Next Monday, Jaguar will change forever. You might have heard. The process, like a wheel of cheese rolling down a Gloucestershire hillside, has already begun. For now, we’re mostly blundering behind it, arms flailing. But when the covers are pulled off in Miami (if indeed covers exist in Jaguar’s Copy Nothing era) there will be a fully-fledged concept to finally wrap our minds around. For better or worse, the firm has generated possibly the frothiest build-up to a reveal in living memory. Actually sticking the landing would be remarkable.
Jaguar has managed it before. PH recalls the unveiling of both the C-X75 and the C-X16, concepts so wildly good-looking and on the nose that no one needed to be told what they stood for - everyone knew it instinctively. Clearly, that did not save one from the car equivalent of development hell, nor make the other an unprecedented success, but both were incontrovertibly Jaguars to look at. Whatever comes next, by definition, will be a Jaguar, too - but we’re told it must make do without a tangible link to past glories. It will not be so easy to recognise; only time will tell if that means it can be fawned over in the same way.
Among the many questions about its transformation is the legitimacy of Jaguar’s reasoning. And when you look at the dearly departed F-Type, it’s easy to quibble with the idea that the brand was getting something seriously wrong with its previous design language. Perhaps a dearth of sports cars in 2024 has helped us see past the various niggles that were highlighted during its lifetime - and there’s a longer conversation to be had about which derivative was prettiest - but does the F-Type not now look timeless in a way that makes you feel warm and fuzzy about our traditional notion of a Jaguar?
Of course, it helps that this hallowed idea of a low-slung, two-door, prow-heavy coupe will be forever soundtracked to the excesses of a very angry V8. Probably no more needs to be said of JLR’s supercharged 5.0-litre unit: it is enough to know that it was arguably worth the price of admission when the F-Type was new. Now, with the torch emphatically passed to Land Rover (which, tellingly, seems to be clinging onto the venerable engine for as long as is conceivably possible), the idea of finding one in a now-extinct Jaguar becomes uniquely appealing in its own right.
Especially when said Jaguar seems like so much car for the money. Granted, that £40k is now considered ‘serious bargain’ territory has a lot to do with the feigned inability of manufacturers to produce anything fast or interesting for less than that sum - but when a Ford Focus ST is north of the mark, you do start to reappraise the comparative value of buying a V8-powered, rear-drive sports car from 2020 with just 28k on the clock and a full main dealer service history.
We’d argue too (as we did at the time) that the P450 is the F-Type sweet spot. Sure, it misses the frenetic, boastful edge that came with higher outputs, yet it always seemed better matched to the car’s chassis - especially with just the one axle to marshal the output. Moreover, if you’re buying an old-school Jaguar to do old-school Jaguar things with (i.e. saunter about the place with the sang-froid of a submarine captain) it offers precisely the right quantities of power and implacable prestige. That there will absolutely not be anything like it again is a chicken that will likely come home to roost next week.
SPECIFICATION | JAGUAR F-TYPE P450 COUPE
Engine: 5,000cc, supercharged V8
Transmission: 8-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 450@6,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 427@2,500-5,000rpm
0-62mph: 4.6secs
Top speed: 177mph
MPG: 26.8-26.1
CO2: 239-246g/km
Year registered: 2020
Recorded mileage: 28,000
Price new: £69,990
Yours for: £41,480
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