The F-Type is one of those cars that incredibly manages to connect past and present, giving hope that its future will continue to ignore politically correct and downsizing. With the 6-cylinder now gone, the intermediate step now welcomes a majestic 450 horsepower V8. To make it roar properly, all you need is the right road and the top down.

JAGUAR F-TYPE CONVERTIBLE P450

Words Andrea Balti / Photos Daniél Rikkard

A vintage Italian song used to say “Summer is ending and another year is going away. I’m growing up, you know, I don’t like it”. A simple and apparently so banal rhyme, which however contains a multitude of meanings, which can be applied to my days spent in the company of the F-Type Convertible. After all, when we talk about a big V8, we all travel back to our childhood and things seem to revolve around a journey without a well-defined destination like satellites surrounding their own planet. The sun is still hot and the invitation of the mountain asphalt leads me to the rocky peaks of the Colle della Lombarda, one of the most scenic and demanding roads between the Italian and French borders. Not the ideal place to unload a lot of horses on the ground with the violence that would be suitable for an engine like this, unfortunately a species now doomed to extinction, but the ideal playground to fully enjoy a summer day impossible to remove from my memory.

The second generation F-Type has had slight aesthetic updates, mainly focused in the optical groups, where we find new LED lights at the front and a redesigned and more streamlined design at the rear. There is a thinner front mouth and everything else remains virtually unchanged, especially in the passenger compartment where we are greeted by a sober and essentially identical environment, with the exception of the new digital instrumentation with a 12.3-inch HD TFT display. In fact, no major changes were necessary, precisely because the F-Type was able to immediately trace that connection with the glorious past of Jaguar, where some sedans, SUVs and previous coupes had not entirely managed to do.

We have already had the opportunity to taste the new F-Type, in its variant equipped with a 2.0 turbocharged with 300 horsepower and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the next step, now represented by the V8 of the P450, the step immediately before the frightening F-Type R. With the P450 you save a few thousand Euros and above all you have the possibility to choose whether to have rear-wheel drive or all-wheel-drive layout, the latter the only option for the R. The Convertible AWD we have here hosts a system that obviously favors the rear axle, in turn equipped with a limited-slip differential. Up front, under the huge bonnet that enhances the grand touring nature of the F-Type, there is an exceptional V8 with a volumetric supercharger. It is an old-school engine, one of those who like to breathe a lot of air and burn just as much petrol, but you certainly can’t blame it, indeed this is precisely what makes the driving experience of a completely different caliber than what we are used to today.

The P450 badge reveals that the 5-liter delivers 450 horsepower, something taking place at 6,000 rpm. The maximum torque of 580 Nm instead comes into play starting at 2,500 rpm, but from about 3,500 the music changes, especially when you are in Dynamic mode. At that point the actuators of the exhaust valves open and give life to the ultimate soundtrack to shake the rocky walls of the Lombarda pass, as the road is literally assailed by the roar of the jaguar who cares nothing about its sly nature and a predominantly inclined nature for grinding kilometers, climbs one bend after the other with an agility that I would not have believed possible. Dimensions and weight you carry around are in fact important – 1,735 kg – and the set-up is still quite soft, with wishbone suspension that incredibly manages to find a compromise between comfort and responsiveness when the most frenetic direction changes.

The canvas roof is compulsorily folded down, an operation that takes just 12 seconds and can be carried out on the move up to 50 kph. In this way, getting in perfect harmony with the surrounding environment and perceiving the feedback of the F-Type in an even more direct way is a matter of moments. Also thanks to a driving position with low seat – as I like it – and an optimal setting of the layout of the car itself – seats set back towards the rear axle and engine in longitudinal position – I move through the curves with the ease that would be suitable for a sports car less inclined to such a comfortable on board coexistence. The weight is there and of course you feel that, especially on the front when you enter through corners with a little too much gas. The braking system is powerful at the right point, although at first it may seem too soft and thus require a little more vigor than usual.

