Donate NOW and support the 2015 Jag-lovers Fundraiser! Serving Enthusiasts since 1993 The Jag-lovers Web Currently with 102656 members Need to order a JDHT CD-ROM? - check out our official page! May 17th 2002 F-Type Development Halted! Details are sparse but Jaguar announce they have deferred the planned production of the F-Type due to 'changes to the sequence of future new product introductions'. From a Jag-lovers user comment "I'm stunned! I cannot see how anyone considers the rehashed 2001 design drawings as an improvement on Helfet's original! It's a sadly modern disease to imagine that a person's individual gift and unique craft can somehow be bettered or made more contemporarily relevant by playing with it. "I think I feel all the more strongly about this because, maybe unwittingly, Ford could not have chosen a more inappropriate design to play around with. "Every car maker - and Britain's tie to the specialist sportster is deeper than most - would die for Helfet's skills and his eye. It would be the corporate crime of this century if Ford ignores them" 'F-TYPE represents one of the greatest design challenges in Jaguar history. It must capture the spirit, sensuousness and passion of the original concept, reflect Jaguar’s future direction and meet real world packaging and performance requirements. The challenge is to create a true 21st century successor to the E-type, the icon of the 60s' We'll be keeping you fully informed of all available data on the new model as it becomes available so keep an eye on this page. July 2001 - The production F-Type design scheduled for 2004 has now been approved but we do not know what it looks like. Only that (apparently) it's gorgeous, will come with lots of specification options from a base model but is nothing like the prototype! Official Jaguar Press Pack - Jan 4th 2001 Available now, the full official Press Pack - note that this also contains additional images of the original concept car - we are making these available in very high resolution together with the design drawings shown further down this page Other F-Type material We also have the original January 2000 F-TYPE Concept Press Pack available for viewing Select image to see details of the Concept cockpit And then there's the XK180 Concept Press Pack that kicked this off Pictures of the original concept car at its Launch And here are some pictures of the original concept car taken by Michael Rothman in our Photo Album Below is the Marque Models concept F-TYPE (1/57 scale in pewter) in its Special Edition presentation exclusively from Jaguar Cars Ltd Jaguar Press Announcement - 4th January 2001 Here is the text of this official press announcement from Jaguar together with some very early styling images which may or may not reflect what it's going to actually look like 4 January 2001 JAGUAR F-TYPE ROADSTER IS GO! The Jaguar F-TYPE roadster has been given the production go-ahead, the company announced today. The all-new, compact Jaguar roadster becomes the fifth model in the company’s expanding product range and marks Jaguar’s return to the true sports car market, which it helped to create in the 1950s and 1960s. Announcing the decision at the Los Angeles International auto show today, Jaguar’s Chairman, Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle, said, “Jaguar is one of the most evocative brands in the world and there is a renewed commitment at Jaguar to create cars that stir people’s emotions. The overwhelmingly positive reaction across the globe to last year’s concept has convinced Jaguar to build the F-TYPE roadster.” “Due to the unprecedented growth and intensity of new product development at Jaguar today, it will take us around three years to deliver the F-TYPE roadster programme to market. While F-TYPE will embody all the passion and excitement of past Jaguar roadsters such as XK 120 and E-type, it clearly signals a fresh direction for Jaguar sports cars in the future.” The F-TYPE has been the subject of a detailed 12-month study to determine both the business implications and potential launch timing. A crucial issue for the study team was to determine the relative priority of F-TYPE in the context of the company’s ambitious long term product plan. Today, Jaguar as a business is in the throes of a major product-led transformation. The introduction of the S-TYPE saloon in 1999 is driving record sales around the world. The new X-TYPE compact sports saloon which goes on sale later this year establishes Jaguar as a four-model line company, accelerating the company’s development from a niche player into a major competitor in the premium car segment. The smaller, more affordable F-TYPE roadster complements the XK Series range of sports cars and will extend Jaguar’s product portfolio to five distinct model ranges— three saloons and two sports car models. F-TYPE will therefore continue Jaguar’s drive to make the brand more accessible and aspirational to a wider customer audience. Within each model range, innovative derivatives will provide greater customer choice.Jonathan Browning, Jaguar’s Managing Director, said ,”The atmosphere at Jaguar today is vibrant, exciting and challenging, as the rate of new product development continues at a dramatic pace. Over the next 36 months, Jaguar will launch 15 new or significantly revised products and power trains. F-TYPE will be the sixteenth. From a manufacturer that a mere three years ago had only a two- model line up, this represents a massive investment in design, engineering and manufacturing resource. Today, Jaguar is the fastest growing of all car manufacturers, but this growth is being managed very carefully to ensure that we sustain our quality standards and do not over-extend the Jaguar brand.” Within this array of new model developments, the traditional Jaguar values of style, finely crafted interiors and effortless performance are being complemented by innovative technology and a renewed emphasis on sportiness and performance. This is reflected by the supercharged ‘R’ derivatives—the XJR and XKR—the ‘R’ Performance Options and, of course, Jaguar’s involvement in Formula One. F-TYPE will be the boldest expression yet of this ‘emotional engineering’, which characterises new Jaguar. The decision to take F-TYPE from concept to production coincides with the fortieth anniversary of that seminal Jaguar sports car, the E-type, which was unveiled to universal acclaim at the Geneva show in March 1961. The E-type was the latest in a line of illustrious Jaguar sports cars from the SS 90 and 100 of the thirties, through the revolutionary XK 120 in 1948, to the XK 140 and 150 of the fifties. The race-bred E-type, hailed as one of the greatest automotive designs of all time, epitomised the mood of the ‘swinging sixties’. With F-TYPE, the goal of the Jaguar designers is to create an uncompromised roadster which evokes the spirit of the legendary E-type, but with a style that is both functional and contemporary. Ian Callum, Jaguar’s Director of Design explains, ”F-TYPE represents one of the greatest design challenges in Jaguar history. It must capture the spirit, sensuousness and passion of the original concept, reflect Jaguar’s future direction and meet real world packaging and performance requirements. The challenge is to create a true 21st century successor to the E-type, the icon of the 60s”. The 2015 Jag-lovers Fundraiser Great things are afoot, please DONATE what you can! 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