Jaguar F-Type R - long-term review

It may say hello up above, but what follows will actually be an extended goodbye to a car that we’ve known and (mostly, but not always) loved for quite some time. Yep, we’re about to spend six months in a Jaguar F-Type before it’s killed off for good later this year. RIP, old friend.

But first, a little history. The F-Type’s story actually started with the ridiculously good-looking C-X16 concept unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in late 2011. At that time, Jag confirmed that a sub-XK sports car was in fact going to make production, and we rejoiced in 2012 when the production-ready F-Type arrived and looked so similar to the original concept. Offered first as a convertible, Jag eventually showed off the swoopy coupe in 2013, and for the first few years of its existence different iterations graced TopGear.com on the regular.

A facelift eventually arrived at the very end of 2019 with design director Julian Thomson given the unenviable task of trying to improve on Ian Callum’s original scribbles. I wasn’t sure about the aggressive new front end originally, but I’m now happy to admit that – as is frequently the case on matters of design – I was wrong. The F-Type remains a stunningly purposeful car in both coupe and convertible form.

It’s a slight shame that ‘our’ F-Type has arrived in such a dour spec, though. The Carpathian Grey paint is a £475 option and isn’t a box that I’d have ticked. Sadly, the brilliantly bright blue and yellow shades that arrived with the facelift car have long since been removed from the configurator, but you can still spec options like Firenze Red, British Racing Green or a lovely lighter shade that Jag calls Giola Green. The 20in wheels are painted in gloss black too – a photographer’s worst nightmare – and we’ve got an all-black (officially known as Ebony) leather interior. There’s a fixed rear spoiler too and I’ve never been a fan of a bewinged F-Type.

Still, I shouldn’t complain, not least because the bits underneath the skin are extremely exciting indeed. That C-X16 concept was actually a V6 hybrid with an F1-style KERS system, but as you’ll well know that never made it to production and so we’re seeing out the end of the F-Type’s days in a blaze of V8 glory. This is the full-fat, £100k+ F-Type R with Jag’s 5.0-litre supercharged V8 making 567bhp and 516lb ft of torque – the same numbers as the pre-facelift SVR. That power is sent to all four wheels and an electronic diff aims to ensure maximum traction – not always a given in an F-Type.

This is actually the last-of-the-line R 75 Plus trim too, so you get special badging, additional leather, a panoramic roof and privacy glass all thrown in. The ‘Climate Pack’ is £600 and includes a heated steering wheel and two-zone climate control, while the ‘Assist Pack’ adds a blind-spot warning. Oh, and the name is a reference to the 75 years that have passed since Jaguar’s first proper sports car – the XK120.

Don’t think that we’re about to spend six months solely gushing down memory lane though. The F-Type has many questions to answer before it passes on to the next life. Has it actually ever won a TG group test? Can this final iteration hold a candle to the current Porsche 911? Was it actually the right car at the right time for Jag? We’ll find out over the next half-year. Time to bring the noise…