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Jaguar F-Type: first images, new name confirmed

By Jez Spinks |
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The Jaguar C-X16 concept will go on sale in 2013 with an emotive name for the new compact two-seater sports car: the Jaguar F-Type.

Britain’s Indian-owned sports-luxury brand confirmed at today’s 2012 New York motor show that it would give the sports car a name that makes it a natural successor to the famous 1960s E-Type.

The Jaguar F-Type will roll into Australian showrooms in mid 2013 after it makes its production debut – as a convertible – later this year, likely at the 2012 Paris motor show in September. A coupe will follow a year after the F-Type convertible goes on sale.

Expect the production model to be more faithful to the C-X16 rather than the Jaguar F-Type concept the company showed all the way back in 2000.

“We showed the C-X16 concept in September 2011, and the reaction to it has been so positive that we’ve accelerated our development of an all-new Jaguar sports car,” said Adrian Hallmark, Jaguar’s global brand director.

Jaguar says the two-seater sports car will be constructed using its expertise in lightweight aluminium and will “deliver stunning sports car performance” with a range of petrol engines that will include new powerplants.

A hybrid drivetrain, as showcased in the Jaguar C-X16 concept, is also anticipated down the track.

The Jaguar F-Type has moved into its final stages of on-road testing, and the car maker has released several images of camouflaged engineering prototypes in the studio and on the track.

Jaguar’s design boss, Ian Callum, promised the new F-Type would live up to its fabled forefathers.

“A true sports car needs to be pure in both its purpose and its form; to have the opportunity to produce such a car for Jaguar has been a privilege both for myself and for my team,” said Callum. “The C-type, D-type and E-type Jaguars were all sports cars that held true to this principle in their era, and the F-Type will hold true to that same principle in its time, a time that is soon to arrive.”

The F-Type will be smaller than, and positioned below, the XK coupe/convertible that starts at $219,000. Jaguar is expected to place the F-Type coupe and drop-top between Porsche’s Boxster/Cayman twins and 911, so we can only speculate that the Jaguar could be priced from anywhere between $120,000 and $150,000 for the convertible.

Jaguar has ambitious new-product plans under owner Tata Motors. The company told CarAdvice at March’s Geneva motor show that a crossover-style vehicle was among the new models it was considering, though it ruled out the long-rumoured SUV.


 
  • Roadtard

    Looks like a re-worked XK here.  Hopefully that’s just the disguise.

    • MBBK

      I think if you have a good look at the front end of the prototype and the c-x16, you’ll find quite a bit of similarity underneath the camouflage. The rear however looks to have changed since the concept car though this might be to do with the prototype being a convertible. 

  • Golfschwein

    It’ll be down to the details to distinguish this as a 2013 car. The natty ‘letter F’ camouflage doesn’t disguise what I think is generic nineties/noughties proportions, profile and stance. I’m sure it will be done well, but I doubt it will rock the world like the E type did.

    • Noddy

      The F camouflage is hardly ‘natty’. It’s the coolest camouflage I’ve seen yet, and better than the usual squares. Plus it promotes interest in the car’s name.
       

      • Golfschwein

        Natty means clever, spruce, trim, daintily tidy or to show deftness. We agree with one another.

        • Noddy

          But do we?

          • Golfschwein

            Yes. If on nothing else, we agree on this.

          • Noddy

            Touche.

  • Peter

    They had a similar discussion on the jaguar-car forum, one poster who seems to be in the know suggested that it is just the camo, nothing has changed with the proportions or style from what we saw a few months back in the coupe.  In its camo, it looks like an mx-5 to me.  Personally I far preferred the coupe.