In the next few days we will publish a driving impression of Jaguar’s latest sports car, its F-Type Coupé. However, it seems the British-based manufacturer is already working on a more focused example of its compact, but heavy, sports car.
During an interview with the London-based weekly automotive magazine, Auto Express, Jaguar hinted at a lighter derivative.
“We have three or four things we are looking at for the next developments of the F-Type and a lightweight, harder version is a long way up that list,” said F-Type programme director Russ Varney.
It is hinted that if the Jaguar F-Type Coupé, in R trim, can shed around 200 kg, its sprint to 100 km/h will dip to a supercar rivalling 3,5 seconds.
Interestingly, the supercharged 5,0-litre V8 is not the only engine the company is considering. Varney continued: “If you could get a couple of hundred kilos out of it, that would be a special car. We won’t get any weight savings of significance by looking at any one thing, so it has to be holistic across every part and that’s a lot of engineering.
“You get down to a critical mass of weight savings once we go so far and then we can start downsizing brakes and engines and things. As a powertrain, the V8 is superb but the V6 has its advantages for that style of car, too”.
Jaguar’s last track focused car was the limited run XKR-S GT.
Source: AutoExpress.co.uk
