Jaguar F-Type V8 R Convertible Review: Wild cat

What we like:

Brilliant ZF gearbox. Bonkers V8 soundtrack that will make you the ‘favourite’ neighbor. Beautifully balanced on the edge despite a tail happy setup.

What we dislike:

Very small boot with just 200 litres of volume.

If you thought the XKR-S was loud, then the F-type is nothing short of deafening. Its 5.0-litre V8 under the bonnet has a whole repertoire of pops, crackles and growls to raise your pulse at the mere millimeter input from your right foot. What glorious music to be deafened with! Quite often, you’re heard long before you’re seen in this car. And it begs the question, how did this car ever made it through LTA’s homologation?

At 495bhp and 625Nm of torque at the ready, the car’s traction control can hardly contain the ferocity of this cat when launching from the lights. Careful modulation of your right foot is necessary to prevent lighting up the rear wheels when pulling away. Even with the traction control on, mashing the throttle would mean leaving a trail of rubber for 50m before the rear wheels find traction again.

Brutal is the only word in the English vocabulary to describe its acceleration. At 4.3 seconds to 100kmh, the view in front of you seemingly goes into warp mode the moment you put the hammer down.

Pairing the mad supercharged V8 with the excellent ZF gearbox was a stroke of genius. Every gear change happens almost instantaneously as you short shift up the gears while every down shift is met with an intoxicating burble from the quad pipes.

But the relatively short wheelbase does make this cat slightly twitchy in the bends. The car is eager to point its nose in but give it a little more beans than necessary and the tail threatens to overwhelm those rear Michelins.

That’s not to say the car isn’t finely balanced, the sweet steering feedback and near perfect weight distribution makes this a wonderful car to ‘play with’ around the corners.

Despite the level of performance, this roadster can still cruise comfortably on the highways or potter around town like a pussy cat when the exhaust valves are closed off.

It’s true that this V8S F-type isn’t quite as sharp as a Porsche equivalent nor as spacious. You could probably find another performance car with better grip than this car musters in the bends.

You’ll be faster round the bends in those cars but your smile just wouldn’t be as wide as it would be in this Jag…

Credits: Story and Photos by Benjamin G. Kline