Jaguar Blesses the F-Type with All-Wheel Drive

2015 Jaguar F-Type R (Credit: Jaguar)

The Jaguar F-Type is arguably one of the best-looking cars on the market today, but there are some problems underneath that skin of perfection. One of the most glaring is only obvious to people who live where the mercury drops below freezing in the winter, because driving a high-powered rear-wheel drive car on icy roads is loads of the wrong kind of fun. With that and other things in mind, the powers that be at the British automaker have announced that the F-Type R coupe and convertible will be made available with all-wheel drive.

Not only does the new drive configuration make for more secure driving in all kinds of road conditions, it also improves other aspects of the car’s performance. Jaguar claims that with all-wheel drive, the F-Type R actually accelerates from 0 to 60 mph faster, doing it in just 3.9 seconds. That’s an improvement of 0.2 seconds.

Some are actually worrying that using all-wheel drive on the F-Type will effectively declaw the cat, making it less feral and fun. If that’s the case, those who plan to purchase the F-Type R can simply choose the rear-wheel drive version of the car and keep all of the fun.

Of course, there are still two other versions of the F-Type: the base model and S. Both will still be offered exclusively with rear-wheel drive. All of the details are still under wraps, but Jaguar says it is expanding the current F-Type model lineup from 6 to 14 versions for 2015. Rumor has it there will even be cars with manual transmissions.

The announcement of the all-wheel drive version of the F-Type was made in conjunction with Jaguar revealing a new partnership with the British World Land Speed Record Team. Apparently, the AWD coupe is playing an important part in the team’s quest to push past the current land speed record. It’s a good marketing ploy and will surely fire up the Brits as they celebrate their national vitality.