Having driven both the F-Type in V6S and V8S on track and road, I have concluded that the V8 variant is for me. Sound and power delivery being primary factors.
I chose the 2WD over the AWD mainly due to the following factors:

1. AWD is only 0.1 sec faster 'off the line'
2. Top speed is the same
3. Weight of the AWD is almost 100Kg more than the 2WD
4. Has a slightly poorer fuel efficiency
5. Added cost at purchase
6. Will undoubtedly cost more to run, both mechanically and in service costs
7. Almost 3' larger turning circle
8. Cannot be disabled

That said, the Intelligent Driveline Dynamics (IDD) is clever though; It senses understeer or oversteer using an array of sensors, Yaw and steering angle to name but a few, and clutches in/out up to 50% power to the front wheels. Under normal driving conditions 100% is sent to the rears.
In practical terms, if you enter a corner, and the IDD senses oversteer, i.e you are losing traction on the rears, then it applies power to the front wheels until control is regained and vice-versa for understeer.

Now to me, a car that senses over/under steer and controls it dynamically is filling in a gap in the driver's senses and control-ability is it not?
So where is the fun in that?


This leaves me to draw the conclusion that the AWD is for those people that are farmers and want to off-road capability for their F-Types and couldn't afford the F-Pace ;-)

What would be your reasons in choosing an AWD over a 2WD? (Not that it will influence my choice whatsoever, I'm merely interested)

 

For me, I had no choice, as I was dead set on the 2016 R.

If RWD was an option for the 2016 R, I would have checked that box.

 

I had a choice between a 2015 R and a 2016 R. The F-Type will be my daily driver. (I always DRIVE my cars!)

Although I live in Texas, there are a few days every winter where we get a little ice and snow, and there is always the rainy spring season. The extra piece of mind the AWD provides allows me to drive the car, ALL year long, rain or shine!

 

When the test numbers come in, I strongly suspect we'll see that the AWD models (and particularly the V8) are quite a bit faster off the line. It won't be just .1 of a second.

 

+1, with an even more significant improvement on road course lap times, most of which will be due to greater speeds through the corners.

 

I don't care much about shaving a few hundredths off of a lap time. I want the car to drift at reasonable speeds. That's the whole point of a rear wheel drive car. I think the safety nannies were afraid of liability and that's why the v8 rwd platform is NLA in the US. Sad times.

 

I agree. I think the AWD with significantly outperform the RWD car, but the RWD car will be better to hoon around with.

The AWD will be much more than 0.1 second faster. I highly doubt it will cost significantly more to maintain tho, especially with an extra year of warranty and 5 years free maintenance.

I chose the AWD because I don't hoon the car on the streets, I don't want to drift or do burnouts but rather power through corners and have great launches off the line. AWD was what I was waiting for to get into the F Type

 

I guess it also depends on if you have a pulley and tune. I have a real hard time hooking up in 1/2/3 gears with WOT the rears spin. I have more torque and HP in my Turbo S AWD and do not have this problem. At this point, I wish I had the AWD Jag.

Walt

 

eventually I think all high HP cars will have AWD. RWD will pass much like the manual to dual clutches...

 

Form a pure looks and sound standpoint I love the Jag but from a pure drive-ability the Turbo S kicks its *** big time.
A big part of the reason is when I punch the Turbo S it leaps forward and just goes. When I punch the Jag, the rear wheels spin. (A big part of that is the extra torque from the pulley/tune no doubt)

Walt

 

The 0.1 second improvement is quoted in the specifications from Jaguar. I'm sure they have tested them pretty extensively and if there were huge gains, I'm sure they would have advertised them? It will be very interesting to see a head to head shootout though.

I'm not too sure about all big HP cars going AWD - TVR, Aston, MB, MCL and most high power race cars are still RWD.

I daily drove my old V8S throughout the British winter which isn't that harsh. The odd frost and flurry of snow. That said, they salt the roads which makes them like a skating rink! I select Dynamic mode every time I drive the car, not because I'm better than anyone else, I just like the feel more. You learn to respect and if anything drive a little steadier than you might do if you have the peace of mind with AWD?

Neither do I. I think you may have been watching too much Top Gear ;-) Watch a proper driver put a 2WD through it's paces - It doesn't need to go sideways, and of course it's much slower through a corner when out of balance.

Cost wise, I may be wrong, but depending on how you drive it has got to wear the fronts more than on a 2WD car, but I guess the load is shared, so the wear will be less on the rears.
There are more physical mechanics involved; Driveshafts, joints and oil in the additional diff - That's where I see the extra servicing costs coming in...long term of course.

 

The thing you're missing, Tel, is that the factory 0-60 times for the F Type and in particular the V8 models are way off the times being recorded in the wild. The tests are delivering much quicker times than Jaguar quotes. You can rely on that .1 difference if you like, but I guarantee you the AWD, like its RWD brethren, will easily beat the factory times and do so by an even bigger margin.

 

Personally, I just love the car, and while I wanted a performance based sports car, with a luxury feel, I do agree that Jaguar always seems to underrate their performance times. I'm glad to know that real world testers aren't struggling to meet the factory provided numbers.

I know the factory speed limiter is set for 186 mph / 300 kph, but I've seen a video of one hitting 312. Note sure if the limiter is accurrate, the Speedo is off a few at that speed, or perhaps this was a European car. I wonder what top speed would be without a limiter...

 

You'd think so... but Motortrend and CarAndDriver both rate the R Coupe at a 3.6 second 0-60 time, which is much faster than the AWD is even rated at by Jaguar. I expect something in the low 3 seconds.


I'm not saying you can't drive a RWD car without going sideways, i'm saying that you can't as easily push the car without going sideways. I like AWD, i've always been an AWD person with subarus and such, and its what i know how to drive with the most skill.

 

I had both a Turbo S and the Ftype R and when I was logistically in a place of needing to let go of one of them I chose to keep the Jag and sell the Turbo S. The Porsche was a great car with incredible refinement and performance but it lacked the aesthetic style and the sense of occasion that the Jag delivers in buckets. No doubt the Porsche handles, stops and accelerates better but that doesn't make it a better ownership experience for the driver.

Another factor for me, and others may have had a different experience, is that the Porsche was frequently in the shop for nagging issues (spoiler deployment problems; horn failures - yes plural; squeaks and rattles) whereas the Coupe R just had it's first service and it was only in for that because it's been a year since I took delivery. I am so impressed with the build quality of the Jag.

 

The Turbo S is a better and more expensive car. It's like a hot, rich, expensive, well handling & predictable girlfriend in the sack. It's a great experience.

The Jaaaaag on the other hand is a hot and unpredictable girlfriend that suddenly turns into a stripper one day and blows your mind (in addition to other things )in the sack.

I tried the Carrera S and Jaaag V8 S back to back - similar price. The Jaaag was wild and crazy and tried to kill me in the midst of passion. I was sold then and there. It took 300 meters of a test drive. I drove the Carrera S for about 30 minutes and though it was amazing - yet I was not sold.

 

Oh damn, I'm in for a world of hurt.... Not only do I take possession of my R later this month, but I just started dating a Stripper.

 

Hope you didn't order suedecloth interior. Glitter would be impossible to remove.

 

Yep. And the best time I've seen for the V8S is only a tenth or so slower. Both cars easily beat Jaguar's factory time and both are less than the official times for the AWD cars. I'm expecting low threes and close to 3 even for the AWD V8 cars.

 

Son of a ..... Yes.... I DID get the Suedecloth!