JAGUAR F-TYPE

SAY JAGUAR and people think E-type, the most beautiful, charismatic, iconic and important Jaguar of the lot. It was a huge sales success, with 73,000 produced from 1961 to 1974. Then, in 1975, Jaguar launched the XJ-S. Bigger, heavier and more of a GT than a sports car, it wasn’t quite the replacement that E-type fans had hoped for. Still, it sold even better than the ‘E’, and was in production for 20 years.

The XK8 succeeded the XJS (no hyphen) in 1996 and featured a powerful new V8 engine, supercharged from 2000 –the last XKR-S could crack 186mph. That was then replaced by the XK, which ran from 2006 to 2014, building on the high-performance GT credentials of its predecessor.

Finally, in 2013, the F-type arrived, designed by Ian Callum: lighter and nimbler, a proper Jaguar sports car again. There are certainly many recognisable E-type cues, not least the tail-light graphics, the curvaceous poportions, and the coupé’s tailgate. Of course, the F-type is very different from the E, which was launched 52 years before it, but it is a good-looking Jaguar with the soundtrack and soul of a real sports car.

The F-type can be had with a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder, a supercharged 3.0-litre V6 or a mad supercharged V8, and is also available with four-wheel drive. If you can’t stretch to the brilliant rip-snorting SVR , our choice is the 335bhp supercharged V6S. It’s quick and sounds epic, with the six-cylinder voice every Jaguar deserves. And the coupé is the body style of choice.