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UPDATE 8/12/22: This evaluation has been up to date with check outcomes.
Jaguar is on the lookout for a brand new job. After a century of constructing stunning, internal-combustion-engine vehicles, it is pulling a Blues Brothers handbrake flip and is entering into the battery-electric house. Ask Jaguar the place it’s going to be in three years and its reply, like all good interview candidate’s, is deliberately obscure. Jaguar promises an EV lineup in 2025 however is saying little extra. Once we visited the corporate’s North American headquarters in Mahwah, New Jersey, although, it wasn’t to see an EV. We got here to drive an eight-cylinder F-type sports automobile and hammer it by way of the Hudson Valley.
For 2022, the F-type lineup goes all V-8. Changing the earlier supercharged V-6 and turbocharged inline-four is a detuned model of Jaguar’s best hit of the final decade, the supercharged 5.0-liter V-8 initially constructed by Ford. Within the F-type P450, which now serves because the entry mannequin, the engine places out 444 horsepower and 428 pound-feet of torque. With that monster engine, plus the limited-slip differential, bigger brakes, and 20-inch wheels pulled from the previous P380 R-Dynamic, the 2022 F-type justifies its $8300 premium over final yr’s four-banger base automobile.
We’re keenly conscious {that a} C8 Corvette may mud it, and at method lower than our automobile’s $83,450 value as-equipped, however onlookers doubtless aren’t eager about check information if you pull up in an F-type. Because it has been because it launched for the 2014 mannequin yr, the F-type echoes the museum-grade sculpture of its esteemed predecessor, the E-type—considered one of solely 9 vehicles within the Museum of Fashionable Artwork’s everlasting assortment.
With the manual transmission consigned to historical past, we might argue that the P450 is now the driving force’s alternative, because it pairs the V-8 with rear-wheel drive fairly than all-wheel drive as within the 575-hp R. Jaguar hasn’t provided this combo since the 2015 R. These earlier fashions had been a tail-wagging handful, however this new one felt so impartial by way of the corners that we needed to hop out and double-check for an AWD badge. (There wasn’t one, though the system is on the market on the P450 coupe or convertible for $10,000 as a part of the R-Dynamic trim.) This newest rear-wheel-drive F-type has been tuned extra for understeer to make homeowners extra snug on the reasonably excessive speeds and steering angles they’re more likely to endeavor on the street. With its linear torque curve and fast steering, this F-type is much less twitchy and demanding and extra balanced and safe when being pushed rapidly. Examined on our Michigan skidpad, it clung to the tarmac to the tune of 0.93 g.
Naturally, this automobile’s rear tires can billow larger smoke clouds than Lil Wayne on a Wednesday, and we hit 60 mph in 4.0 seconds flat. That is in opposition to 3.5 seconds in our test of the 2021 R coupe. The P450 rips by way of the quarter-mile in 12.4 seconds at 115 mph. It additionally stops from 70 mph in 158 toes.
The F-type has by no means actually been a precision device on again roads, although there’s extra suggestions within the steering than with many Audi RS or BMW M vehicles. The Porsche Cayman stays the gold customary, nevertheless it lacks the F-type’s hard-rock soundtrack: a low rumble on the freeway, a savage roar when downshifted (89 decibels at wide-open throttle), and scrumptious pops on the overrun. Its 72 decibels cruising at 70 point out the F-type has quieted down some—this one’s not as vociferous as older Rs and SVRs, which had been louder than Harleys—and by default the muffler bypass valves keep closed on startup. However the exhaust pops and bangs are nonetheless out in drive, they usually’re not artificial. Whenever you carry the throttle, generally nothing occurs, whereas different occasions you will gentle off fireworks. The sounds by no means precisely repeat.
The leather-lined cabin, which some drivers discover cramped, has aged nicely with its wealthy supplies and the most recent digital screens set amongst toggle switches, rotary local weather controls, and the seize deal with that divides driver and passenger. At seven cubic toes, the two-seat convertible’s cargo maintain is not all too spacious on paper however will simply settle for a golf bag and cleats.
Granted, the V-8’s gas financial system is marginal: 17 mpg metropolis, 24 freeway for rear-drive fashions and 1 mpg worse within the metropolis with all-wheel drive. And you may’t see out the again—particularly when the spoiler rises and the Jaguar brand displays the solar instantly into your eyes. However so what? That is your final probability to expertise Jaguar’s classically styled, gas-burning sports activities automobile—V-8 powered, because the gods meant—earlier than the model jumps from the balcony into the pool of would-be Teslas. We do not know what Jaguar will change into, however the F-type is every little thing it was.