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Jaguar's design boss wants to build another sports car model

The global sports car segment is facing a strong, glacial headwind, but Jaguar believes smoother waters are right around the corner. One of the company's top executives predicted the market will recover in the coming years, and he wants his team to be ahead of the curve when that happens. "Jaguar will always build sports cars. I'd love to do more than one," affirmed Julian Thomson, the man who replaced Ian Callum at the head of the brand's design department, in an interview with British magazine Auto Express. The only sports car currently in the Jaguar portfolio is the F-Type. While enthusiasts still love sports cars, the run-of-the-mill buyers that keep automakers profitable have rejected them in favor of crossovers and SUVs. And, requests for cleaner, more efficient cars make developing fun cars considerably more difficult; even Mazda is looking into taking the Miata into hybrid or electric territory. Jaguar faces the same challenges, but Thomson expects the sports car segment will rise up from its ashes when motorists realize they're trapped in a sea of crossovers. "In this day and age of electrification and autonomous technology, a part of me thinks there may be a resurgence of people enjoying transportation for transportation's sake, and driving for driving's sake," he said. "Whether that makes the market bigger I don’t know, but I think there is a threat to volume production cars, and they are going to struggle to find a position on what they do. IÂ’d hope that truly special and luxury cars, sports cars, will find a place where they have the option to be more exotic." He stopped short of confirming a second sports car is under development, so it's far too early to pinpoint the segment it would compete in. In the meantime, Jaguar just gave the F-Type a facelift (pictured), and its vehicle development team has already started working on the model's successor. The rumor mill has started spinning; we've heard reports of the nameplate pulling a Corvette by going mid-engined, adopting BMW's 4.4-liter V8, and getting a battery-electric powertrain. The latter option would slot neatly into Jaguar's electrification push, but Thomson hinted it's easier said than done. He explained making an electric sports car with a huge amount of power, like the 2,000-horsepower Lotus Evija, is not the answer.

2015 Jaguar F-Type R Coupe [w/video]

This is it. This is the nasty cat we've been hankering for most. Whereas the Jaguar F-Type convertible remains the company's purest expression of lifestyle fun and expendable income, it's this coupe version that originally stole our eyeballs and never gave them back when it debuted as the C-X16 Concept way back at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show. And now we've had an early turn at driving the most potent variant, the Jaguar F-Type R Coupe.
This F-Type Coupe design is so utterly visually stunning that, even if something dynamically or functionally was not really to our liking, we would still want to have the wherewithal to buy one and garage it, if only to stare at it - not unlike our reaction to the 2007-2009 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione coupe, then. Whether such beauty needs to be in the form of this $99,000 mondo 542-horsepower R version or the more attainable six-cylinder trim is an open question.
In case you need reminding, that's 542 horses maxing out at 6,500 rpm, along with 502 pound-feet of torque on tap between 2,500 and 5,500 revs. There is no indicator yet as to whether Jaguar will eventually come out with an R version beyond the 488-hp V8 S for the convertible, either, so this may well be our only shot at such hair-brained antics in this small Jag. Small and not quite light, we should add - despite its all-aluminum goodness - the F Coupe rings in at 3,638 pounds. That sort of heft is one thing on the street, but it's quite another on a twisty roadcourse, and we aimed to figure out if the coupe's 80-percent greater stiffness versus the open F-Type (along with its higher attendant spring rates) were enough to make a big difference.

Jaguar F-Pace Luggage Test: How much fits in the cargo area?

The Jaguar F-Pace has been around for a while now, and perhaps it's just me, but it feels like it's been forgotten. That's a shame. This was the first time I've driven the F-Pace since the first drive event in Montenegro and therefore the first time I've really driven it in anything resembling normal conditions. And man, is it ever good, at least the R-Dynamic S you see here with the P400 engine. This is right up there with the Porsche Macan and Aston Martin DBX in terms of SUVs that are legitimately great to drive. The steering alone ... chef's kiss. But I'm here to talk about cargo capacity, so enough of that driving impressions stuff. The F-Pace is bigger than compact SUVs like the Mercedes GLC and BMW X3, but it's smaller than a GLE or X5. It's fairly similar to the Lexus RX in that way, which I just-so-happened to have luggage tested last week. Perfect timing, then! The specs say that it has 26.6 cubic-feet of space behind the back seat. I have a sneaking suspicion that volume represents a measurement from the floor to top of the seat back, or roughly the cargo cover. That's not just because what I found in the course of doing this test but because the F-Pace was reported to have 33.5 cubic-feet when it was launched back for 2017. That number seems more applicable to what you'll find in other SUVs. Either way, that's kinda why I do these tests to begin with! Here is the cargo area. It is quite deep and wide with an acceptable lift-over height. The F-Pace originally had a sliding rail system running the length of the cargo area along each side, but Jaguar has apparently replaced that with the fixed tie-down points you see here. There is a rigid cargo cover in place, which is probably good for NVH, but rubbish for cargo hauling. As a result, I will be testing with and without this cover in place. As with every Luggage Test, I use two midsize roller suitcases that would need to be checked in at the airport (26 inches long, 16 wide, 11 deep), two roll-aboard suitcases that just barely fit in the overhead (24L x 15W x 10D), and one smaller roll-aboard that fits easily (23L x 15W x 10D). I also include my wife's fancy overnight bag just to spruce things up a bit (21L x 12W x 12D). All of the bags fit underneath the cargo cover, so that pretty much confirms that whole thing about the current cargo volume representing floor to seat back. Now, the fancy bag is a wee bit squished, but it still totally fit.