the jaguar
f-type now this car to me as i'm sure
mark is gonna bring up in this video
many times
this is kind of one of my god cars
blending the perfect mix of truly
drop dead good looks one of the most
incredible automotive soundtracks
period and the fact that this thing just
gets underneath your skin to drive
and because these cars have been out for
almost seven years the prices are
starting to come down to the realm where
people can actually afford them and with
its fairly disappointing
recent refresh we thought it was a good
time to visit this car
so in this video we're going to be
talking about some of the development
history behind this product
the engineering that went into it and
what this thing is like to drive
so with that enjoy the video
[Music]
the interior of the f-type in typical
jlr fashion is kind of a mixed bag
however before we start talking about
this car in greater depth i will mention
this
the 1617 model year there was a pretty
substantial
mid-cycle refresh of this car when it
came to the interior
at its core it was the same however they
did update the drive train
and the infotainment so the first thing
to talk about
when looking at the f-type is which
model do you want do you want the
convertible or the coupe
and from the interior perspective
they're basically the same
minus some of the practicality the coupe
is a hatch which means the trunk is
about the size of what you get in say a
718 or a cayman
meaning you could use this every single
day the convertible not so much it's
more in line with say an lc 500 which is
fine for say a
trip to the golf course or a weekend
jaunt but
really you're going to probably struggle
using that every single day
moving on from that if you're a larger
person like i am
six foot tall and about 215 pounds you
will fit in this car
pretty well and if you're smaller
obviously this thing is going to feel
enormous
however once you get to like the 6'3
mark or taller
you will struggle the seats in this car
are superb they look good they feel good
and because this is a
r coupe model it does have the fully
optioned out seats which means you get
porsche levels of adjustability meaning
however you want these seats can contour
to your body
jlr does a good job designing things
from a visual standpoint and their
leather work has always been superb
this black leather with the red contrast
stitching does feel
expensive and look expensive however a
lot of the
finer points when it comes to plastics
feel straight garbage can and that's
jlr for you all of the plastics around
the shifter
the cup holders the rubberized grips all
feel
extremely cheap and that's honestly a
huge disappointment
because at its core all the driver
inputs are superb
you have great visibility the steering
wheel feels great the pedal box is easy
to use
and all of the cars core functions
infotainment
hvac and drive modes are also physical
the infotainment in this car is dated as
i mentioned earlier it did receive an
update
bluetooth and usb audio the navigation
is subpar even in the newer models and
the meridian sound system is
pretty good actually for a car like this
it's about on par with say the bose
system in a 911
it's not great but again that's not why
you're buying this car
now with that let's head to the shop and
put this thing up on the left
underneath the 2015 jaguar f-type
and a big thanks to the owner who
supplied us this
so i can finally get jack the gorilla
off my back
he's always been ranting and raving how
amazing this car is so now we get it out
of our system and we can move on with
life
so how much was this car new 117
okay and how much did the owner pay for
it 48 48
five years removed right with only 9 000
miles holy
the convertibles are even cheaper mark
wow they're like 35 grand with a v8
which is a
joke yeah and if you get this with a
warranty obviously this is in that
attainable price range and we're kind of
going to discuss
all the stuff that went into it why it's
relevant today and why you would
maybe want to own it so tell me a little
bit about the history
so this is an ian callum design car and
ian callum did a lot of
quite iconic english sports cars like
the aston martin vanquish
the db9 the jag xk the jag xj
xf f-type basically every modern jag
in existence at this point he has had
his hands in
okay and this car was a concept car he
originally designed in like the
2011-2012 time period called the cx-16
which then later became
this f-type and if you look at the two
they're very very similar and this car
was supposed to be a throwback
to the e-type it's spiritual successor a
two-seat roadster that was about
gt touring that you could drive in a
sporty fashion
and he always felt that jag needed a
two-seater in their lineup
and it needed to have a connection to
