It’s now official: A production version of the new Jaguar F-Type will have its world debut in Paris next month. In making the coming-out announcement, Adrian Hallmark, Global Brand Director, Jaguar Cars, noted: "The unveiling of the F-Type in Paris will be a truly significant day in Jaguar’s history as it will mark the company’s return to the sports car market, a market it originally helped to create. As its sporting forebears did in their era, the F-Type will break new ground by delivering stunning sports car performance while vividly demonstrating Jaguar’s cutting-edge engineering technologies and world-class design excellence."
Last seen heavily disguised at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July, this all-aluminum, rear-drive two-seater will hit the showrooms sometime in 2013 as a convertible — although Jaguar admits that a coupe version is already under development. As announced previously, buyers of the Jag F-Type have a choice of three supercharged engines. Base motivator will be a 335-horsepower version of the firm’s new 3.0-liter V6. One step up will be a more potent 375-horse variant and at the top of the range is a tuned version of the automaker’s existing 5.0-liter force-fed V8 that will make "at least 500 horsepower." All engines will be equipped with Jaguar’s econo-enhancing Start/Stop technology and be backed by an 8-speed automatic transmission.
Currently undergoing on-road evaluation in various corners of the world, the Jaguar F-Type began life as a virtual entity. The automaker says that making the transition involved running over half a million design analyses that required 10 million hours of processing and over 300 terabytes of data to complete, all aimed at having it deliver "a driver focused sports car experience." For a look closer look at the Jaguar F-Type development process, click here.
