Jaguar F-Type Coupe unveiled
Prepare to break your piggy bank. Jaguar has unveiled the aluminium masterpiece that is the F-Type Coupe
Tempted by the Jaguar F-Type, but felt the Convertible was just too posey for your liking? Panic over.
The Jaguar F-Type Coupe has just been revealed at a star-studded event in Los Angeles – and it looks better than our tiny brains imagined.
F-F-F-fast
Pretty, it may be – but don’t let the exterior trick you into thinking it’s all looks and no substance. There’s a bucket load of technology crammed in there to help the F-Type Coupe handle better at low and high speeds.
A first for a Jaguar is Torque Vectoring, a clever system that works out your entrance speed into a corner. If the car thinks you’re going too fast, with understeer the inevitable outcome, it automatically applies braking to the inner-wheels. Each wheel works independently of each other to maintain your driving line, keeping you from going wide.
There’s also a second generation version of Jaguar’s Electronic Active Differential, which estimates road conditions and adjusts the amount of torque for each wheel to ensure maximum traction at all times.
Combined with Jaguar’s Adaptive Dynamics suspension system, which looks at how you are driving and what the car is currently doing up to 500 times a second, adjusting vertical body movement, pitch and roll accordingly, it’s safe to say the F-Type Coupe will handle like a champ.
Better still, the F-Type primes the brakes ready for braking when you take your foot off the accelerator, allowing you to stop more quickly if need be.
Call me aluminium
The body is made from lightweight aluminium, which helps keep the kerb weight down and makes the F-Type Coupe more solid than any Jaguar ever. The British car manufacturer has claimed torsional rigitidy – as it’s known to people in white coats – is a whopping 33,000Nm for per degree. That means every degree of the body is resisting the twisting force of 48 F-Type Coupe V8 engines combined. In short, it’s a stiff car.
On the inside you get the usual Bluetooth connectivity goodness as well as a touchscreen navigation system. You can also opt for an active exhaust that’ll make the addictive engine note even more potent as you drive along. There’s also a pretty pimp sound system from British sound wizards Meridian if you front up some more wonga.
Prices start at £51,235 for the bottom spec F-Type Coupe and rise to £85,000 for the much more powerful F-Type R, which has a sizable 550bhp V8, a 0 to 60mph time of 4 seconds and a top speed limited to 186mph. Notice the use of the phrase ‘limited’ – as if you need to go any faster, eh?
Deliveries start in early 2014, so best get your name down quick.
Ben Griffin
