Only one of these cars is beautiful (and really beautiful), and it isn't the Mercedes.

 

But I think what Qualifies as an exotic car would be Rarity. Price has nothing to do with it.

I feel like the V8 S V8 R SVR and Project 7.

are ALL Jaguars Exotic Line of cars.


been Driving the Hellcat out of my Jag F type R. I Have Yet to see another R. I saw Ftype Base an Ftype S... and loads of there SUVs.. My friend sent me a picture of an SVR from a car meet. Project 7 I saw on TV.. 😂

so in all.


these are Rare cars.. one could even say.

Exotic.

 

Then, in your mind, does the MT F-Type qualify as an exotic? Fewer of those built than any you mentioned, barring the P7. If a car is rare, it’s rare, not exotic. Exotics are perhaps better defined by sticker prices exceeding any affordable by mere mortals and technology otherwise not found in production vehicles.

 

I just drive my car and just know I don't see very many of them around. Sure wouldn't call it exotic by any means but one of the reasons I bought it was that you don't see one on every corner like a Vette.

 

IMO, exotics are rare by definition and recognizably rare. They also have to be special. Yugo's are rare on American roads these days.

I don't believe car variants are exotic. Project 7s while rare aren't that much different than R's of the day and not obviously recognizably so unless you are into Jags.

By this criteria I don't think you can consider Porsche 911 GT2s and GT3 exotic even though they are special. The average person won't recognize that it is as a special variant (Porsche also sells quite a few of them). You can take a base 911, put on a body kit and 90% of people could not distinguish it from a GT2 driving in traffic (except GT2s only get driven to cars and coffees and tracks (my guess cars and coffee much more frequently)). The current 911 Turbo S is hyper car fast off the line, but definitely NOT exotic. You might buy it because you want a blazing fast car but not get the attention of an exotic. 918s and Carrera GTs are clearly exotic.

E types and XK120s are wonderful and special cars, but not classic exotics because they made so many of them. That also makes them affordable to upper middle class people and not just multi-millionaires which is a good thing.

Under these criteria, is the XJ220 the only exotic produced by Jaguar? I am not sure if D and C Types were actual production cars so not including them here but they would count as well.

 

The C & D types were built to race, so not exotics. TheXJ220 truly is an exotic. Stratospheric price in the day, limited production, leading edge technology. And I agree, the P7 is extremely rare, but just a minor re-skin of a V8 vert., not an exotic.

 

It probably doesn't qualify as exotic but design-wise it's up there. It holds company with cars in a different league price-wise just down to its exterior. The XK is probably of a similar vein, this line of Jags are like mini Astons really. It's nice when you get strangers commenting on the car and it happens all the time to me, it's a lovely little talking point and shows that the car is perceived as something a bit different and special.

 

Er, modern Astons, really. Newer tech, better built, and more reliable. It's only the badge that makes people desire the Aston.

 

Fair comment.

 

I've got a motorcycle that many would consider exotic, an MV Agusta F4 312R. For five years or so it was the fastest production motorcycle in the world, and production was very low. I wish I had a Tamburini, but such is life. Even the more pedestrian variants are pretty rare. The F-Type? I agree with many (most?) here who contend it's at least uncommon, but not exotic. Uncommon suits me, especially if it does as Jeremy Clarkson once said, and "reaches down the front of your trousers and rummages around a bit."

I'm not getting much quality time with it these days, but there's light at the end of the tunnel (vaccines).

 

It's funny but I thought what qualified a car as an exotic was its performance parameters and in that respect, certainly the SVR and R versions encroach upon "exotic" car criteria. What other non-exotics can cross the 200mph barrier? Now, I personally don't think of the F-type as an exotic, however, I wouldn't rule it out automatically. Audi's R8 V10 is also routinely excluded from being called an exotic or a supercar, for cryin' out loud, what does a car have to do to make the "in crowd" list? Frankly, there are many exotics I wouldn't want to own such as any Lamborghini since the Miura. They're all so ugly. Same with McLarens. I think we put far too much emphasis on exclusivity, cost, and performance in creating a definition for "exotic." F-types are beautiful, capable high performance automobiles, be happy with those adjectives and don't worry about whether or not it's an "exotic." No one cares.

 

Ancient thread bump!!!

