Good morning all, I know this is an older thread. Staten Island, NY here. I currently own a 2018 F-Type 400 Sport RWD. A limited edition model, only built for one model year that is the only V6 model that puts out an even 400 hp.
There is just something very old school and visceral about the F-Type. In my opinion, the F-Type is basically a car built in homage to the American muscle car, but with European elegance and refinement. Simply put, the car has "soul." Basically, Mike Tyson dressed up in a tux.
Get on the roads we get to drive on around here -- the Jersey Turnpike or Garden State Pkwy-- let traffic clear in front of you by about a quarter mile, and punch the accelerator. That's all it will take... At the first moment you get thrown back into the seat, from the visceral acceleration while the insanely intoxicating exhaust note lets out a banshee's cry, and traffic behind you quickly shrinks in size in the rearview mirror, the love affair will undoubtedly begin. Plus that feeling of the rear of the car breaking loose just a bit occasionally, when you stomp on the pedal... Priceless! As far as driving in the twisties, I have to basically drive about 100 miles before I get to any roads that have a few bends to it. So that's not really the driving I get to do all that much.
For me, the feelings outlined above, along with the car's little quirks, (infotainment system) imperfections and oddities -- push the shifter forward to go backward and pull backward to go forward-- just make it feel like something uniquely yours. It's kind of "perfect in its imperfections." In my mind, it's just as much the things that some people consider "wrong" with the F-Type that make the car so endearing, as all the things that it does right.
But what it really comes down to is the unexplainable, old school familiarity, again, the soulful feeling, you get in your gut when driving it. Or when standing in the parking lot or your garage just looking at it. That can, at times, make the heart skip a beat or two.
Or in my case, the fact that I often find myself grabbing the keys to take a quick unexpected 100-mile run to nowhere, just because of the love of being in the car and driving it...
The only thing I can equate it to is that surreal feeling I had getting into a sports car as a passenger when I was a little kid, or the feeling I used to get when I cracked the throttle on the many, high-powered sports motorcycles I owned over a course of 40 years. No car has ever made me feel that way before...
While I truly appreciate the Porsche Boxster and Caymans, they are, to me, visually very vanilla. Nothing about them really stands out, appearance wise. To me, they are kind of the Honda Accord of European sports cars. They do everything extremely well, in a well executed, practical, refined way. But they are literally a dime a dozen in these parts and, simply put, don't stand out as being anything all that unique and special. You see Caymans parked everywhere on the streets throughout Brooklyn, and when you do see them, they blend right in and don't really stand out in any way style wise. I never turn my head to look at one driving by. Or find myself daydreaming about being in one and driving it the way I did with Porsche's years ago.
I was basically locked in on obtaining either a Boxster or a Cayman when I was out looking a while back. I had always wanted that feeling that goes along with what I perceived as being the prestige of saying the name "Porsche." But ten seconds after I first saw and then got into and test drove the F-Type, I said immediately to myself, "this is it! This car is exactly why I love things with a freakin' engine!" Except for the fact I can never actually get my hands dirty and work on it. That is the only thing missing.
The F-Type turns heads wherever you go. There have been quite a few times when I have been driving down the highway, only to have another driver race up and pull alongside me, frantically beeping their horn to get my attention, for the sole reason of giving me a "thumbs up" of approval as to the car's uniqueness in both style and appearance.
Not to mention the fact that when doing further research, I found info that states that only 338 of the F-Type 400 Sport were brought into the US. And out of the 338, there is a chance that my car is possibly the only one of its specific build in New York. Maybe the entire region. And I kind of love knowing that...
