Jaguar F-TYPE S Coupe 2014 Review

The F-TYPE Coupe is 80 per cent stiffer than the Cabrio Jaguar launched last year. It’s grippier and faster and it’s also cheaper. So cheap, in fact, that Jaguar thinks the pair of V6s offered line up as direct competitors for the Porsche Cayman family, leaving the V8 R to take on the lower rungs of Porsche’s 911 ladder.

The theory is sound enough, in its way. The V8 R costs 25 per cent more than the mid-range supercharged V6 S, which is about the stride length it needs to cross the gap from the top of the Cayman range to the fat part of the 911 family. The V8 also offers enough to deliver a credible alternative to the 911, with fabulously clean looks, a luxuriant cabin and easily chuckable, reliable, fun handling.

The problem with the theory comes at the V6 end of the F-TYPE Coupe. Not only does its handling not match the delicious delicacy of the Cayman, but it doesn’t even approach the F-TYPE R Coupe’s handling precision.

Some of that is down to the fact the S (we didn’t drive the base V6) gets a mechanical limited slip differential, while the V8 R scores an active diff. But that’s not all of it and, by rights, the lighter weight of the V6 should sweeten the car's balance.

It doesn’t... Instead, the 4.5-metre sports car suffers from bland hydraulic steering with odd self-centring characteristics that shows that new-school electronic power steering just might have finally supplanted the old-school setups in the sports-car realm.

It also has an odd lack of perceived stability as it tips its head towards corners, with the rear body feeling like it moves up and over a relatively high rear roll centre before plonking down on its springs. It’s a disconcerting feeling, one that hints at a sudden breakaway that never comes.

The short version is that you just can’t row it fluidly from one apex to the next, especially over bumpy ground. Indeed, the front and back ends often seem like their messages go through a translator before they reach each other, so lacking is the car in cohesion.

That doesn’t mean it’s lacking for grip. It’s made from Jaguar’s new sports car modular architecture (which shares a lot of bits and pieces with the XK, which will die in July). At 33,000Nm/degree of torsional rigidity, there’s plenty of stiffness there to hang the 20-inch rubber off and the end result is an outright grip level that might just be higher than the Cayman’s.

Yet where the Cayman fairly tantalises you until you drive it properly, the F-TYPE delivers seven-tenths of its handling capacity willingly before only begrudgingly letting you have the rest.

It’s as though the car has a lot of pace but not much grace, missing out on half of the mantra of classic Jaguar philosophy.

For most people in this market, its 280kW makes it quick enough in a straight line and there’s torque aplenty when you’re squeezing down the throttle on corner exits. After all, 460Nm sounds like a big number, even if it’s lugging 1594kg of supercharged V6 coupe around.

But the torque figure is a little deceiving and the F-TYPE'S transmission hunts uncomfortably as it tries to find which of its eight cogs will land the tacho needle in the chunkiest bit of the torque curve (from a relatively high 3500 to 5500rpm).

Still, it feels about as quick as the 4.9-second 0-100km/h time Jaguar quotes and, while we didn’t test out the claimed 275km/h top speed, it flitted beyond 200km/h time and again without exhausting the powertrain.

With its active exhaust flaps (which you don’t get on the base V6), the S can also make a racket when you want it to and then run with more dignity at other times.

But it doesn’t run with enough dignity. It generated about 82dBA at a steady 110km/h on our test, which is significantly more cabin noise at cruising speeds than its German rival and the fault seems shared between a droning exhaust note, tyre roar and a surprising amount of wind noise around the A-pillars and mirrors. You can cull the exhaust flaps, but it saves only one or two dBA.

All this sounds pretty negative, and it is, but only because the F-TYPE S comes so very close to achieving what Jaguar and its fans hoped. In the case of the handling incoherence, it falls short in areas where the V8 shines, which makes absolutely no sense.

Still, it’s a beautiful thing, deliberately proportioned to have hints of the E-Type’s classically late-curved roofline and sitting the cabin behind a long nose.

The concept car’s side-opening boot access door has gone (too heavy by nearly 30kg). The conventional hatch gives access to around 315 litres of useful boot space, even if the lip is pretty high. This is in stark contrast to the useless boot on the open F-Type.

The interior design is one genuine area where the F-TYPE has the Cayman covered. The seats walk a fine line between comfort and grip, the steering wheel is fat and lovely to feel and the rising air vents in the middle of the dashboard add a touch of theatre when they lift and a sense of cleanliness when they drop.

There’s a touchschreen for the multi-media setup, including the navigation and a screen to set the Dynamic mode up to suit yourself.

The equipment levels are high and the choice of materials is impeccable. The only quirks are that the cupholders, nestled between the centre-console lid and the gear shifter, were precisely at elbow distance from the wheel for us. The seat adjustment switchgear on the doors also looks about a generation too old and you get a flash of light in the rear-view mirror from the Jaguar badge every time the rear spoiler pops up at speed. Most Australians will assume they’ve just been snapped by a speed camera.

In truth, the F-Type doesn’t yet provide a credible alternative to a Cayman S. We were hoping it would – the industry is infinitely more interesting when Jaguar is kicking goals – but there’s barely a tangible area where it’s competitive.

We can only assume that there are product planning reasons why the V6 S handles like it does, because the V8 R proves there aren’t any engineering impediments.

And, with a lighter engine and less to carry (the S is 71kg lighter than the R), it should be an easy upgrade to make the S shine. Jaguar first has to realise it needs more polish, though.

Read the full review of the Jaguar F-TYPE Coupe R