I have been waiting for this moment since Jaguar Land Rover replaced its 4.2-litre supercharged V8 engine with the current 5.0-litre unit used in cars including the Jaguar F-TYPE R Coupe.
One of the most impressive things about the Jaguars with the 4.2-litre V8 was how well they could cope with a power output on the high side of 400bhp. There seemed to be almost nothing you could do with the throttle pedal that would cause the rear end any trouble whatever. I drove several of those cars and never experienced more than the most modest, most easily controlled tail twitch.
That all changed when the 5.0-litre unit came along. It is undoubtedly a better engine, producing a lot more power and doing it without the annoying supercharger whine which made the 4.2 sound so tiresome.
However, while four-wheel drive Range Rovers dealt with the extra grunt easily, rear-wheel drive Jaguars didn't. The original rear-wheel drive F-Type R was fun for about twenty minutes if the roads were dry, but I wouldn't want one for much longer than that.
As part of the changes to the F-Type, Jaguar has included a four-wheel drive (or AWD, for All-Wheel Drive) option, and it has transformed the car. There is still a bias towards the rear axle, but sharing the power among all four corners has made it far more controllable and, to my mind, far more fun.
Standing start acceleration has improved slightly - 0-62mph is possible in 4.1 seconds, rather than 4.2 for the rear-wheel drive model - but that's a minor matter. Far more important is the way you can actually use the throttle in mid-corner without fear of interestingly but unhelpfully going sideways.
Even on damp roads you can apply power between the apex and the exit of a bend. From past experience I can tell you that even if you waited until the next straight before touching the throttle pedal the non-4x4 F-Type R might still try to swap ends in less than perfect weather conditions. This applies even at speeds as low as 25mph.
That apart, there is very little difference between F-Type R models with either drivetrain. Both look dramatic and both are impressively noisy under hard acceleration. Driving either of them is an exciting experience rather than a relaxing one, which is no doubt just what the buyers are looking for.
There is more room for two tall people to sit inside than the car's appearance might suggest, and in typical Jaguar fashion the interior is beautifully designed. I do wish though that the 2015 upgrade had included a revision of the digital instrument design, which has been overtaken by that of other manufacturers. No doubt a department within Jaguar is hard at work on this right now.
At £91,650, the F-Type R AWD Coupe is £4,850 more expensive than its rear-wheel drive equivalent. That would seem like a lot of money if you found it lying in the street, but as a proportion of the total it's little short of a bargain. Spending roughly 5 per cent extra gets you a car that is much more than 5 per cent better.