the past cars so when you look at the
exterior which
we don't typically talk about there is
that connection there
if you google all those cars there's
this slight
manipulation resembling the resemblance
that all of them have
it is a classic look this is one of the
best
most elegant looking designs and it
probably will age well too
it has aged in the past seven or
whatever how long it's been out it still
looks relevant today yep and the base
architecture this car
is a heavily revised version which you
found on the xk
which is the prior coupe to this which
is no joke because this is
i think you were telling me it's all
aluminum the body structure yeah it's an
all aluminum monocoque body structure
all the body panels are aluminum and
this is in fact
at least when they designed this car 30
stiffer than anything else
jlr had at the time which again they
don't make sports cars but that's
significant
for a gt car you have all forged
aluminum control arms
front suspension your subframe is also
aluminum
in the front in the front correct the
brake system the brakes are just a solid
face rotor they are not a two-piece
design however there's no dust shield on
the back
which means these little tack-down air
directors here will help
cool them significantly and this did get
a carbon ceramic option which stay
far away from yeah it's an expensive
option and don't forget mark this is a
double wishbone front and rear
okay now i think the last thing to talk
about here jack is
this has a zf automatic and eight speed
and there were other transmission
options as they've evolved this car
yeah so they did some modifications to
the zf gearing based upon what engine
option you had because you could have a
four cylinder two variants of a six
and three variants of this v8 all making
different horsepower figures
but for a short period of time which of
course the traditional fashion we asked
for it we didn't buy it and they killed
it off
you could get a zf six-speed manual in
the supercharged six-cylinder okay
so that's good to note in the back jack
i thought you said this is all aluminum
what's all this rusty
junkyard stuff on the back well mark
this is a
jlr product after all and because
they're owned by tata tata decided to
supply some of the steel on this car and
they just did a bang-up job back here
it's just tremendous so this car only
has
12 000 miles it was obviously driven in
the midwest
and these frame braces and subframe is
already rusting
so what's the deal so there was
and this is not something jlr will admit
to but if you get on the forums
apparently
they did not properly nickel coat a lot
of the steel components and again this
was not
a jlr supplied component it was their
parent company
tanta who if you know anything about is
enormous they have tons of money and
they're indian
so they decided to skimp on some of the
undercoatings yeah and assume that
people aren't going to ever have this in
salty weather
which is unfortunate it is because it's
tarnished uh
what would be a great car so they did
issue a tsb for replacing some of these
things however that does not cover
you if you're out of warranty or if the
original owner like this owner
never did any of the tsb work which
again that's the problem with buying a
used car
right so something to know other than
that we have
the back i noticed in the front this is
one of the absolute
few street cars i have laid my eyes on
that has stainless steel brake lines
that are factory
so the front and then the back has a
hard line that's connected to a really
short run of stainless steel lines they
look like goodridge lines but i could be
mistaken
and everything else in the back however
you have all aluminum suspension
and you know basically what you
typically see now this exhaust is super
loud
uh it's a tentacle exhaust but it looks
like
i mean it's it's it's clearly makes a
lot of noise because there's no
sound insulation or any anything i'm
pretty sure
the story goes that when jlr was
approached by the government and asked
does your exhaust meet our noise
regulations they just lie like yeah
don't worry about it yeah but here's a
couple other things to bring up so
as we talked about this car's been out
for a very very long time so they made
some running changes
most notably to the v8 cars so early
ones like this
are rear-wheel drive however probably
because owners were stuffing them into
trees
the 16 and later cars including the svr
which
if there's a viewer out there with one
we'd love to do a video on it
um is all-wheel drive that is rear
biased all-wheel drive
okay but it's not nearly as slidy as
this oh god no this thing is we're about
to show on the drive is
basically my favorite car in the world
okay well this mark is like you know
it's like a hellcat that can read right
