'DNA' drive: Jaguar F-Type — The supercat of supercats

After E comes F.

But for Jaguar, that was a hard act to follow and took all of 50 years.

Yes, Jaguar on Thursday revealed the much-awaited F-Type sports car at the 2012 Paris Motor Show, the first Supercat of its kind from Coventry in half a century.

And by the looks of it, has been worth the wait. We’d even dare say it fires a massive warning shot at thoroughbreds like the Mercedes Benz SLK, the BMW Z4 and the Porsches.

With clean, uncluttered, typically British lines, it’s utterly gorgeous and comes in 15 colours.

Spanning 14.66 feet, it’s smaller than the defining Porsche 911, but this two-seater with an all-aluminium, state-of-the-art build sets the standard for its more illustrious forbearers and promises to have a permanent place in the contemporary sports car firmament

The looks
As global brand director of Jaguar, Adrian Hallmark said, it’s the most important car for Jaguar in the last 50 years. The detailing shows the efforts made with clean lines, British understated luxury but enough flair added such as a deployable spoiler and handles. The interiors feature some dramatic styling, extremely posh trims in the dual cockpit. If the expressions of JLR helmsman Ratan Tata at the launch are anything to go by, he seems utterly confident of the bet made with the F-Ty

What it can do
The beauty is powered by a 3-litre mill that unleashes 380PS of power and 460Nm if torque in the 3.0-litre V6 supercharged engine that was introduced to the 2013 models of the XJ and XF saloons in slightly lesser powered form.  The third generation V6 with its all-alloy construct offers great torsional and lateral stiffness, translating into excellent rigidity and refinement.

The four-valve cylinder heads are constructed from recycled aluminium, with the valves themselves controlled by a dual independent variable cam timing system activated by the positive and negative torques generated by the movement of the intake and exhaust valves.  This responsive and uninterrupted power delivery is made possible through the use of spray-guided direct injection. This delivers precisely measured quantities of fuel directly into the centre of the combustion chambers at pressures of up to 150bar, creating a more homogeneous air-fuel mixture for cleaner and more efficient combustion.

Mounted in the ‘V’ of the engine is the latest-generation Roots-type twin vortex supercharger, whose performance is controlled by a Bosch engine management software in order to optimise efficiency.

The 340 PS or the lowest variant does 1-100 km in 5.1 seconds with electronically limited top speed of 200 kmph. The wide power-band shows in its mid-range acceleration from 50 to 75 kmph in 3.3 seconds.

The middle variant, called S, with a 380PS state of tune offers the greatest specific power output of any Jaguar engine to date: 127PS per litre. This F-TYPE takes out 0-100 kmph in 4.8 seconds, midrange 50-75 kmph in 3.1 seconds and has an electronically  limited top speed of 275 kmph.

The range-topping V8S will reach does 0-100 kmph in 4.2 seconds and has a top speed of 300 kmph, scything thought thanks to the nearly 500 horses unleashed.

All engines drive through an eight-speed ‘Quickshift’ transmission, a centrally mounted SportShift selector offering full manual sequential control, as do the steering wheel-mounted paddles, while adaptive damping adjusts 500 times a second to lend great driving dynamics.

From the designer
Ian Callum, design director of Jaguar, said while the Land Rover is all about angular design. Jaguar is much more voluptuous. Sports cars are all about length and lowness…

What about the simple lines? “Simplicity is also sophistication. A simple song or painting takes a lot of time.  A beautiful single line takes a long time than complicated strokes. You can make it simple boring, interesting complicated but ugly. I see a lot of cars like that,” said Callum.

The car took four years to build . “My job was over last year. In 2008,  we were already working on this car before the Tata takeover. Ratan then arrived and we showed the concept and he said go ahead. Three years back, we got the green light to start designing it. We went in with just one design for the car, and finished designing a year ago. My work ended there,” said Callum. His colleagues’ has just begun. And it should be a breeze, going by what we saw.

SPEC SHEET
Jaguar F-Type
Price: To be announced
Kitna deti hai? Will be known prior to its launch in 2013
Engine: 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine in 340PS and 380PS outputs and 5.0-litre V8 supercharged petrol producing 495PS
Speed: V8- accelerates to 60 kmph in 4.2 seconds (0-100 kmph
in 4.3 seconds)
V6 F-TYPE S- covers the 0-60 kmph sprint in 4.8 seconds (0-100 kmph in 4.9 seconds)
V6 F-TYPE - accelerates to 60 kmph in 5.1 seconds (0-100 kmph in 5.3 seconds)
Torque-to-weight ratio: 375 Nm / tonne
Weight: 1,597 kg