2012 New York Auto Show: 2013 Jaguar F-type confirmed

We reported a few days back that Jaguar would make a very important announcement at the 2012 New York Auto Show. Well, now that the show is underway, Jaguar has announced their new product – and boy, are we excited!

The top honchos at Jaguar have confirmed that their new sports car is coming later this year and that it will be christened the F-type. For those of you who are not well versed with Jaguar’s history, the F-type was a concept study that debuted twelve years back at the 2000 New York Auto Show. The concept car was a convertible and was based on the Jaguar XK180 Concept from 1997. The idea behind the F-type concept back then was to create a compact convertible sports car that was contemporary, functional and distinctively Jaguar. However, as the years passed, Jaguar’s research and development budgets shrunk under Ford’s ownership and the F-type’s fortunes were buried. But now with the financial might of the Tata group bringing Jaguar back into profitability, the cat is free to leap again. 

The F-type’s design will be inspired largely by the C-X16 Concept that was shown last year. However, unlike the C-X16, the Jaguar F-type will be built in a convertible form and strictly with two seats - as the original concept envisioned back in year 2000. It will utilize Jaguar’s expertise of an all-aluminium construction and will be powered by a variety of petrol engines that will belong to a new range of powerplant family. 

The production model F-type will see the light of the day later this year and the test felines are already out on the test tracks. In fact, Jaguar has released images of the F-type with a camouflage that mocks you and urges you to research more on the F-type. This move is similar to the one their comrades played with the Land Rover Range Rover Evoque when the crossover went all over town with funky camouflage that greeted the audience with a ‘Hello’ in various languages.

Ian Hoban, Jaguar's Vehicle Line Director said: "The engineering development of the F-type has focused on delivering a heightened level of dynamic driving reward. We are excited about our progress to date and are looking forward to soon being able to demonstrate what we have achieved."

Ian Callum, Director of Design, said: "A true sports car needs to be pure in both its purpose and its form; to have the opportunity to produce such a car for Jaguar has been a privilege both for myself and for my team. The C-type, D-type and E-type Jaguars were all sports cars that held true to this principle in their era, and the F-type will hold true to that same principle in its time, a time that is soon to arrive."

The F-type will join Jaguar's existing range of cars – the XF saloon and Sportbrake, XJ saloon and XK coupe/convertible. Full F-type technical and range details will be announced later in 2012. It will go on sale in mid 2013 in Europe and we expect it to come to India by late 2013 or at the 2014 Auto Expo.

Click here to see more images of the 2013 Jaguar F-type