The F-Type is So Weird to Me

"Wobbles the Mind" (wobblesthemind)
11/12/2016 at 05:57 • Filed to: Thoughts

I know what it is and what it competes against, but my brain says, “No.” The F-Type is in this alien place between a sportscar and a luxury sport coupe while performing like a modern muscle car. Think M4, C63 Coupe, or RC F that benefits from a sportscar footprint. Or like a Corvette or AMG GT with added heft for better comfort, touring, and that feeling of just being “substantial” in the way it sits on the road. Or like a Camaro SS or Mustang GT if they had of gone to a Montessori and purists weren’t a thing.

It has such a muscle car mentality but it’s too luxurious. Like a sportscar but with that perfect weightiness for long tours. Like a luxury sport coupe made to be smaller than a Corvette. Even the pricings and specs seem to always keep the F-Type in its own special segment throughout the range and options, all while making it feel familiar instead of foreign.

The execution of the F-Type is completely, all together, and entirely intriguing!

You know what it is?! It’s like if Infiniti made a new vehicle to sit above the G37 Coupe that kept the 370z layout instead of adding backseats. In my silly mind this niche sportscar/luxury coupe segment would progress as: 370z/Successor - Jaguar F-Type - AMG GT .

Is this making any sense?!! I can’t even explain this right now. It’s unique without being different, yet special despite its familiarity.

DISCUSSION (22)

Sam > Wobbles the Mind
11/12/2016 at 06:27

Anybody that doesn’t understand the F-Type hasn’t driven the F-Type.

LongbowMkII > Sam
11/12/2016 at 07:01

Help me understand.

“Hello jaguar. I’m super serious journalist. Send ftype now.

Thanks”

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > LongbowMkII
11/12/2016 at 08:45

Well just sign up for one of their drive days. I got to throw the V6 around a auto cross course, I had to consult a doctor because four hours because well, you know...

It is fun, like really fun. Where the Porche is like Sabine Schmitz, the F Type is like Clarkson.

victor > Wobbles the Mind
11/12/2016 at 10:21

My friend bought an F type R on a whim one day after lunch out with coworkers. They ate at a restaurant next to the dealership, and the car caught his eye. After lunch, he was in n out in 30 minutes and the dealership delivered it to his workplace that afternoon

He totally doesnt regret it. It’s a nice driving car. We joke that it’s a gentlemans mustang.

Added side benefit is that I can borrow his AMG C63 for days at a time.

Textured Soy Protein > Wobbles the Mind
11/12/2016 at 10:48

It’s simple really—the F Type is a GT.

Coupes (including muscle cars) are shaped with some regard to having a back seat.

Sports cars and GTs aren’t.

GTs like the F Type are tuned more towards comfort (they can still be fast) and less towards ultimate handling, but they have the same basic shape as sports cars. Mercedes SLs, most Aston Martins, Jag coupes, Porsche 928, front engine Ferraris, etc.

Roadster Man > Wobbles the Mind
11/12/2016 at 11:54

You forgot something: it looks DAMN good. I’m excluding the ridiculous performance models due to come out, but the standard F-Type looks better than any other car on the road in its price range. I saw one yesterday for the first time in a while and was like WOW.

Have you seen one in person, I know from the numbers it seems a bit too big and heavy to be a “true sports car,” but the thing is TINY. It’s really small. I think it’s a perfect “refined” sports car.

Roadster Man > Textured Soy Protein
11/12/2016 at 11:56

I’m confused.

Danger Ranger XLT > Roadster Man
11/12/2016 at 12:02

The F Type doesn’t have back seats. It is a sports car, period, but one that weighs nearly two tons. This puts it in a weird place.

Kanaric > Wobbles the Mind
11/12/2016 at 12:06

I do not like it. Big fat old man’s car just like the old XK.

It is a GT car and people act like it’s a sports car simply because all cars now are like sports cars if we are thinking of the 80s and earlier.

djmt1 > Wobbles the Mind
11/12/2016 at 12:26

It’s a GT car like an Aston, Bentley or Rolls. If you want a sports car buy a:

Caterham

Lotus

Ariel

BAC

Zenos

Ginetta

Axial > Wobbles the Mind
11/12/2016 at 14:13

And here I am, musing on a customized V6 F-Type S thinking “Shit, if I down-pay with all my savings I can afford the monthly payments!”

Dangerous as fuck.

marclurr > Kanaric
11/12/2016 at 14:41

Wrong. It’s a gentleman’s sports car.

B_Funk > Textured Soy Protein
11/12/2016 at 15:34

Literally every single car you listed there as being a “GT”, at least in the versions that aren’the stripped down for raciness, has a back seat. Literally the entire point of a GT car is to be sporty, yet comfortable, and possibly carry a passenger or two. Mind you, the back seats in virtually all GT cars are definitely insurance seats, and don’the ruin the lines of the car (Oh god, Datsun Z/ZX 2+2's... absolutely horrible), but they have back seats nonetheless.

Unless you were trying to say that they might have a back seat (I’ll admit, there are GT cars that don’the have back seats, the F-type among them, but they’really usually few and far between), but they’re not shaped as such, in which case I totally agree with you.

Goggles Pizzano > Wobbles the Mind
11/12/2016 at 15:51

If it had a more elegant and Jag-like exhaust note, would that help define it for you? It would for me.

RT > Wobbles the Mind
11/12/2016 at 17:56

It’s a Porsche 911 rival, in the same way the Nissan GT-R is a Porsche 911 rival.

Different size and layout - but similar price range and performance.

Kanaric > marclurr
11/12/2016 at 19:08

Nothing that weighs 2 tons can be called a sports car. That is GT car or Hypercar territory.

Steve in Manhattan > Wobbles the Mind
11/12/2016 at 21:48

Having not driven the F-Type, I probably can’t knee-jerk and prefer the F-Type. But maybe I can get one on Turo one day and say, for certain, that I did prefer it.

Textured Soy Protein > B_Funk
11/12/2016 at 22:55

I’m less of a stickler on calling all 2 seaters sports cars. The GTs that have back seats are vestigial back seats, not real back seats. Their body shapes more closely resemble 2 seat sports cars than 2 door sedans. Also almost all versions of the Mercedes SL are 2 seaters and I’d call it much more of a GT than a sports car.

Roadster Man > Danger Ranger XLT
11/13/2016 at 12:16

I understand. I thought it had Audi TT-type back seats like the old XK(?)

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Wobbles the Mind
11/13/2016 at 12:48

People can call it whatever they want—I happen to think GT is a sub-category of sports car, and this fits the name perfectly.

But what it’s really selling itself as is a hot-looking and great-sounding Jag with a somewhat attainable non-exotic price tag.

NJAnon > Wobbles the Mind
11/13/2016 at 16:14

Good! Jaguar set out to be different.

Jonathan Harper > TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts.
11/13/2016 at 18:09

Yeah it farts all over the place.