This is the first official image of Jaguar's F-Type Coupé, which will make its world debut to a select audience on 19 November, the eve of the Los Angeles Motor Show, before its simultaneous public premiere at both the Los Angeles and Tokyo motor shows the next day.
Jaguar designer Ian Callum has described the all-aluminium hardtop F as “the most dynamically capable, performance-focused, production Jaguar ever, delivering in production form the uncompromised design vision of the C-X16 concept”.
No details have been released - although it's safe to assume that the coupé will be a little lighter and a little stiffer than the convertible, with slightly firmer rear suspension for more responsive handling, and the same three engine choices as the convertible, delivering marginally better performance thanks to less weight and better aerodynamics.
ACHINGLY BEAUTIFUL ROOFLINE
What's clear from this one picture is that the front end is identical to that of the convertible (it would be unthinkably wasteful if it weren't), while the glimpse of the red-leather interior predicates a fashionable glass roof.
The achingly beautiful gutter-lines, so nearly yet not quite straight, reveal a swooping roofline that pays tribute to the E-Type coupé, first penned 55 years ago by Malcolm Sayer, and seen since then in cars as diverse as L David Ash's 1964½ Ford Mustang Fastback and the current Audi RS5 (arguably the best rendition of them all).
AHEAD OF ITS TIME
What's less well-known is that the sensual, incredibly complex curves of the E-Type body (later described by no less a connoisseur than Enzo Ferrari as “the most beautiful car in the world”) were so far ahead of their time that Sayer, an aircraft designer by trade, had to develop new mathematic formulae, create the first seven-figure logarithmic tables and invent a special slide rule just to be able to draw them.
Even Callum seemed to be in agreement when he said: “We've been overwhelmed by the positive reaction to the F-Type convertible but, for me, the purity of creating a sports coupé is a uniquely satisfying process.”
We can’t help wondering what “il Commendatore” would have thought of this one.