Reportage: Jaguar F-Type 75 Cabriolet: Say goodbye with a thunderous sound

We admit that this text will be an ode to a sports car whose last hour will soon come. It’s about the Jaguar F-Type, a sports car that made its debut at the Paris Motor Show in 2012. Back then, Lana del Rey performed her song “Burning Desire” and interestingly, the cat wore a cloth hat on her first official appearance, while the coupe wasn’t released until a year later. The model category fits the swan song: topless vehicles are becoming less and less common on German roads.

So we grab the Jaguar F-Type 75 Convertible and dutifully lower the fabric roof at the push of a button. On this tour, the journey is the goal. We cover 917 kilometers in two days. From the Mediterranean coast to the Atlantic, from Sitges to San Sebastian. With a push of the red pulsing start button, eight pots come to life, voluminous and because we are writing about a Jaguar, even purring. We opted for the version with 331 kW / 450 hp and rear-wheel drive, if you want all-wheel drive, you have to put 6,300 euros more on the table. If roadster, then rear-wheel drive is the maxim of the traditionalists, which we are only too happy to follow. After all, the English car manufacturer is celebrating 75 years of sports cars with the elegant big cat on the bonnet. When the XK 120 saw the light of day in 1948, four driven wheels were still miles away.

The journey begins! The F-Type remains true to itself in the anniversary edition. In terms of agility, the two-seater isn’t a nine-eleven, but more of a GT. The sweeping curves of the picturesque Serra d’Ordal are the natural habitat of the English sports car. Here it carves lively around the corners and is happy about the progressive acceleration. The mighty cliffs of the Pyrenees rise majestically in front of us, we climb higher and higher on winding asphalt. Curve after curve, interrupted by short straight sections. The supercharged, forced-ventilated V8 also performs extremely well in the low rev range, even if we keep the revs high with the shift paddles. So we climb the Port de la Bonaigua pass and stop at 2072 meters and enjoy the white sugared peaks.

With the F-Type we delve further into the Pyrenees. The streets are getting narrower, precision is required here. Now it’s up again, the next pass is at our mountain and valley railway. At the Port de Cantó the asphalt is grippy. A dream for a classic rear-wheel drive roadster. This also helps with the 180-degree turns, where we use the accelerator pedal to capture the front end of the car, which is pushing towards the edge of the road with the powerful engine block. But that shouldn’t bother us, we enjoy the full-bodied hiss of the eight cylinders and the unbridled sovereignty of the five-liter displacement.

With its 450, the convertible is not quite as brute as the F-Type R75 Coupé with its 423 kW / 575 hp, but it is still fast enough. Just a reminder of the performance data of the cloth cap athlete: The sprint from zero to 100 km/h takes 4.6 seconds and if you fully exhaust the power, you can reach 285 km/h. For us, the weaker of the two eights is the perfect choice, as there is plenty of power available and the chassis with the adaptive dampers is more comfortable than the R variant, especially in normal mode.

With the flap of the sports exhaust closed, the F-Type gives the well-behaved gentleman and only if you let the exhaust fumes run free, does the noble Dr. Jekyll to the rough-hewn Mr. Hyde. So anyone who is at loggerheads with their neighbors presses the button in the center console and floods the morning air with the original sound of the V8 engine from the four gleaming chrome tailpipes. We enjoy the Spanish spring. The fabric hood is still hidden and the windows below. The air blows around our heads. Without question, the Jaguar F-Type 75 Cabriolet is a car for pleasure drivers. However, with a price of at least 113,000 euros, it is not exactly cheap. If you want an F-Type with eight cylinders, you have to order an anniversary model, otherwise only the variants with four-cylinder engines remain. In exchange, you get a few extras: including super-comfortable, heated performance seat shells, fine leather, and 20-inch rollers on black rims.

Anyone who is quick and secures a copy from the dealer from April will be topless on the road from summer, since the F-Type does not have as many semiconductors on board as the British car manufacturer’s newer models. The chip crisis has badly hit Jaguar Land Rover and accumulated 200,000 pre-orders. They are processed according to margin. This means that the models with the largest margin are produced first, such as a Range Rover. The F-Type, which will be phased out next year, is a bridge to the future, as Jaguar will be releasing only fully electric vehicles by the end of 2025, and it doesn’t take a prophet to surmise that the first BEV will be a sports car becomes. That doesn’t change the fact that the F-Type has what it takes to be a classic. Because the design is still as timelessly beautiful today as it was ten years ago.