The F-type ticks so many boxes when it comes to being an ‘exotic’ or not.

To us in the US it’s foreign, has brilliant performance, from a fairly niche manufacturer, the right number of doors, the right number of seats, not amazingly practical and reasonably low numbers (though probably too high). But I think the difference between the F-type and the Aston, which is kind of its bedfellow in a lot of ways, is the way they are produced. Same with Ferrari, Lambo and one of the reasons why the R8 is such a tough call (also higher production numbers).

Your Aston Martin has had the engine assembled by someone called Trevor, with a flat cap and the ability to actually know whether a part is going to fit and if it needs fettling a bit, before torquing it up. The Ferrari interior is probably stitched and carefully assembled by a guy named Valentino who has spent the majority of his formative years, learning the art of webbing and grain selection on the leather he has selected for the side of the seat bolsters. This means that the cost and skill of these fine crafts people makes an exotic, exotic.

In the same vein, the Jaguar has been created by great engineers, with the same passion, that have then tooled up the car, so that within a couple of weeks training, someone like me - with two tools in my toolbox (hammer if it’s mechanical and a volt meter for when it’s not) could become part of the production line and create the apple of Callum’s eye (and mine).

The engineers car, normally lasts longer and is more reliable than an exotic because of (shudder the thought) the committee that makes sure that all the parts work together in harmony, while the artisans car probably don’t have quite the same total assembly focus.

In my mind, the Viper, R8 and a bunch of others straddle that line. But to me, that’s why the Aston is exotic and the Jag is just a very special car.

The difference between buying your suit off the peg, or custom made for you...


maybe...

 

I'd say it has a lot to do with market position and target demographic.

By strict definition an exotic car has to be the most special, unique, highest performance, wildest looking, revolutionary design elements, visionary technologies, unobtainable and limited production.

Our F type falls short of the mark but still feels like an exotic because of its unique combination of audio, visual and performance in relation to its market position and target demographic. It's like pricing a sf90 at 200k, suddenly all those "regular" lambo and mclarens doesn't feel exotic anymore huh?

An R8 is the polar opposite, it ticks a lot of the exotic mark but due to its price and performance, it's punching a much bigger opponent thus doesn't feel like an exotic in people's perception.

 

To be fair, it was a thread merge...



To the original question, the term exotic means different things to different people. Most motoring enthusiasts don't always relate horsepower with calling a car an exotic. For example, most car enthusiasts would call a Lotus Esprit an exotic car. However, it doesn't start with a lot of power and it wasn't considered powerful even during its production days.

When I think of exotic, I think of rarity, uniqueness, pleasing to the eye with some aspect of performance (typically more around handling)... With that, I would call the Jaguar F-Type an exotic car and many around me with "exoctic cars" think the same.

 

The Esprit could out-accelerate and out-handle all but one or two 'exotics' of its era. It never got respect, because it was powered by a 4 cylinder engine.
As time (and technology) marched on, it needed more speed...which it got with the V8 editions.
Uhhh, like this? J/K

Stutz Blackhawk

The Blackhawk basically is the 1970s wrapped up in a single car. It cost slightly more than a Lamborghini Miura, but what you got was a body that was hand-built in Turin, Italy, more than 15 coats of paint, gold-plated trim to go with **** carpeting, and your name engraved on a plate on the dash. It was a hit among the celebrity crowd -- postwar Elvis, Willie Nelson, Lucille Ball, George Foreman, and a host of others all bought one.

 

I don't know about out-handling and out-accelerating other cars during its production era. Many cars handled better and where quicker (one to name, C5 Z06 and on par with the NSX-T). However, that proves my point which is that it was never viewed as a super performance car but was viewed as an exotic. Performance isn't always everything when car enthusiast use the term exotic.

 

By that logic add the 2018 F-Type 400 and 2017 British Design Edition trims to the list lol. Really low production numbers and availability for only 1 year make them more rare than a manual transmission F-Type.

 

not sure iif "exotic" is still being used to label particular type of cars. its now either sports car, GT cars, super car or hyper cars, just all depends on cost, body style, rareness, location of the engine and i guess manufacturer of the car.

 

+1. And, I have my first shot scheduled on Friday. 60 miles away, but an opportunity to get reacquainted with my F-Type (weather permitting). No, Jay. I don't have the Conti winter tires on the car.