We've seen the Jag F-Type before. It's pretty and everything but hardly new.
Au contraire mon ami, for this is the new all-wheel drive F-Type and these images are our first viewing of the car before it debuts at the LA Auto Show later this month.
So what's with the plane then?
Well the reveal of the AWD F-Type R was really a double reveal as Jag also announced it has entered a technical partnership with the Bloodhound Project as it aims to break the 1,000mph barrier with the jet- and rocket powered Bloodhound SSC.
Even with all-wheel drive the Jag is never going to keep up with a supersonic car.
Nor is it meant to. Instead the F-Type was there - in the Hakskeen Pan desert in the Northern Cape of South Africa - to help the team test out their communications equipment, while driving flat out behind a jet plane. And before you say it, the Jag cannot keep up with a jet plane either, even with Bloodhound leader and former land speed record holder, Richard Noble, at the helm. It has a top speed of 186mph whereas the jet was doing 500mph, but it is the combined closing speed of nigh on 700mph that was important. That is closer to the closing speed of the plane and Bloodhound SSC and the team were testing out the effectiveness of their communications systems at those speeds and distances.
Ahhhh, now I get it. Alright so when can I buy one?
Well the 2015 Jaguar F-Type AWD will be officially unveiled to the public on November 19 at the LA Auto Show so will some point next year do you?
Paul Healy - 6 Nov 2014