Ian Callum talks F-Type coupe
Jag design boss reveals his plans for a more hardcore hardtop F-Type to spearhead an R revolution
In fact, he's so bullish about the F-Type that he told PistonHeads it could spawn a sub-brand within Jaguar with all manner of variants.
He's pretty certain the coupe is a given. "There is definitely a business case to do a coupe, that decision will be made quite soon," he told us.
Then we got talking about a hot R version - might that be the coupe? "It could well be," he said. He wouldn't discuss engines, but the R version would have to borrow the 550hp engine from the XKR-S, given that the standard V8 S F-Type with 495hp already comes close to the XKR output. Probably wouldn't be far off in price either with standard V8 S costing £79,950.
Callum has big plans for the aluminium-bodied two seater. "Personally I think we'd be mad not to turn this car into something more. It's going to end up almost its own brand, the F-Type brand," he told us in an interview.
"We can work on having a portfolio [of models]. We'll do that," he said. Suggestion of a shooting brake results in him making a face, but he says "who knows?"
Interestingly the coupe concept seen at the Frankfurt show last year came after the convertible. "That was an F-Type with a fastback," he told us. "We'd already finished F-Type. I said to the design team, if we were to do a coupe, what would it look like, so we put a model together."
Engineers working on any R version would welcome a coupe shape, much like Z3 M lead engineer Burkhard Goschel wanted it for the BMW - the fixed roof makes it that much stiffer.
It may even allow Jaguar to remove some of the weight too, a good thing given that the entry V6 weighs almost 1,600kg. Whether that matters at all depends entirely on what it's like to drive. It SHOULD be brilliant. Fingers crossed.
I know we're all bored of other manufacturers making styling updates so lame we can't tell one model from another, but at least Porsche, Aston, Mercedes etc LOOK like the brand they are... At least there's a signature there, or a nod to a begotten hero.
Maybe I don't know Jag enough, can anyone find a pic of something that hints at this from the Jag archives?
I know we're all bored of other manufacturers making styling updates so lame we can't tell one model from another, but at least Porsche, Aston, Mercedes etc LOOK like the brand they are... At least there's a signature there, or a nod to a begotten hero.
Maybe I don't know Jag enough, can anyone find a pic of something that hints at this from the Jag archives?
Like most others on here I was hoping for something a little more raw, a little cheaper and ideally with a manual box.
Hopefully the F-type sub-brand will breed some of these slightly uncouth, less refined, brutish F-type / Elise love-children!
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