The gearbox, an 8-speed automatic with torque converter, does an excellent job even if left in automatic, but acting in person from the paddles on the steering wheel allows you to wake up a greater number of marmots, precisely due to the fact that the exhaust system is really very muted and sings as it should only in the upper part of the rev counter, where you will soon want to be, even if this will imply no better figures than only 3 or 4 kilometers with a liter of petrol. “I’m growing up, you know, I don’t want to” and certainly not words as deep as those that may have been written by names like Queen or Pink Floyd, but hey, summer season is all about having fun. I don’t want to grow up, at least not today. The F-Type P450 is in fact one of the best cars for those who need a more sober image than a sports car in the most canonical sense of the term can offer – mid-engine for example – but at the same time knows very well what it takes in order to create a perfect day on the road: right foot heavy to the floor and the avalanche of horses ready to open up the quintessence of driving fun.

The F-Type Convertible forgives even those small defects that certainly do not affect the overall judgment, such as the reflections that can dazzle on the central screen with roof open, or a trunk with an irregular bottom less roomy than the coupe model . Does it really matter? If you have any doubts, look for the answer in the middle of a mountain road, with your eyes divided between the spectacle created by nature and the strip of asphalt that runs fast under the wheels. I have no doubts, cars like these are the ones that we will miss in the not too distant future and thinking about these moments does nothing but darken that cloud of sadness that could soon take the place of that automotive world that has given us so much in these decades and still could have offered, if only it did not have to bow to restrictions and marketing madness.

Jaguar, which this year celebrates its centenary, is one of the brands that has been able to reinvent itself more than ever, just think of the fact that it was born producing motorcycles under the effigy of Swallow Sidecar Company, then became SS and definitively changed its name to Jaguar after the war. Today, between hybrid and electric models, the Coventry jaguar looks to the future and does so once again avoiding conventional schemes. On one hand by offering a smaller spec, in perfect downsizing style, with the 2-liter F-Type, on the other by eliminating the 6-cylinder in the middle of the list and replacing it with this V8, which has very little to envy to the 575-hp of the R.

Driving the P450 is an intimate experience, accentuated by the contact with the elements once the roof is folded in the luggage compartment. Judging this car by simple numbers such as the acceleration from 0 to 100 kph in 4.6 seconds and a top speed of 285 per hour would be too simple and would be enough to consecrate it as one of the best grand tourers on sale today, but it still wouldn’t do justice to what the F-Type actually continues to offer to car-minded people, whether they are loyal to the brand, or just customers who don’t want to settle for just one aspect between comfort and performance. In this case it should be emphasized that the P450 is not a compromise at all, but rather a reasoned option that probably for the first time in history manages to really bring together two opposite instincts such as the possibility of using it every day in complete relax and the ability to disintegrate its tires on a mountain pass. Where it will be unlikely to see this cat is among the curbs, but not because of its impossibility, but because of the fact that the typical user knows very well that this would not be its natural habitat.

This is a protected species, loved by a host of enthusiasts who ask for nothing more than a huge engine, because although turbos are able to dispense plenty of horsepower, there is nothing better than the stroke of the tachometer needle accompanied by the whistling of the volumetric compressor towards the red line. What happens next is told by the explosion emitted by the four tailpipes as you are pressed harder to the seats, clutching a steering wheel that smells of centenary, of a natural evolution not taken for granted. The precise moment in which I reach the summit of the Lombarda, I stop for a while and let the air fill with the ticking of the hot mechanical parts, reminding that it is not only summer that is now ready to come to an end, but a concept of driving that has days numbered and that thanks to cars like this Jaguar can be enhanced and celebrated by keeping those emotions alive like an unexpected cool summer breeze.

JAGUAR F-TYPE CONVERTIBLE P450 AWD

Engine V8 cylinder Supercharged, 5.000 cc Power 450 hp @ 6.000 rpm Torque 580 Nm @ 2.500-5.000 rpm Traction All-Wheel-Drive Transmission 8-Speed Automatic Gearbox Weight 1.735 kg

0-100 kph 4,6 sec Top Speed 285 kph Price from€112.000