i mean it's a it's a more sophisticated
car that you don't feel bad about but
the new ones also quieted down the
exhaust correct
the 2020 and up the new refreshed car
got away from some of the
original character of this and lastly
the differential in the back
so v6 cars and four-cylinder cars had a
torso diff
however all the v8 cars both coupe and
convertible
went to a e-lsd which is a clutch back
rear diff
which you know obviously allows them to
modulate what it's doing a little bit
better but if you do decide to track
this car they're famous for overheating
the rear diffs
you wouldn't track this car don't
there's no point these are gt cars at
their heart and
you know your running costs would be so
high but this is basically an lc 500 in
your world and we've always talked about
that
it is like jack's always told me this is
like the lc500 it was the spiritual
japanese successor to this car and while
it's not as
ragey as this you definitely see the
parallels so if you're somebody that's
looking
for that type of car and the buy-in for
this is almost
nothing yeah so with that mark let's
head underneath the hood sounds good
well we know we're under something
special it's got a hood that goes up the
wrong way jack
yes this is an all aluminium clam shell
hood
with some steel rivets that like the
underbody are also rusting
but so what you have here mark is a five
liter v8 with a tvs
style blower it produces in the
coupe r variant 550 horsepower and this
is the interesting thing about the
f-type
your mileage may vary based upon what
model you had they had a four-cylinder
which you shouldn't buy
you had three did you just say they have
a four-cylinder in this car which
completely
ruins the f-type that's like i don't
even want to say it i'll get myself in
trouble anyway go ahead all right so
then you have
three outputs for the v6 which again
this car came out for was out for a
while so you had a 340 horse a 380 horse
and then a 400 horse
variant of the v6 which most people
consider the
driver's car variant of this it does
drive in a more balanced fashion
and it still sounds spectacular and you
could get it with a manual and then you
have the 5 liter
5 liter aj series v8 which
four built much like they built their 3
liter v6 as well
the plant is going defunct here shortly
so who knows what's going to happen in
this engine but
it's very stout it probably
has some of the similar routes to the
5-liter coyote even they won't emit it
just because ford helped build this
motor
and we're going to take a look at the
white balance right now jack i'll put up
the chart
it's a damn heavy car despite being
aluminum it's about 3 900 pounds the
cross balance is
pretty decent it's you know not perfect
um and then
the front rear distribution you said was
52 front 48 rear
yep okay which is kind of to be expected
this is a gt car it's not a pure
performance car and you see that on the
suspension tuning as well yes like you
can see in the top mounts they are
electronic
dampers that are you know variable and
it's definitely on the softer side
you know i noticed something else here
why is there a little a little container
here jack
because the non-all-wheel drive f-types
had hydraulic steering
in 16 they went to an eps unit okay so
i'll be curious to see how
all of that feels when we get this out
on the road all right
[Applause]
[Music]
oh bobby you finally got
in got me in an f-type yeah mark what
what's what's the deal with this jack
well as some of the viewers may know by
now this is one of my favorite cars i'm
going to demonstrate to you
and the viewers the boys and girls at
home why i love
this thing so much oh great here we go
[Music]
[Music]
i had i had no idea this car was this
fast
[Music]
is there something is there something
rattling around in the exhaust no mark
this is the uh the party piece of the
f-type is just
it's like spinal tap turn all the way to
11. it has one of the best exhaust notes
this is this is oh
this is a special experience and for the
price you can get these cars at now
it is a no-brainer for me at least as a
street car that is
all about theater and this engine which
of course you can't really use on the
street that well
is incredible it is such a special
feeling car from a drive trade
perspective you have great noise
you have a ton of power and this cf-8
speed is brilliant i mean we always talk
about it it's really good it's not
special feeling but does exactly what
it's supposed to
yeah so that this has one of the best
balances of
every core fundamental that you want
from a street car
it's fun it's loud-ish it you know
it's not just about the noise it's the
ride quality it's a transmission
performance it's fast
it looks good i mean i don't know what
possibly else you can want jack but i
