Jaguar F-Type R - long-term review

This month, I have mostly been driving cars that aren’t the Jaguar F-Type. This has made me sad, not just because I’ve been reintegrated into the world of infuriating active safety systems that the Jag does without, but also because others have been having a whole lot of fun in my place.

First the car was borrowed by our Programming Executive and social media wizard Barzi Karim. “The suspension soaks up all the road imperfections very well - much better than my MK7 Golf R with DCC in comfort mode,” said Barzi upon its return. Glad to see that my thoughts on the impressive ride quality are shared. The F-Type has proved itself to be a wonderfully compliant GT over the past five months.

Although Barzi did pick up on one of the flaws of using the Jag every day: “You don’t get a car like this for grocery shopping, but surely a little bit of space to store a couple of snacks and a bottle of water is not too much to ask for. Yes, it does have two cup holders, but that’s all the space you have for stuff. I could barely fit my wallet and a packet of Haribo in the driver's side door.”

Clearly Barzi’s wallet is absolutely chock full of cash, and we should cut his pay immediately. Or perhaps Jag’s interior designers could have just taken a leaf out of Porsche’s book to knock up a bit more in-car storage. I’m convinced that if the cabin was a little more practical the F-Type would have taken more sales from the 911 over its time. The boot is plenty big enough, the pricing has always been about in line and the Jag’s engine is way more atmospheric.

After a long weekend, Barzi dropped the F-Type down at Dunsfold. Essentially, the Jag was being used to fulfil some competition-winner Stig Laps and was the chosen star-car from our current fleet. Four laps in (that's mid-way through the second guest) the Jag threw up an error code mid-drift that said "OK to drive with caution. Two-wheel drive only. Traction Reduced". Stig (being Stig) processed this as "woohoo – a rear-wheel drive F-Type" and bunged it into a corner on full throttle only to be met with chronic understeer. Yeah, the differential had got a little bit hot, and the result was a front-wheel drive F-Type. And there I was worrying about what state the tyres would be in afterwards.

The Jag was retired and allowed to cool, but the next morning the message was still showing. Luckily, I’d already planned a trip to JLR’s classic department for a shoot that you’ll see in the near future, so while there I was able to have two technicians plug in some laptops and rid the car of its electrical gremlins. The fix took no more than 20 minutes and required no hardware work or new parts, but it’d be fair to say this proved that the F-Type isn’t exactly at home on a track and in usual circumstances this would have required a trip to the dealer (clearly, I jinxed things last month). The temperature was probably 25-degrees on the day of the Stig Laps, and it really didn’t cope well, but then at least the diff protected itself and gave up early on. That’s one way to save from hefty repair bills.