The 2022 Jaguar F-Type P450 goes all V-8

Jaguar is looking for a new job. After a century of building beautiful, internal-combustion-engine cars, it’s pulling a Blues Brothers handbrake turn and is getting into the battery-electric space. Ask Jaguar where it’ll be in three years and its answer, like any good interview candidate’s, is intentionally vague. Jaguar promises an EV lineup in 2025 but is saying little more. When we visited the company’s North American headquarters in Mahwah, New Jersey, though, it wasn’t to see an EV. We came to drive an eight-cylinder F-type sports car and hammer it through the Hudson Valley.

For 2022, the F-type lineup goes all V-8. Replacing the previous supercharged V-6 and turbocharged inline-four is a detuned version of Jaguar’s greatest hit of the last decade, the 5.0-liter supercharged V-8 originally built by Ford. In the F-type P450, which now serves as the entry model, the engine puts out 444 horsepower and 428 pound-feet of torque. With that monster engine, plus the limited-slip differential, larger brakes, and 20-inch wheels pulled from the former P380 R Dynamic, the 2022 F-type justifies its $8300 premium over last year’s four-banger base car.

We’re keenly aware that a C8 Corvette could dust it, and at way less than our car’s $86,850 price as-equipped, but onlookers likely aren’t thinking about test data when you pull up in an F-type. As it has been since it launched for the 2014 model year, the F-type echoes the museum-grade sculpture of its esteemed predecessor, the E-type—one of only nine cars in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection.

With the manual transmission consigned to history, we’d argue that the P450 is now the driver’s choice, since it pairs the V-8 with rear-wheel drive rather than all-wheel drive as in the 575-hp R. Jaguar hasn’t offered this combo since the 2015 R. Those earlier models were a tail-wagging handful, but this new one felt so neutral through the corners that we had to hop out and double-check for an AWD badge. (There wasn’t one, although it is available on the P450 coupe or convertible for $10,000 as part of the R-Dynamic trim.) This latest rear-wheel-drive F-type has been tuned more for understeer to make owners more comfortable at the moderately high speeds and steering angles they’re likely to endeavor on the road. With its linear torque curve and quick steering, this F-type is less twitchy and demanding and more balanced and secure when being driven quickly.

Full story at Car and Driver: https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a40393918/2022-jaguar-f-type-p450-drive/