F-Type Coupe now in Mzansi

F-Type Coupe now in Mzansi
25 June, 2014 | by Lance Branquinho

http://www.topgear.co.za/car-reviews/jag...decisions/



Jaguar’s F-Type coupe is an 80%-ter. Can you remember that yearning to be one too, all those years ago at school? Back then 80% was the crucial A-grade tipping point, an academic Rubicon rewarded with teachers’ adulation, parental approval and freedom.

The F-Type’s 80% grade is bit different. Specifically, it is a lesson in metallurgy. Rigidity, in fact; that most boring of automotive engineering statistics. F-Type coupe has structural rigidity 80% greater than its convertible sibling, a car already notable for the crispness of its driver feedback, undiluted by scuttle shake and suspension mounting point oscillation.

Expressed as an absolute number Jaguar’s F-Type coupe resists structural deformation at up to 33 000 Nm/degree of force, which is F1 standard engineering. “So what?” You’ll no doubt mumble. “Rigidity and structural stiffness are engineering geek speak, I only care how it drives.” Well, actually, rigidity is quite crucial to ‘how it drives’.

Allow me a terse clarification: if suspension mounting points deflect at even a tiny measurement under high cornering loads or across an imperfect road surface, steering feel and traction are immediately debited. The truer a car’s structure remains under load, the more direct all feedback you’ll experience whilst driving. Suddenly that 80% ‘greater than’ rigidity number represents an intrinsic driver feedback value, something beyond its pure numeracy.

Where is the palpable benefit of that 80%-ter value contained within Jaguar’s fixed roof F-Type? It most certainly is not in the fundamental design you can see: F-Type coupe’s simple, yet arresting, styling. Or hear: the custom crafted exhaust acoustic, with inflection similar to a nuclear popcorn maker on overrun. Bizarrely, the 80%-ter manifests itself most evidently in the boldness of F-Type coupe R’s power output. Yes, you can correlate it to an exact number: 405kW.

Whereas the convertible F-Type V8 offers a 364kW performance ceiling, the coupe 80% greater rigidity is capable of absorbing much greater loads, providing Jaguar an engineering safety margin to boost power by quite a lot; 41kW to be precise. In a compact coupe those 405kW elevate the F-Type’s offering as a driving machine. It is immodestly an alarmingly fast car, capable of mocking the relationship between real world driving space and time in such a manner as to focus the driver’s attention rather selfishly.

As a caveat, the V6 F-Type coupes are singularly accomplished cars to their own credit. I certainly do not have to make a case for the 280kW V6 S as the best buy at R982 404, or the entry level 250kW as a sportscar of distinction and merit. F-Type R V8, though, is a car of notable drama.

Our South African debutant experience with F-Type coupe tallied a few laps around the Roy Hesketh circuit near Pietermaritzburg, followed by an afternoon’s driving in the KZN midlands. Unsurprisingly, we experienced a surfeit of cabin comfort and cruising refinement, the latter courtesy of ZF’s outstandingly calibrated eight-speed automatic transmission. This is a Jaguar, remember: grace and pace are supposed to collaborate, without one being present at the cost of the other.

Beyond the effortless cruising capability there lurks a performance car of intimidating intent within this F-Type R. Engage the dynamic settings and it germinates into an authentic British muscle car, if you can envisage such a thing. Sure, there is a veneer of finessed sophistication. The E-diff, for example, which does it best to negotiate a worthwhile compromise between traction and those 680 torques. Mostly, though, F-Type R is a car of such sheer kinetic violence, measured by its fierce acceleration and underscored by an almost inexcusably rampant exhaust noise, that you are never anything but very much involved as a driver.

There are precious few cars which convert octane to octaves with such ruthless overture as Jaguar’s F-Type coupe R. As the V8′s exhausts pop and bang the accompanying propulsion is every bit as urgent as you’d expect from a car with 405kW to move about only 1650kg.

Yes, it does tramline a bit over imperfect tarmac, but the credit to that dynamic debit is a brutally honest relationship between the road surface and F-Type coupe’s steering. Millimetric wheel placement precision at speed is an effortless deliverable with this car and if you do get a touch too ambitious the first shield is driver assistance instead of authoritarian safety intervention. Thank the torque vectoring system for that: if a sweeping corner tightens a touch more than anticipated you can feel the inside rear wheel being ABS pulsed, trimming F-Type’s posture towards the clipping point.

Capable of brutal power-on oversteer if required yet wholesomely content in traffic, F-Type R is perhaps the Jaguar most representative of the brand’s resurgence. With a 407-litre boot it’s incomparably more liveable than the convertible (which offers a shameful 196-litres) and for similar money to the V8 soft-top you do gain an inarguably faster car with this new coupe.

In absolute terms the R1.5m price is a touch audacious, placing F-Type R coupe amongst a collective of very capable cars: R8 V8, M6, 911 Carrera 4S. All told, though, if you desire a driving machine that seduces with emphatic driver feedback, but also retains a lingering sense of hooligan, an unflinching last tenth intimidation factor, F-Type R will make for a rarely disappointing ownership experience.

In a world of very fast but increasingly artificial performance coupes, it’s a car you will make a point of visiting in the garage after getting up for some water a 2am, just to marvel at it under those florescent lights, baiting you for the following morning’s breakfast run.

Ultimately, that seemingly intangible 80% greater rigidity over the convertible has made for a 100% authentic driver’s car – and that’s geek speak we most certainly approve of.

Jaguar F-Type R coupe

5000cc supcharged V8, 405kW, 680Nm, 0-100kph in 4.2 secs, 300kph, 8-speed auto, R1 534 189