think you're gonna you're gonna show me
something else
it does that mark this is like going on
a date with an emeritus professor of
like
classic english literature and finding
out her favorite pastime is lap dancing
right i mean
and it certainly doesn't hurt that you
have walmart tires on here he's got what
500 tread wear tires
which means you are always skating
around
and when i first drove this um i
i thought there was something wrong with
it because if you hit throttle at like
15
you're losing the back end and
personally yes while it's fun for the
sake of the video
if you want to slide around do that but
this needs real tires otherwise it just
becomes a liability the colder it gets
i've spent a lot of time in f types over
the years you've talked about this is my
god car
yeah and no this by far has the least
amount of group of nef type i've driven
most of them are on like pirelli's or
pilot horses
and when you do it that way you can have
the balance between grip
and sideways which is for me in a street
car right i mean
this is a deeply flawed product as we
talked about in the shop
no it's amazing though it just i think
the tires highlight how well
balanced this car is it feels really
neutral
it's not out of control yet when you peg
this in a straight line
it is remarkably fast yeah it is super
quick and
i think the biggest conversation with
this car its closest
competition the new competition is now
the lc500
so a lot of people ask you know how does
this compare to that
from a dynamic perspective i like the
character of this car
kind of like i was alluding to earlier
this to me is like the guilt-free
version of the challenger hellcat right
yeah in the challenger hellcat no one
expects you to be able to read
and everyone thinks you beat your wife
in this car at least you're likable
you know it's this nice it has a very
sophisticated
there's a high level of sophistication
to it until you get out and drive it and
you realize
that's all a facade because when you
start driving this
it's all about the engine just like the
hellcat but it's comfortable
it looks good and this thing rides
really
really well let's talk about that for a
minute because that's one of the deal
breakers with cars like this
uh the when lc first came out it was its
biggest problem it rode like
they kind of fixed that this rides
great it's exactly what you want from a
car you're gonna drive every day
it doesn't get overly firm even when you
put it in whatever it's sport mode for
the dampers this car
always rides great i love it i i didn't
think that i
would love this car but it you've sold
me
yeah this is one of the few cars that
despite its
despite its many flaws it is
it gets underneath your skin in a way
that few cars do right
the interior isn't that great but
despite all of that this thing is
affordable
and it makes you smile in such an
intoxicating way
yeah it's it's a hell of a car and if it
was a hundred and five thousand
no but because this is a used car
proposition
like our viewer bought this hats off to
you man you just
bought one of the best cars i've been in
this year yeah it's amazing
let's uh get into the final thoughts
jack all right mark
final thoughts maybe you'll be able to
hear me over johnny arctic cat over
there who just has to rev his
snowmobiles for three hours
that's what it's like driving the jag to
most people i'm sure when you sit and
rev the exhaust
and you deafen all your neighbors it's
one of the most exciting parts of
driving
the f-type let's be real
there is a dying breed of rear-wheel
drive
fun cars that are loud brash v8 and this
has a supercharger of course so it adds
the extra flare and power that you're
looking for
but the main takeaway and i mentioned
this during the drive
every single part of it from the
steering is okay
the suspension is great the transmission
is really good
the power output is amazing it's way
more than what you need
and the fact that it can go from quiet
comfortable
old man mode to straight
just neanderthal is what makes this so
enjoyable to drive
and be in and it's that fun factor that
just doesn't exist in too many vehicles
and there's only three that come to mind
you have the hellcat
the lc which is just a little bit more
refined
and then there's this car in the case of
price range
finally you can buy something for forty
to fifty thousand dollars
that gives you everything that you
mostly want a daily driver
this is one of the best cars i've been
in all year and i know it's older
okay and you might wonder about the new
ones well the new ones strip away a lot
of the sound
they go all-wheel drive so they took
something that was just
animal mode into now you can't have a
lot of fun and this is why you buy this
car
thanks for watching i'll see you next
[Music]
time
[Music]
you