F-Type R The 2015 Jaguar F-Type R is a truly special car — a worthy to its World Car of the Year predecessor (the F-Type convertible) and its legendary, distant ancestors, the E-Type Jag.
The original convertible for the 2014 model year was an immediate success for Jaguar, claiming the World Car Design of the Year Award at the New York International Auto Show. For a price tag rounding out on the high end just north of $100,000, it’s a luxury sports car that doesn’t price itself so deep into the super car realm that it’s only reachable by denizens of Dubai and Russian tycoons.
When Jaguar was ready to introduce the maxed-out, V8, 550 horsepower F-Type R Coupe earlier this year, the automaker turned to its now famous Villain campaign to promote the car and its reputation as a pop culture player once again.
The coupe’s name is not random alphabet soup, as the world famous E-Type Jag of the late 1960s is automotive royalty. For many, it would set carved on an automotive Mount Rushmore next to the Aston Martin DB-5, the Ferrari Daytona and the 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback. Then again, that might just be my personal ranking. Regardless, the E-Type is iconic — and any car wearing the F-Type title needs to hold up the brand’s reputation.
During a track test recently on North America’s only Formula 1 racing course (COTA, the Circuit of the Americas outside Austin), Jaguar allowed a small number of car writers access to the car at speed. A few laps around COTA confirmed what I already expected. This new F-Type R Coupe is perfectly balanced, immediately responsive and reassuringly precise.
The car adjustable Sport Mode offers enough choices to guarantee the driver has safety assistance in track conditions without stuffing in so much technology that the driver loses touch with the pure, visceral thrill of driving a performance car like the F-Type.
And, as a kicker, the exhaust note is poetry — easily one of the prettiest car sounds on the market today.
The only possible way I could imagine that this car could be better plays more to a personal preference than to a general, mass market point of review. I’d love a traditional manual gear box in this car. Six speed on the floor. Instead, an eight speed sequential automatic transmission with paddle shifters comes standard.
Now, that’a a fine gearbox, and it works flawlessly in the F-Type on the street or on the track. But, while driving it, I longed for that sensation of reaching down and grabbing another gear — of driving the clutch home and slamming the stick back down into third while relying on my left hand to pull me around a rimshot turn. Somehow, the feel of flicking up and down the gears inside 550 horsepower’s worth of engine with the ease of a fidgeting with a PS4 controller doesn’t satisfy
There are a couple reasons why that might not be a reasonable dream on my part. First of all, and this has been roundly established elsewhere and in other reviews, I’m a dinosaur. Dinosaur gearhead car lovers like me don’t (and probably shouldn’t) get what they want when better technology evolves. For performance driving, the paddles are more efficient and ensure two hands on the wheel for track driving. In addition, the removal of the clutch strips just that much extra weight out of a car looking to be as fast as possible.
No matter how you send the F-Type R through its gears, driving provides nothing but pleasant, thrilling sensations. It’s a genuine classic.
And, because I say my prayers and live a clean life, rumors abound that Jaguar might actually look to introduce this same F-Type with a manual transmission.
If I have to become a villain to make that happen, I’ll do it.
