Jaguar is working up a new F-type coupé and roadster pair – to tackle the Porsche Cayman/Boxster duopoly in the premium sports car market. The new Jag F-type is revealed in full in the latest September 2009 issue of CAR Magazine, but we’ve held one artist’s impression back to show online.
The two-seater is part of an ambitious strategy to turn Jaguar into the British Porsche (minus the VW family political spats that seem increasingly to distract from Stuttgart’s mostly sensational road cars). The F-type is part of an outline product plan that stretches to 2015, and CAR magazine lays bare the key cars in the new issue. If successful, Jaguar could soon be making more than 100,000 cars a year as a profitable independent under Tata Motors’ wing.
Jaguar F-type: here in 2013, you say?
That’s the plan. This is a progressive sports car, designed to slot beneath the XK coupé and convertible pair starting at £60k. Think a starting price pitched around £40-50,000 in today’s money, and you won’t be too wide of the mark, slotting in neatly between the Boxster/Cayman and 911.
The F-type is made possible by sharing a new lightweight alloy architecture that would – in the long term – form the basis for the replacement XK, XF and XJ models. It’ll be a common aluminium matrix, housing the engine up front and driving the rear wheels. Incidentally, that spells the end of front-drive, Ford-derived Jaguars, ushered in through the back door in the shape of the X-type.
What’s under the bonnet of the Jag F-type?
Jaguar’s current plan is to use exclusively V6 power, turning out 275bhp in naturally aspirated form and around 350bhp with a supercharger fitted to crank up the fun factor.
First up is the Jag F-type roadster, perhaps as early as 2013 if the scheme passes the bean counter test. Coupé (pictured) and R versions would follow within two years. CAR understands that the design direction is very progressive, in line with the latest 2010 XJ and XF, sporting crisp, modern surfacing and a long nose for styling panache and a mid-front mounted layout.
For the full story on Jaguar’s future, be sure to read the new September 2009 issue of CAR Magazine on sale now – be quick to buy one before the new October 2009 issue goes on sale on 19 August. We reveal the full details of:
• The radical new 2010 XJ
• An interview with Jag MD Mike O’Driscoll
• Details of every new Jag in the six-year plan, including…
• 2010 hybrid Jag supercar
• 2011 XF facelift
• 2012 classic Jags reincarnated with modern running gear
• 2013 XE roadster
• 2014 new XF
• 2015 new XK
>> Click here for a free digital preview of the September 2009 Jag issue of CAR