The Jaguar F-Type has a lot to live up to by virtue of it being called after one of the most famous sports cars ever to have existed, the eponymous Jaguar E-TypeJaguar E-TypeUnited Kingdom, 1961 > 19753 series
21 versions
114 photos
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. The comparison may not be fair, and we will get onto that in a bit, but nonetheless Jaguar has set the bar high for its new sports car.

The F-Type has been a long time coming. Jaguar first unveiled an F-Type concept at the North American International Auto Show, it was met with rapturous applause, and rightly so. Little did the press know that the gestation period would be 13 years.

In 2011 Jaguar showed the C-X16 conceptJaguar C-X16United Kingdom, 2011 > 201131 photos
1 video
at the Frankfurt Motor Show and it was with great relief that we saw that Jaguar had stayed true to its original concept. The positive response led Jaguar to accelerate its development programme.

Many production cars lose the clean lines of the original concept, but Jaguar’s head of design Ian Callum is confident the F-Type will not disappoint:

Jaguar has been careful to pitch the F-Type in its own niche, between the Porsche BoxterPorsche BoxsterGermany, 1996 > 20163 series
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and its big brother, the 911Porsche 911Germany, 1963 > present6 series
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. The F-Type will be priced from around £55,000 meaning there will be no direct rival to the F-Type.

Car enthusiasts will be keen to know whether the F-Type is a true successor to the legendary E-Type. There are two ways of looking at this. The first is to say an emphatic ‘yes’.  The F-Type’s styling harks back to the original elegance of the E-Type, and it will be a fast two seater that represents good value for money.

But, we can also argue the other case. In naming the F-Type Jaguar has extended its lineage beyond the E-Type, through DJaguar D-TypeUnited Kingdom, 1954 > 19543 versions
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and C-TypeJaguar C-TypeUnited Kingdom, 1951 > present1 photo
models, and those two cars were completely different in ethos and aim. The F-Type should be its own car and be known for its own innovations, not those of a car that turned 50 last year.

Fortunately the F-Type has plenty of innovation. The C-X16 concept came with a hybrid V6 and an all-aluminium chassis that will exploit the base car’s 250bhp output and the more expensive R’s 375bhp.

The 375bhp model should propel the F-Type to 180mph, but I have to say that I am hoping Jaguar will announce an entirely unrealistic 200mph top speed and then ‘doctor’ the press car to achieve the claim. Now, that would be a proper E-Type successor.

Jaguar will release the roadster first: "A convertible is much harder to engineer than a coupe, so we chose to develop the roadster first."

It is this type of logic that makes me believe that the Jaguar F-Type could well be ‘the car to have’ in 2013. The purity of a coupe’s driving experience is so often lost when a manufacturer chops the roof off, but I suspect the roadster will be brilliant to drive, serving to whet our appetites for the forthcoming coupe, due 12 to 18 months after the roadster’s release.

Recent Jaguars have been great to drive, in the main part down to Chief Engineer Mike Cross, his involvement with the F-Type guarantees us a car that will be supple, delicate and precise. I can’t wait to get my hands on one next year.