It’s hard to think of another car that’s been around since 2013 and which still draws so many admiring glances. Facelifting it must have been a daunting task but the major revisions to the front end have been mostly met with praise.
The restyle which had its public premiere at the Brussels motor show in January was in fact the second update for the car, an earlier nip and tuck having debuted at the same event three years previously.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Three engines, four outputs
There are particulate filters for the all-petrol line-up but JLR has to a large extent left the engines and transmissions alone, the base unit still being the 221 kW (300 PS) and 400 Nm 2.0-litre Ingenium turbo which was added three months after the first facelift.
The 340 PS supercharged 3.0-litre V6 was dropped a few years ago but a 380 PS version remains available in the USA and certain other countries (the UK isn’t one of them). Here, the next step up from the four-cylinder F-Type is a 331 kW (450 PS) and 580 Nm version of the supercharged 5.0-litre V8 that until a few months back was supplied by Ford of Britain.
With Ford winding up all output at its Bridgend site but JLR wanting to keep the V8 going, the company took the decision to do a ‘lift and shift’, transporting the production line from South Wales to England’s West Midlands in September. It’s now thought that the supercharged V8 will remain in production at JLR’s Wolverhampton works until 2023-2025. Various outputs exist for different Jaguar and Land Rover models, and the 4,999 cc unit will soon also turn up in the Defender.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataFor the F-Type, in addition to the 331 kW version, there’s now a 423 kW (575 PS) and 700 Nm V8 for the R, which unlike the RWD or AWD 331 kW (450 PS), comes only with all-wheel drive. As of now, no successor for the pre-facelift SVR exists so if Jaguar has one coming, it will need to gain power – perhaps 600 PS – so as to be distinguishable from the R (the pre-facelift R had 550 PS with the 575 engine reserved for the SVR).
Are four cylinders enough for a GT?
JLR’s all-aluminium vehicles have never been the lightest in their class, the XE being the best-known example, Now though, the F-Type has has an advantage over the few other big coupes and convertibles in the segment thanks to having been in production for so long. Newer technology seems to only ever bring more weight, as pretty much any electrified vehicle proves, so heading into 2021, the Jaguar is still ridiculously rapid and in four-cylinder form at least, not especially thirsty either.
I hadn’t driven an Ingenium-powered F for a couple of years and if the engine hasn’t changed that’s not a bad thing. Turbo lag, if it exists, remains undetectable and while there’s ‘only’ 300 horsepower, the additional 275 which the R has also adds almost fifty thousand pounds to the price. Which is why the 2.0-litre model is a bargain in some ways. Plus, for anyone who wants the tail-sliding fun that’s available in a non-AWD F-Type (when electronic safety systems are switched off), Dynamic mode is easily activated.
Some Jaguars don’t growl
There’s nothing wild about the four-cylinder car, even if it is decently quick: 0-62 mph in 5.7 seconds and maximum speed of 250 km/h/155 mph. Sadly, even when you press the chequered flag button for Dynamic, there’s no growl and at idle, the engine sounds as though it doesn’t belong in a car that looks as mean and fast as this one.
Find a quiet road with long views of where ongoing vehicles will appear from and the 2.0-litre F is anything but ordinary. At higher engine revs, the Ingenium also comes alive. If only it had that little button which the V8s do, a sketch of tailpipes upon it. It’s hard for me to believe this but not everybody buying an F-Type wants the raspy, barky, supercharger-screamy 5.0-litre thunder which happens when that’s pressed, opening the electrically-actuated bypass valves in the rear silencer.
A 2.0-litre bargain?
We of course can tell straight away just by clocking the central tailpipe that it’s a 2.0-litre car but dropping GBP2,090 on a set of ’19-inch Style 5101, 5 split-spoke Gloss Black with contrast Diamond Turned finish’ wheels would be money well spent. They transform this GBP54,060 base car into something which looks way more fearsome.
Other options I’d go for would include GBP1,340 worth of 12-way electrically adjustable and heated seats (be warned though, even setting one of three must have been designed for Sweden in January), a heated windscreen and steering wheel (GBP265 each), along with automatically dimming-demisting and electrically folding mirrors (GBP470). And if close to sixty grand is starting to look like a not especially affordable GT, then know that the just-announced Heritage 60 Edition due out in March costs ‘from’ GBP122,500.
Summary
That seven days with the Jaguar left me feeling as though I wanted longer says everything about this still sensational car. That, and my lust for a V8 under the bonnet.
Happily, the driving position remains unimproveable, the dashboard and centre console haven’t been messed with – well apart from the removal of real buttons on each side of the touch screen (their virtual replacements along the bottom of the screen disappear when CarPlay is used) – but the sun-visors and volume of interior storage spaces are still too small. And after many, many years, I accept that JLR won’t ever fix the transmission selector. Three point turns take way longer than in other cars and the heart-stopping moments when you get N instead of the D or R you urgently need are ‘fun’ but hey, the world isn’t perfect.
The recent facelift should keep the F-Type looking contemporary until a potential successor appears in 2023 (will it be electric and/or a PHEV?) and even by then, a decade after it arrived, the beauty of this car will surely still be turning heads.
The Jaguar F-Type 2.0-litre costs from GBP54,060 OTR, has WLTP Combined cycle CO2 emissions of 215-220 g/km and returns an official 29.9-29.2 mpg.
