Easy car originalCoincidentally, shortly before I got my hands on the Jaguar Convertible F-Type, I had just finished shooting the Aston Martin Vantage Roadster. They are also from the United Kingdom, and they are both small and medium-sized roadsters, and even the body size is not much different. But that doesn't mean I'm going to compare them all in this article, as the two have different positions, but that doesn't detract from the F-Type's status as the most beautiful sports car in my opinion.
The most beautiful Jaguar is not an exaggeration
Since its release in 2013, the F-Type has only 11 years of life, which seems to be much shorter than the XJ and XF, but this may be the tradition of Jaguar sports cars. You can't trace the life of a Jaguar sports car by its name, so when the Jaguar XK120 debuted 75 years ago, perhaps today we can also think of it as the beginning of the life of the F-Type.
Therefore, it is not out of place that the car in front of you is named the 75th Anniversary Edition, and apart from a few not-so-obvious logos, the version-exclusive Geora Green has become its best status symbol. Different from the British track green we are familiar with, the appearance of Geora green will be richer in different lights, it can be sometimes elegant, sometimes noble, and sometimes distinctive, which is simply in line with the temperament of the F-type.
Like Aston Martin, we often see Jaguar Land Rover in the 007 movies, but they often appear as villains. On the contrary, I gladly accepted it, because Jaguar is indeed a little uninhibited, casual and wild in my heart.
I don't shy away from saying that I prefer the front of the original F-Type, which is more in line with my yearning and longing for a British sports car, you can instantly recognise it as a Jaguar, and at the same time, it is so different and impressive. But I must also admit that there is no ugly front face of the current F-TYPE family, and even it is more in line with today's mainstream aesthetic pursuit of fashion and sports, perhaps, my vision is too old.
20-inch wheels are a must for a sports car of this type of F-Type, and it could even be a little larger. The Pirelli P Zero rear tyre is 295mm wide, which seems a bit excess for the current domestic F-Type power, but I'll retract that later. The ET value of the rear wheels is a bit exaggerated, in exchange for a more three-dimensional rim and a more impactful visual effect.
Including the brand logo, the whole car has a blackened finish, and you won't find any silver trim on it. The convertible version of the F-Type retains the electric rear wing, which automatically lifts at speeds above 100km/h to provide extra downforce that is not needed for everyday driving, or you can manually raise it at low speeds for a little vanity.
In this two-door, two-seater sports car, we no longer see Jaguar's characteristic cigar-shaped bodywork, but instead a full, powerful rear end. It's the best thing F-Type has to offer, and it's so beautiful that it outweighs any other flaws. The role of the tail light is also indispensable, you know, many people are willing to pay for it in order to get it.
The convertible is just as beautiful
In the case of a two-door sports car, the soft-top convertible always seems to be missing a dashing element compared to the hardtop version. This is true for Vantage, and the same is true for F-Type. However, this does not actually pose a problem to the owner, because in the days they are with the car, the convertible is the norm, therefore, the most beautiful appearance of the convertible F-type, its owner knows best.
In less than 8 seconds, the convertible can be opened or closed, and can be operated simultaneously while driving, as long as the speed does not exceed 50 kmh, which is a bit higher than the 40kmh setting of many convertibles. In addition, one of the great advantages of the convertible as a soft top is that it does not add too much weight to the body, and the curb weight of the convertible F-Type is only 5kg more than that of the hardtop version, which is almost negligible.
If I were the owner, I would happily leave the tan interior open to passers-by, and although there is no official name for the color, I honestly think it goes better with the Giora Green than any other color. That's what I think a perfect British car should look like.
The control of the air conditioner still retains a beautiful mechanical texture, and the knob design and engineering logic have reached a perfect balance, which can be regarded as a model of excellent industrial design in the past 10 years. Fortunately, at the moment when the excessive pursuit of minimalist design, such an excellent product can be used to this day.
The co-pilot's seat memory may seem a little meaningful, but the F-Type is generously provided, perhaps just because the designers don't want it to be monotonous, but in terms of enhancing the luxurious atmosphere, I think it's a good attempt.
Elegance never goes out of style, passion?Does it matter?
It is a pity that 2 years ago, Jaguar completely abandoned the slightly older V6 supercharged engine, so the F-Type sold in China is only 20t is the only power version, which seems to be announcing that the life of this last sports car of the Jaguar fuel era has also entered the end of its life.
For driving a two-door, two-seater sports car, the power of this engine with a maximum power of 300ps is not a problem. The vehicle accelerates from 0 to 100kmh with a time of 59s, although this is not a blood-pumping achievement, but I believe that the vast majority of car owners do not need to use it to the extreme when they travel daily.
The choice of driving modes is not abundant, in general, in Sport mode, there is no obvious difference in the dynamic performance of the car, in other words, in normal mode, this car can meet most of your needs, in the face of complex and diverse urban road conditions, it can still do it calmly, sometimes as easily as a regular four-door sedan.
There is a kind of magic to this F-type, it is one of the few sports cars that I don't want to drive fast, most of the time, I feel its heavy texture at cruising speed, maybe its appearance is too deep in my heart, so I prefer to give passers-by more opportunities to capture its beauty.
However, even in this state, I would say that the rear end is still much more agile than I expected, which should be a characteristic of all F-Type rear-wheel drive models, but on urban open roads, it is better to have such a temper at a more convergent level. So, I retracted the idea that the rear tire was too wide at 295 mm and said it was necessary.
Active exhaust sound is definitely a plus on the V6 version of the F-Type, but not on 2On the 0T model, its presence is not so obvious. In Sport mode, the exhaust valve also opens automatically, but unfortunately the backfire sound is a bit gentle, which doesn't seem to help much to add to the fun.
Thankfully, the chassis' feedback to the ground reminds me of its identity as a sports car, which is a subtle feeling, sometimes it behaves like a nimble sports car, and sometimes it can take on the shadow of a GT sports car, which may be the last stubbornness of the F-Type in the fuel era.
Write at the end
Beautiful but helpless, this may be the true portrayal of the F-Type left to us at the end of the fuel era. In the eyes of an avid fan like me, this F-Type should have been more perfect, because it was so beautiful that it was too beautiful to accept any of its flaws. According to the previously announced plan, Jaguar will completely become a pure electric brand in 2025, since this is the case, let's say goodbye.