BRENDAN SEERY
PICTURES: BRENDAN
IWONDERED all day about what had happened. Perhaps I imagined it. When I got home, I had to ask my wife: did you come out this morning to watch me going down the driveway?
Yes, she said. That car is beautiful. That is the most beautiful one you’ve ever brought home.
In 11 years, and more than 400 cars that have come and gone in Driveway Seery, this was the only one she had come outside to look at… and, truth be told, somewhat wistfully as it disappeared.
And, lest you underestimate the visceral power of the Jaguar FType, let me say one thing: my wife really couldn’t care less about cars. She loves Minis (she once drove the old, leaking-oil version and, as we all know, emotion often clouds memory)…. but didn’t even bother getting into a Ferrari F355, arguably one of the sexiest cars in history and the only one of Maranello’s finest I ever brought home.
She likes Subarus but is honest enough to realise they are about function, not form.
Her attitude makes me look anew at the F-Type, squeezed into our garage. I take it outside, look at it. She’s right. It is gorgeous.
Without her forcing me to reassess the car, I might have just passed off the new Jag as a typical marketing scam to take advantage of retro-chic and nostalgia. Hell, I never thought any one (maybe not even Ferrari, with the 250 GTO, the Dino or even the latest 456 Italia) could better the shape of the iconic E-Type Jaguar which, when it appeared in 1960, completely rewrote the rule books for sexy, affordable supercars. Even Ferrari’s patron, Enzo Ferrari, called it the most beautiful car ever made.
Yet, the F-Type has managed to do all that: pay homage not only to the beauty of the E, but also to its raw talent and ability.
Born out of the Le Mans winning D-Types, the E combined performance, sexiness and affordability (it was less than half the price of a Ferrari of the time, but faster) in a body which was designed to cheat the wind, but was a shape which will be honoured as industrial art at its finest.
The new F is all that (it is still cheaper than an equivalent Ferrari) with a 21st century twist. The new V6 supercharged engine in the S version I drove (there are also V6 naturally aspirated and ferocious V8 supercharged engines) is good for about 280kW, will hit 100km/h in around 5 seconds and would comprehensively blow away an old EType. It has a super-slick eightspeed auto box which is even quicker than helmeted and goggled racers of yore could manage.
The V6 F Type is much more civilised than its V8 sibling, which – seriously – will hurt you badly if you are not careful because of that huge power, rear-wheel drive and comparatively short wheelbase.
Although the V6S is fast enough to demolish most machinery at the traffic lights, it is also more controllable than the V8. With its clever, electronically controlled exhaust system, it crackles, splutters and pops on the over-run and on down changes… just like a race car.
Yet, use part-throttle and it is as docile as a Jag sedan, with a ride which is just as comfortable. And all that is without trick air suspension or fancy magnetic ride gadgets. Just plain old-fashioned clever suspension engineering – the way Jaguar has always done it.
This is one brilliant sports car. No one can state anything different.
So I am rather puffy-chested (even though I don’t own the car myself) as I wait for Henry Cass (in his XK150S FHC – fixed head coupé) and Gavin Standing (in his Series 1 E Type) to arrive.
I am thinking the old cars just won’t cut it. I am thinking modern is good and modern is sexy.
Yet, as they pull up and I hear the grumbling straight-six, twincam lumps of British iron under their bonnets, I feel a shiver.
They’re still gorgeous. And, at this family reunion, they’re not at all outshone by the younger generation.
With the cars parked together, you understand why Jaguar is special, why it has survived, and thrived, in the modern era. There’s something in the DNA. Something which makes even a non-car person stop, look, and swoon.