After a gap of nearly 40 years, Jaguar returned to the true sports car market with the new F-Type which was unveiled in convertible form at the Paris Motor Show in September 2012. F-Type is the spiritual successor to the legendary E-Type and was engineered for high performance and instantaneously responsive handling – the latest model in a distinguished bloodline.

The design team, led by Ian Callum, developed the F-Type from the C-X16 concept car that received a rapturous reception at Frankfurt in 2011. F-Type features a lightweight aluminium body structure with high torsional rigidity which is the ideal platform for a convertible sports car and is fundamental to the way it performs, handles and feels.

The powertrain line-up at launch featured three highly advanced supercharged petrol engines – 3.0 V6 340 PS, 3.0 V6 380 PS and 5.0 V8 495 PS. These were all coupled to a new ‘Quickshift’ eight speed close ratio automatic transmission designed to keep the engine in the optimum power band at all speeds.

A coupé model was added in 2014 together with a new ‘R’ variant (available in both coupé and convertible form) featuring a 550 PS version of the supercharged V8 engine which provides acceleration from 0-100 km/h (0-60 mph) in 4.0 seconds. An all-wheel drive option was also added for ‘S’ and ‘R’ models.

The original Bloodhound Project ran out of money and went into administration in December 2018 but was re-structured, re-financed and re-launched in March 2019 as the ‘Bloodhound Land Speed Record (LSR)’.

There is still no date set for the high speed testing and record attempt, but when it does happen it will be good to know that Jaguar contributed something to the project.