A more affordable Jaguar F-Type could be in the pipeline powered by Jaguar's new high-performance four-cylinder turbo engine, PH has learned.
Still want one with a four-cylinder turbo?
The man in charge of the F-Type engineering, vehicle line director Ian Hoban, told us at the LA show that putting the new 'Hotfire' engines into the
roadster
newly revealed coupe
is a distinct possibility.
"There's a whole host of powertrains, drivelines, transmissions, that are not particularly challenging to put into the car," he said. "I think there is great potential in high-output turbocharged four-cylinders."
Jag has already officially announced that its new four-cylinder engines are powerful enough to take the new aluminum X-Type replacement due in 2015 to a maximum speed of 186mph, so we know they'll be up to the job.
That top speed, coincidentally, is the same as Jaguar quotes for the V8 F-Type R Coupe. This is one serious four-cylinder turbo then, even if we still don't know the exact outputs of the Wolverhampton-built petrol and diesels. One challenge is to get the noise right, according to Hoban. He acknowledges there's plenty of synthetic solutions out there but says the noise has "got to be authentic".
F-Type's noise a big selling point after all...
A four-cylinder is far more likely than a hybrid version of the F-Type. That was on cards after
the original concept
was shown powered by a working petrol/electric drivetrain. But a senior source within the company told us this week that was "not a priority".
As well as the likely miniscule take-up in this sports car market, the hybrid would also likely push the weight up too much. The F-Type is already pretty hefty, weighing from 1,577kg for the entry V6 Coupe.
We asked Hoban about this and he told us that if you stripped out too much weight, you wouldn't get the stiffness. "It's balancing act between weight and stiffness for the dynamic capacity of the car," he said. "A lot of work went into getting stiffness into the car, and that translated to a precise steering response. But it also adds weight." It's a trade-off for steering feedback and handling basically, is his argument. He reckons the coupe's body is almost twice as stiff as that of the roadster, which bodes very well for its on-road handling.
In the UK we'll buy the hardtop F-Type in the main, global head of product marketing Steven De Ploey told us. He reckons the split between coupe and roadster will be 70:30 in the UK, against a likely half-half split globally.