Our first drive
of Jaguar's long-awaited F-Type sports car focused on the mid-range V6 S. Costing £67,500 and delivering 380hp, it offers justifiable value over and above the entry-level model. The F-Type V6 may be £9,000 cheaper, but it does fall 40hp short and lack certain kit such as a limited-slip differential and the essential sports exhaust.
V6 S is more fun, more of the time, says Dan...
This being PistonHeads, the range-topping supercharged V8 brute may seem to be our more likely preference. 495hp in a relatively small, rear-wheel drive package does have a certain primal attraction, but a spirited drive along a damp mountain pass proved a point; short shifting to fourth and lightly feathering the throttle out of tight corners to maintain traction quickly became the default driving mode. With sweaty palms and a beating heart, I just couldn't see V6 S being any slower across that particular stretch of road, which was as stifling as British B-roads can often be. Given that all of the power could have been used much more of the time and that the six-pot sounds every bit as exciting as the V8, I reckoned the 'lesser' model would actually be more fun, too.
With an extra 30kg over the front axle in the V8 model, there is very slightly more inertia to overcome in quick direction changes. The steering also feels as though it's been corrupted by the additional weight for there is marginally more resistance to overcome, rendering the Dynamic steering mode redundant.
...and Mike Cross tends to agree.
As we dropped out of the mountains and onto the valley floor, the road did open up and the V8 was better able to stretch its legs, but my mind had been made up; the V6 S is the sweeter, more rewarding car. The £12,500 saving is also more than significant.
In anything other than optimal conditions the V8 S can be a right old thug. The rear tyres struggle to contain the swollen torque on corners exits, too, so it is often squandered.
That isn't to say the V8 is a duffer. It's actually much less of an over-engined hotrod than I had expected it to be (in dry conditions, at least) and the straight-line speed that the 5.0-litre unit delivers when circumstances allow is intoxicating. With the more aggressive styling and black detailing it did also look superb; on a purely emotional, subjective level, the F-Type V8 S is a wonderful machine.
Jaguar's chassis guru Mike Cross summed it up well, however. I was lucky enough to share a V6 S with him for 100 miles across a variety of road types, each taking turns behind the wheel. "We've been able to give the V6 S a proper thrashing today," he said. "We'd only have been able to do the same once or twice in the V8."
Read our full road test of the new F-Type here.