New owner impressions & observations

Chip

Okay (my roof issues aside) the car is scary fun, I don't have the exhaust cut outs, or the upscale dynamics, and I only have a base V6

Chip said:

Come on folks tell us about how this car behaves on the twisties, in traffic, on back roads, and just your observations.

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1) I seriously love the all around noise, and on the occasion when I get some overrun and I hear the snapping and the beautiful sound of the exhaust popping and cackling as I lift my foot off the gas pedal always brings a big grin. Fortunately I listen to my stereo a lot of the time so my smile doesn't wear out or get permanently stuck on my face.

2) The car looks wicked fast just siting at a stop light or parked. I get complements from the usual assortment of teens, middle aged guys and some real old duffers. But what I didn't expect was the amount of ladies my Mom's age who stop or come up to me and say what a beautiful car my F-Type is.

3) Off the line you can't resist putting the pedal down it's just pure fun to leave almost every car well behind in the rear view mirror. But more than that you feel great acceleration and the V6 just spins right up no lag whatsoever and then you get a screaming growl. Of course you have to taper off pretty quick to obey the local speed laws (or at least keep it in reason).

4) And yes the corners in the F-Type are quite fun, I have yet to find a nice country road with "S" turns galore but this is in my future hwy 1. In a corner the car stays damn level and just feels very intuitive I swear you can just feel the rear end start to slip and then you have enough time to decide to back off a bit or just have some fun around the corners with some moderate fish tailing. Don't get me wrong the car feels like it's glued to the road but you can still push it and pushing it is fun. I was worried from reading the initial reviews about the "tight steering ratio" and the "fat" wheel - rest assured Jaguar nailed the steering it's spot on.

5) The speed limiter does indeed work as advertised (top end -or- the one you set - I won't say - and I won't be put on record).

6) The 8-speed automatic transmission is the bomb it just works and it lets you know its shifting and it feels just right. The paddle shifters don't do much for me as the automatic seems to be spot on 95% of the time whether just cruising or going crazy a bit and in the later case the transmission gives just the right amount of head snapping as it walks up the gears - pushing you back in the seat the whole time.

7) Here's gluttony for you, on a hot 105 degree day when I'm with the wife, I leave the top down and blast the AC, the cockpit is small enough the the AC works full body even going 70-80 mph.

8) The seats .... if you only get one option get the performance seats - I will say it again get the performance seats - they look great and the adjustments are superb. I have one setting for normal driving, one setting for sport driving (and the third for my wife). The adjustable pneumatic bolsters (sides and back) are fantastic and you can dial them in to fit you like a glove - who needs a stinking grab bar (actually the passengers do in fact need the grab bar whenever I open the car up).

9) Not that I care too much about gas mileage but I get 33 mpg (US) at 70 mph (using cruise control) and this brings up a great thing what I do like is that with a 19 gallon tank my range is 600+ miles. I have buddies that love the Tesla Model S it's a nice car (the top Tesla model does 0-60 in 4.2 sec like the F-Type V8 but your talking 200 mile range). Hey the F-type looks better and I don't have to waste my life waiting for a car to charge or plan my trips around available charging stations.

I don't get my car (V6S) for 2 weeks and have been sweating that I have bought a very expensive car that I have never driven. I did that with a 3.0l TDI diesel Audi Q5 and while I love it (my wife doesn't) hindsight says it could have been better, the 1/2 second delay when you hit the accelerator can be "interesting" crossing oncoming traffic and don't consider a reverse park on a steep hill...

So for the jag... which cracks $210k fully optioned in Australia (that's the V6S) with some trepidation I took my wife for a drive in one last week and it was much better than I hoped... my focus wasn't on performance, others have amply covered that, but this will be a daily drive and I wanted to see it in that light.

I feared an over abundance of grunt and a lack of subtlety a la Nissan GTR, that would cause my better half to bitch, since she finds the Q5 less than subtle (it is) and the neighbours to take up a petition re the noise but the jag was all power and grace.. Turn off dynamic mode, shut down the exhaust by pass and it's suitable for a run to the shops without frightening the oldies and easy and tractable to drive without a CAMS license. Easy to drive, if you want to drive easy.

We had the top down most of the time, but rear and rear quarter visibility will be an issue with it up so I added all possible driver aids, but that's not a Jag issue alone.. If they save my bacon once they will have paid for themselves.

But put the foot down and 6500 rpm comes up real fast, with this glorious BLATTT!!! coming on each up shift. My mate felt the steering was less responsive than his 911, indeed felt lighter and less direct than the Q5 when tuned up, but I have optioned up configurable dynamics so will wait to see how that turns out. Even so, not something I'd complain about. and around town it was not so direct as to cause problems of oversteering.

I wondered if I should have optioned up to the high performance discs that are std on the V8 but again the Q5 is over endowed with 380mm front and 365mm rear and I didn't want to repeat that experience. ( at 100kph Q5 stops in half the distance of a Ford Falcon G6 turbo meaning the guy behind runs into you at about 40kph...)

V6S brakes are near identical to V8 and felt up to the task, progressive, predictable at all speeds. (FYI disc specs at http://www.jaguar.com/gl/en/ftype/specifications )

Shift selection of Reverse and park is a bit of a fiddle but I will get used to it, auto shifts were very good and seemed to anticipate me. Others have talked about what Jag calls the "alive" factor, the car wraps around you and becomes an intuitive extension of you rather than something you control externally.. sounds a bit metaphysical but I await more experience with anticipation...

Cruise control is primitive, no braking downhill, no radar, you can't rely on it at all. I use adaptive cruise control on the Audi around town, it's just easy and I keep my license.

It was a short drive, not sure what we got up to but I'd guess 160kph, given that 100kph came up in a blink. Hanging on to my points / license will be a challenge.

Passenger space was better than I expected, I did not open the boot...

Nor did I turn on the radio...

I did set up torque pro and an android phone /bluetooth OBD2 dongle to alert me to engine performance, some bugs I am still working out but it shows promise and I will report in a separate post when they're sorted.

All in all great fun, and great anticipation, and all reservations removed, and a big smile on my wife's face...

Phew!

This Wednesday i will take a V8 and V6S on a track in Sydney, that will be fun, esp since they're run-in and not mine

14 sleeps to go...

Chip said:

Come on folks tell us about how this car behaves on the twisties, in traffic, on back roads, and just your observations.

Click to expand...