Jaguar has revealed its 2015 Jaguar F-Type AWD at the LA Motor Show, and beyond all-wheel drive it also receives a six-speed manual transmission.

JAGUAR TEASED ITS all-wheel drive F-Type a week or so ago when it announced its partnership with the Bloodhound Group. Both the coupe and convertible will be available with all-wheel drive, with a new six-speed manual transmission available across the range.

Borrowing heavily from Land Rover technology and know-how, the all-wheel drive F-Type, says Jaguar, has been tuned to retain the rear-drive characteristics (aka, oversteer) by biasing torque to the rear wheels, not front. – in normal driving conditions the system sends 100% of torque to the rear wheels. It can also shift torque front/rear in order to help combat either under or oversteer.

Ian Hoban, Vehicle Line Director, Jaguar, said: “Our target with engineering the all-wheel drive F-TYPE was to maintain that engaging rear-drive character that’s so important to Jaguar sports car DNA, yet offer even greater dynamic capability. The result is a controllable, exploitable and blisteringly fast performance car in all weather and road conditions.

“With the manual transmission option for the V6 F-TYPEs, we’ve gone to intricate lengths to engineer a very precise, technical and responsive level of interaction between the driver, the clutch and the transmission shift mechanism. It’s one for the driving purists – and I count myself as one of them.”
Jaguar say the six-speed manual has a 45mm throw, the pedals are optimized for heel’n’toe shifts and that it’s a close-ratio gearbox.  Given the brand’s focus on sporty driving so far, I don’t doubt this will be one hell of a car to play with.

In other F-Type news the torque vectoring by braking system is now standard across the range.  That’s clever electronics that brake the inside wheel to help better hit those apexes.   There’s also electronic power asssisted steering, which is now used on the best sportscars on the planet (which have all made the shift from hydraulic to electric power assist) – Toyota 86, Subaru WRX, BMW M3 and M4, and Porsche 911 just to name a few.

There’s now 14 F-TYPE variants, up from 6, and here they all are:

F-TYPE Coupe

• F-TYPE Coupe (250kW, RWD Quickshift, RWD manual);
• F-TYPE S Coupe (280kW, Quickshift RWD or AWD, RWD manual);
• F-TYPE R Coupe (404kW, Quickshift RWD or AWD).

F-TYPE Convertible

• F-TYPE (250kW, RWD Quickshift, RWD manual);
• F-TYPE S (280kW, Quickshift RWD);
• F-TYPE R (404kW, Quickshift RWD or AWD).

The manual is slower accelerating to 100km/h compared with the automatic Quickshift gearbox (5.3 Vs 5.7 seconds), 10kg lighter, and about 1L/100km worse on the fuel economy.  That’s all due to six rather than eight ratios, and humans can’t shift as quickly as computers.   With its eight-speed automatic and supercharged V8 the all-wheel drive Jaguar will get to 100km/h in four seconds.

Other changes are minor, and include better instrument dials and a carbon-fibre roof.

The F-Type was always a top-end sportscar to consider next to the likes of a Porsche 911.  With these changes it broadens its appeal, and you’d need to think twice about the Caymans and Boxsters of the world.  The F-Type maybe isn’t quite as dynamically perfect as its esteemed competition, but because of that it’s arguably more fun, certainly rarer and perhaps better looking, too.  Do remember the F-Type lacks for storage space, but with performance and looks that’s just about forgiveable.