Jaguar Service and Repair Redwood City - History lesson: the Jaguar F Type - Bosch European Redwood City - (650) 368-3000

 

 

Jaguar is one of the most famous sports car makers in the world. Indeed, brand chief Adrian Hallmark says it was one of the founder members of the sports car arena – the legendary E-type precedes even that sports car icon, the Porsche 911.

But between 1974 and 2013, Jaguar didn’t even sell a sports car – something as unthinkable to Hallmark as Ferrari or Porsche not selling a sports car. It wasn’t through lack of trying though, as we shall see. There’s more to the Jaguar sports car story than you’d think…

Few cars sound better than an F-type at full chat

Whoever tuned the F-type's exhausts deserves a medal. Even the base V6 models sound like an angry hornet snorting supercharged narcotics - and the V8 S range-topper bellows like an American muscle car. The gruff acoustics are intrinsic to the appeal of the F-type.

Such great aural pleasure is mostly down to the switchable exhaust. Flaps in the pipes open up at around 3000rpm to let the exhaust gases rip straight through - hell hath no fury when it's released to bypass the silencer... The F-type pops and cackles, booms and crescendoes like something born in Maranello, not Coventry.

Now you see them, now you don't: magic disappearing air vents

Jaguar design chief Ian Callum has form here. The 2008 XF sported air vents which rotated around when you first started the engine. Callum called it the handshake.

The F-type serves up a new twist on robotic air vents. The central air vents atop the dashboard are mostly hidden, rising up only when the on-board computer determines extra ventilation is necessary.

There will be a Jaguar F-type RS version

Hard to believe, but Jaguar thinks there is room for an even faster, more focused F-type than the V8 S model MSN Cars drove at launch (read our F-type review here). Yes, the one which already hits 60mph in 4.2sec. Senior sources at Jaguar have confirmed to MSN that an RS model is being worked on. 'It looks very good in French racing blue,' said our mole.

The RS model is likely to feature a much more powerful engine, according to Autocar magazine. It reports that a power output of 600bhp is possible and weight will be carved away too. We dread to think of the bills for over-stressed rear Pirelli tyres...

The Jaguar F-type nearly didn't have red paint

A small revelation made by Jaguar design chief Ian Callum (above): the new F-type nearly didn't have red paint on the options list. In the event, punters can now choose between Italian Racing Red and Salsa Red but there was originally no scarlet option planned.

'We can only have 16 paint colours in our Castle Bromwich factory,' he told MSN Cars. 'By the time you've put in the basic paints we need - such as the greys, whites, a black metallic for Europe and the solid black popular in the US - there was no room for red. But it really suits this car and I fought hard for it. We had to sacrifice a pair of other colours, but we now have two reds on the colour charts. It's one of the most popular colours, judging by our order books.'

Of course, if your pockets are deep enough, you can order any colour you like from Jaguar's Engineered To Order customisation programme. Walk in and match the colour of your F-type to the hue of your favourite suit? That'll be £8,000, please sir.

It's made almost entirely from aluminium

The F-type is unusual in this class for being made almost entirely out of aviation-spec aluminium. Jaguar has become a leading expert in the material and has been making its XJ and XK models from the stuff for years at its Castle Bromwich factory in the Midlands.

The aluminium construction is good for performance, economy, handling and recycling - it's a virtuous circle where less mass equals more goodness all round. It also means that the F-type is glued and riveted together - just like an Airbus.

The F-type's rear lamps are modelled on an E-type's

Jaguar design chief Ian Callum is not big on sentimentality, but when you work for a company whose history is as storied as Jag's, you have to expect some retro touches.

The F-type is wholesomely new and modern, in the whole, but Callum acknowledges the oval grille references the 1968 XJ's, while those narrow rimmed rear lamps are a nod to the chrome bumper bars on an early E-type. Neat, eh?

 

source: http://cars.uk.msn.com/features/20-things-weve-learned-about-the-jaguar-f-type#image=1
by Tim Pollard

 

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