You’d think a luxury sports car from Great Britain would mean restraint. Nope, none of that here.
- Car(s): 2021 Jaguar F-Type R
- Location: Angeles National Forest, CA
- Photog: Peter Nelson (IG + Twitter: @16vPete)
- Camera: Canon 6D, EF 50mm 1.8 AF
The 2021 Jaguar F-Type R is 575 horsepower of supercharged V8, short-wheelbase brutality. It’s also the first sign of a mid-gen revision and refresh. Gone are its previous front end, some minor interior bits, as well as the option of having just RWD. Oh, and supercharged V6 with manual transmission. Which is a real shame.
Now all models are AWD. This decision was apparently made because the previous, supercharged V8 trims of yore were quite hair-raising. As in, they were a handful to keep in line, even in ideal traction condition.
Joke’s on whoever made that decision, though. The thing is still happy to hang right on the ragged-edge when traction control is turned off and a steady hand is at the helm. All-wheel drive just means it’s a tad easier to recover and power away from this edge of raggedness.
Even when traction control is on, though, it still acts like a caged tiger (or actually, Jaguar) on ketamine when your foot is down and the steering wheel isn’t aimed perfectly straight. You can feel the engine want to bust out and break the tires loose, sending it sideways into a wall. The ECU cutting power feels more like it’s snapping a whip at this enraged big cat, rather than progressively cutting power in a smooth, non-scary fashion.
All of this makes it a total riot to drive and gives it so much personality, though. I’m glad they kept it wild and barely-tame-able.
