When you get a call from Jaguar to get the last truly wild F-Type as a Coupe in Linguarian Black with 575 hp , it awakens all the senses. Especially since Jaguar is celebrating 75 years of the iconic sports car and this model is once again a special farewell gift to all lovers of classic , roaring engines before the brand like many others becomes boringly electric from 2025.
Coincidentally, last weekend was just the 50th Anniversary of the AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix at the Nürburgring and so it was obvious to let this special Jaguar in the wild. There it is now in front of me: crouched like a wild animal with low-slung air intakes and the wonderful slim LED taillights with racetrack chicanes signature. The R75 with 575 hp has all-wheel drive and we will talk a bit more about the 5 liter supercharged V8 engine in a moment.
In any case, it’s a nice opportunity to look back on a 75-year tradition in Jaguar sports cars. In 1948, the wonderful story started with the world premiere of the Jaguar XK 120 and in the following decades, Jaguar brought out some of the most beautiful sports cars in the world with further generations of the XK and the legendary E-Type. The special editions F-Type 75 and F-Type R75 have once again powerful classic gasoline engines and offer pure driving pleasure.
The powerful proportions with the fat 20-inch wheels and a body structure made of lightweight , torsionally stiff aluminum, jump at you immediately. From the highest point of the fender, the front line continues into the door with an elegant sweep before ending elegantly in the rear fender. So that this doesn’t interfere with the classic shape of the wildcat, the rear spoiler is housed invisibly in retirement and is only extended at speeds of just under 100 km/h. I don’t think we need to go into detail here about the many other well thought-out little details and the neatly and elegantly crafted interior. Panoramic roof or soft top for the convertible are the options.
We set off from Essen and hit the well-filled highways in the Ruhr region.The wildcat babbles quite well even at the lower revs, but as soon as you give it more gas, the cage door springs open and the wild beast charges off in a manner rarely found. 700 Nm of torque, 3.7 seconds to 100 km/h and a top speed electronically reduced to 300 km/h make your blood run cold at maximum acceleration.The high-performance unit, which is manufactured at the Jaguar Land Rover engine plant in Wolverhampton, UK, with its Roots supercharger and attached water-cooled intercooler, responds so immediately and brutally to the throttle movement that one can only be truly thrilled.
The engine management software from Bosch regulates the boost pressure control 20 percent more efficiently than previous systems, so you can really talk about a special work of art of technology here. This is one hell of an engine, and Jaguar fans will be happy to get another treat like this before the boring days of e-cars finally begin.The eight-speed transmission is so perfectly tuned by ZF that you won’t want to get out of the car, you’ll just want to shoo the Jaguar mercilessly. And in addition, the handling in the beautiful curves in the Eifel region around the Nürburgring is an absolute pleasure because the intelligent Driveline Dynamics System IDD is used in Jaguar’s all-wheel-drive models.
The drive to the Nürburgring was a pleasure and the wild beast can keep up with other German and Italian supercars – and many Jaguar fans at The Ring saw the pitch black Jaguar how much muscle it has and that unfortunately there will not be so many cars like this in the future. One can only hope that we will be able to run such masterpieces of engine technology with e-fuels in the future and that not only e-cars will be built in the future.
In summary, it has to be said that Jaguar goes out with a thunderous bang with this F-Type R75.The car sucks up the road so greedily and it is literally animal fun to move this driving machine.This is what a racy sports car must be like.
Thank you, Jaguar , for the courage to round off the tradition of 75 years with these anniversary models !
Kay Hafner
