2015 Jaguar F-Type Coupe
Jag closes the lid on its svelte F-Type
By Imthishan Giado
You knew it was coming. The C-X16 Concept previewed its look and now it’s here at last – the coupe version of Jag’s lil’ monster F-Type. I got a chance to check out the car at an early morning briefing hosted by Jaguar-Land Rover boss and all-round action man Robin Colgan.
F-Type Coupe is as you guessed, a hardtop version of the good-looking F-Type cabriolet. Naturally, the addition of a fixed-roof has made the car stiffer than its topless predecessor, and the lack of heavy folding bits means it’s 20kg lighter than the cabrio – not as much as I was expecting. The roof itself can be ordered in one of three types – aluminium, carbon and glass.
As with the regular F-Type, the coupe will be available with a pair of 3.0-litre supercharged V6s, each good for either 340bhp/332lb ft or 380bhp/3339lb ft and doing the 0-100kph deed in 5.3 and 4.9 seconds respectively. This is the part where you expect me to talk about the 5.0-litre V8 supercharged V8 version – but no!
There will be no V8S car – instead there’s an even more powerful R Coupe version. It does have the five-litre under the hood, only instead of 510bhp it has a supercar-baiting 550bhp. In case you’re wondering, that means 0-100kph in 4.2seconds and a top speed of 300kph. The adaptive suspension has received a special tune for the R Coupe and it’s capable of adjusting dampers 500 times a second – trying doing that with a spanner at 300kph.
Pricing was also revealed: regular coupe starts at AED235,000, the quicker S Coupe lands in at AED288,000 and the mega-fast R will take 426,000 of your hard earned dirhams. That sounds like a lot until you consider that Porsche’s road-racer GT3 ‘only’ has 475bhp and costs AED 491,100. The Turbo makes 520bhp – less, number fans – and costs more at AED 541,800. If you want the current in cool, the Jag is the only way to go – sorry Porsche.
Jag’s seen 30% growth in the MENA region and global sales are up 47%, largely thanks to the strong sales of cars like the F-Type. Though he wouldn’t be drawn on an exact number, Colgan admitted that the F-Type has ‘satisfied’ his sales objectives. Unusually, he notes that both V8 and V6S are neck-and-neck in terms of sales – unusual, considering how power-obsessed we are in this region.
