million separate F-Type design analyses carried out, comprising 10-million CPU hours of processing, creating more than 300TB of data. Had that same amount of initial design analysis been completed on physical cars, the number of prototype F-Types built would have filled the majority of the UK’s motorway network bumper-to-bumper.
The result of all that ‘virtual’ design work is that Jaguar’s engineers are currently concentrating on honing the performance of the physical verification prototypes, to ensure the production F-Type delivers a ‘focused sports car driving reward’.
Adrian Hallmark, Jaguar’s global brand director, said: “The unveiling of the F-Type in Paris will be a truly significant day in Jaguar’s history as it will mark the company’s return to the sports car market, a market it originally helped to create.
“As its sporting forebears did in their era, the F-Type will break new ground by delivering stunning sports car performance while vividly demonstrating Jaguar’s cutting-edge engineering technologies and world-class design excellence. The next step in Jaguar’s sporting bloodline is about to become reality.”
Be in no doubt that there will be a lot of media coverage on the day – and lots of men of a certain going misty-eyed at the new car.
