If there was one brand on a roll with a strong current product catalogue and a rosy future, it would be Jaguar. Now they’ve dropped this, the F-TYPE Project 7 and said get your cheque books ready. This could get exciting!
[Not a valid template]Cast your mind back to the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed and one of the cars creating a stir up the fabled tarmac was the gorgeous retina piercing blue Jaguar F-TYPE Project 7. The car was a nod to Jaguar’s ‘56/’57 Le Mans winning D-Type from which Project 7 draws its name (the ’57 event was the fifth of an eventual seven victories at La Sarthe for Jaguar, the last of which came in 1990 with the XJR-12)
It was quite clearly a design exercise and nothing more than a bit of fun for a brand on the boil in the public eye. Or was it?! Jaguar have had a bit of history of playing around with roof chopped hot rods, with the gorgeous and thunderous XK180 being a good example. A car that had people stopping in their tracks, but sadly never touched based in a showroom.
History has told us that speedsters versions of products can work. Porsche over the years have been very clever in producing low wind-shield derivatives of their fabled Porsche 911. Stretch that back all the way to the mid 1950’s in fact, when the then Porsche Importer for the USA suggested Porsche might want to create a low spec, Speedster version of the then 356. Became a bit of an icon that 356 Speedster didn’t it? Jaguar are clearly looking to solidify the F-TYPEs position in the market and a halo roofless version to get everyone excited is the perfect route.
We are talking a possibility of 250 units all powered buy Jaguar’s 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine. It’s not strictly the same powerplant we had fun with in the F-TYPE Coupé R, as it is now in 575PS/680Nm form meaning a 0-100km/h sprint is dispatched in 3.9-seconds and an electronically-limited top speed of 300kph.
As you can see from soaking in the images, the key design elements include the D-type-inspired buttresses fairing behind the driver’s head, that chopped down front windshield, a new front bumper, and some rather sexy looking carbon fibre aero mods hanging from all corners. Thankfully the single seater element of the initial concept has made was for two seats, and there are rollover hoops for both driver and passenger which the design team have cleverly integrated into the car so as to not generate an eye sore.
The soon to be renamed ‘Project 7‘ will be available in a choice of five colours (Ultra Blue, Caldera Red, British Racing
Green (all with white decal options), Ultimate Black and Glacier White (both with grey decal options). But with an indicative price of GBP 135,000 ($230,000), it’s certainly not cheap.
But, just LOOK at it! It’s sure to sound incredible too.
