Jaguar F-Type debuts at Paris 2012: V6, V6 S and V8 S

Written By admin on Saturday, March 16, 2013 | 10:24 PM

Here’s Jaguar’s Paris debutant, an all-new sports car model called the Jaguar F-Type that joins the other two new Jaguars – the XF and XJ. Inspired by the C-X16 concept from 2011, the new F-Type is front-engined, rear wheel drive, and seats two. Like the XJ, it’s built on an all-aluminium construction.
Three different engine tunes are available. The baseline F-Type uses a 3.0 litre supercharged V6 making 340 PS. Take it up a notch and the F-Type S produces 380 PS with a tuned up version of the 3.0 litre supercharged V6. The top of the line for now is the F-Type V8 S which uses a 5.0 litre supercharged V8 producing 495 PS and 625Nm of torque. No mention of an F-Type R as of now.

Jaguar’s all-aluminium construction is a truly brilliant thing – it means using the same 3.0 litre diesel engine as a reference for example, a larger limo-sized car like the XJ can accelerate to 100km/h faster than the smaller XF, which has a less extensive use of aluminium in its structure.
In the F-Type’s case, it gives the V8 S model a torque to weight ratio of 375Nm per tonne, which means simple maths reveal the model to weigh 1.66 tonnes. As a comparison, the SL500 is around 1.8 tonnes. The V8 S does the century sprint in 4.3 seconds. The V6 and V6 S does the same in 5.3 seconds and 4.9 seconds respectively.
With the F-Type, the aluminium architecture has been optimised to provide the stiffest possible underpinnings for the suspension with rigidity gains of more than 30 per cent in key areas compared to any other Jaguar application. It features an all-aluminium double wishbone front and rear suspension and a quick-ratio steering rack.

All models are mated to a 8-speed Quickshift transmission, but curiously the rotary gearbox that JLR has been putting into all of its Jaguar and Land Rovers is missing on this car. I was also wondering where the centre aircond vents were at first, but then saw a second photo where the entire dash top in the centre raises to reveal the vents.
The V6 S model includes a Dynamic Launch feature, which optimises acceleration from standstill. An active exhaust system, which is standard on the S and V8 S models, open under load from 3000rpm which allows the exhaust note to build to a thrilling crescendo at the redline. There’s an active rear spoiler which deploys at speed to reduce lift by about 120kg.