Ian Callum believes the F-type can be the fulcrum of Jaguar’s range. In an interview with CDN, Callum described the F-Type as “the car we’ve needed for so long” because, in his view “Jaguar is fundamentally a sports car company.”
In many ways, the F-Type is an impressive sports car. The rear aspect looks particularly smart, elegant and clean. There’s some reference point to C-X75 here, which is nice to see. Proportionally, the car’s pretty exquisite too. And several design commentators we spoke to remarked on how refreshing it is to see clean, sculptural design – as opposed to something brutal or with hundreds of additive body crease lines.
Our questions of the F-Type concern its face, which still feels like a design weak point, and its positioning. Sized between a Boxster and a 911 (and priced accordingly) it doesn’t feel like the young, €35-€45k sports car many of us wanted Jaguar to make, to compete with high end TTs, Z4s and SLKs and gun straight for the Boxster.
As a slightly bigger car, its appeal is less youthful. Sit a 30 year old in it and it somehow manages to age them by 10 years. Perhaps that’s ok if Jaguar realises that the market for this car is genuinely a 50-60 year old. But we hope that, in time, Jaguar can still find the funds and space in its range to build a small roadster that can genuinely appeal to a younger and more female-biased market. Fine though the F-Type is, it doesn’t feel like that car. Which for some of us, is a bit of a disappointment.
by Joe Simpson
