Hakskeenpan, Northern Cape - Jaguar has confirmed that the all-wheel drive version of its F-Type R Coupé sports flagship will premiere at the Los Angeles motor show on November 19.
And that's just one of the “performance enhancements''- Jaguar's words, not ours - that will take the F-Type range from the current six derivatives to 14, when the 2016 range goes on sale in the third quarter of 2015.
All of which dovetails neatly with the company's stated intention of challenging the Porsche 911 on its own turf, although we're not really holding our breath for an F-Type Targa! Expect to see all-wheel drive available on all the V8 variants and possibly the top V6s as well, and a six-speed manual 'box as an option on V6 models, which would also make possible a new entry-level version.
Although Jaguar has released very little technical detail on the F-Type R AWD, we do know that the quoted power of the five-litre V8 is unchanged at 405kW, as is its (electronically limited) top speed of 300km/h, while its claimed 0-100 sprint is down from four seconds flat to 3.9, thanks to improved traction.
REAR-DRIVE CHARACTER
Jaguar has also been very careful not to mess up the F-Type's poised handling with typical all-wheel-drive clumsiness and understeer. Vehicle line director Ian Hoban insisted: “Our target with the all-wheel drive F-Type was to maintain the rear-drive character that's so important to Jaguar sports cars, but with more dynamic capability.”
Expect to see a further development of the all-wheel drive that's available (although not in South Africa) for the XF and XJ sedans, which, according to Jaguar, has “almost a full rear bias under normal driving conditions, but it can divert up to 50 percent of the power to the front wheels when needed”.
The first official photographs of the AWD F-Type that Jaguar has released were in fact taken at Hakskeenpan, where it was roped in to help in testing the radio set-up that will be used to link driver Andy Green and his Bloodhound team during next year's world land speed record.
But how do you test whether it works when it's moving past you at about 1000km/h?
What they did was quite simple; former record holder Richard Noble drove the F-Type R AWD flat out (300km/h, remember?) across the pan while a hot-shot pilot flew a Czech-made Aero L39 Albatros jet trainer the other way - also flat out, at about 805km/h, as low as he dared.
Their closing speed was more than 1000km/h, and the radio worked link perfectly throughout - mission accomplished.