New Jaguar F-Type review, test drive

Climbing into the driver’s seat proves to be a bit difficult. The car is so attractive, you can’t help but stop and stare at the gorgeous lines. There’s little doubt that this car is the spiritual successor of the famous Jag E-Type of the ’60s with its long bonnet, clean crisp lines and gaping mouth. Designer Ian Callum has however managed to give the F-Type an identity all its own. There’s a delicious flow to the lines of this car around the nose, the ‘D’-shaped grille marks it out immediately as a Jag, and those vertically stacked inlets below the headlights look really special too. What’s also neat is the way the shoulder line rises over the rear wheel and curves around to the rear. And don’t those tail-lights and that tapering rear look stunning!

The F-Type is also tastefully done on the inside. The design of the cabin really is a fresh take on the insides of a sportscar, and as a result the driving environment is more modern cockpit than traditional leather-and-wood-panel job. Tacky-looking stalks aside, the quality on the insides is up there with the competition from Germany. The chunky steering wheel with the stubby paddle shifts feels great to hold and the knurled air-con knobs feel particularly nice. Also adding a touch of class is the white-on-grey dials. The F-Type’s party piece, however, has to be the pop-up aircon vents; they emerge almost out of nowhere when you start the car and are just too cool. 

Comfort levels aren’t too bad either. You’re not sat too low and visibility out is decent, so eyeballing those potholes is really easy. And for all that 488bhp, the F-Type is quite well mannered and easy to drive in traffic. It doesn’t leap forward or lurch when you give it a bit of gas, and that’s perfect for our traffic where getting on and off the throttle is a constant affair. What also impressed us was the fact that the F-Type didn’t scrape its belly on speed breakers, though we did crawl over them real slow.