Jaguar F-Type Long-Term Update 4: 2015 F-Type R Coupe
Learning To Say Yes
It proved to be an auspicious phone call. Jaguar's on the line. Favor to ask me. Is there any way it could have its F-Type back? You know, that sweet, Italian Racing Red V-6 S that I've been running around California in for the past six months, racking up more than 11,000 miles in the process. Thing is, while F-Type sales in the U.S. are red hot -- about 5000 units in the past 12 months -- the bulk of those the V8 S model. Americans, it seems, are willing to pay more for the extra cylinders and power. As such, Jaguar's just not sending many six-cylinder convertibles across the pond, and "mine" is needed back at the mother ship for some sort of marketing purpose.
No, I explained. You can't have it back. Here atMotor Trendwe always try to hang on to our long-term cars for at least one full calendar year, if not a little longer. Many reasons why, but the big one is the name: long term. That's kind of the whole point. When we rejiggered our long-term Garage to make it one man/woman in one car for one year, the thinking was that having a single primary "owner" would yield more valuable and useful insights than what we'd been doing (and what our competitors still do): essentially a never-ending series of first impressions. And selfishly, I'd really grown fond of the V-6 S. I really wanted six more months.
"What if we replaced it with an R Coupe?" I wish someone had been filming my end of the phone call because I would've loved to see how big my eyes got. I'm a pretty decent poker player, but, man, oh man, that was a tell. Well, I responded, I'll have to check with Ron Kiino because he runs our long-term fleet. He has final say in matters like these. This is a pretty unusual request; I don't know what we can do. Ahem.
I called Ron and he said, "Fudge yeah!" Only he didn't say fudge. That's howMotor Trend's shrieking, topless 375-horsepower F-Type turned into our maniacally bellowing, Salsa Red, 550-hp fixed-roof bludgeon.
Quick observations:Burnouts are more satisfying, and the trunk seems at least twice as spacious. Aside from that? Not very much because one of my co-workers snatched it for a two-week, 3000-plus-mile summer vacation. Then, before I got a chance to do anything with fun with the R Coupe, some [CENSORED] rear-ended the poor thing! As I type, "my" new Jaguar F-Type R Coupe is at the shop getting her derriere put back together. I've barely even seen the new Jag, let alone driven it. Luckily, she's ours for the long term. Or at least half of it. Stay tuned.
More on our long-termJaguarF-Type:
- Arrival
- Update 1: F-Type S Convertible - Birmingham, We Have a (Tire) Problem
- Update 2: F-Type S Convertible - British Car, American Issues
- Update 3: F-Type S Convertible - Does Fashion Come at a Performance Price??
When I was just one-year-old and newly walking, I managed to paint a white racing stripe down the side of my father’s Datsun 280Z. It’s been downhill ever since then. Moral of the story? Painting the garage leads to petrolheads. I’ve always loved writing, and I’ve always had strong opinions about cars. One day I realized that I should combine two of my biggest passions and see what happened. Turns out that some people liked what I had to say and within a few years Angus MacKenzie came calling. I regularly come to the realization that I have the best job in the entire world. My father is the one most responsible for my car obsession. While driving, he would never fail to regale me with tales of my grandfather’s 1950 Cadillac 60 Special and 1953 Buick Roadmaster. He’d also try to impart driving wisdom, explaining how the younger you learn to drive, the safer driver you’ll be. “I learned to drive when I was 12 and I’ve never been in an accident.” He also, at least once per month warned, “No matter how good you drive, someday, somewhere, a drunk’s going to come out of nowhere and plow into you.” When I was very young my dad would strap my car seat into the front of his Datsun 280Z and we’d go flying around the hills above Malibu, near where I grew up. The same roads, in fact, that we now use for the majority of our comparison tests. I believe these weekend runs are part of the reason why I’ve never developed motion sickness, a trait that comes in handy when my “job” requires me to sit in the passenger seats for repeated hot laps of the Nurburgring. Outside of cars and writing, my great passions include beer — brewing and judging as well as tasting — and tournament poker. I also like collecting cactus, because they’re tough to kill. My amazing wife Amy is an actress here in Los Angeles and we have a wonderful son, Richard.
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