Jaguar really turned the page when it decided to replace luxury grand tourer XK with something as brutal and muscular as F-Type. It is the fourth year since its introduction, sales are decent and the ones without the guts of buying it are definitely dreaming about it. This is a car that doesn’t care so much about figures on the paper, Cayman is going to beat it on the track anyway, and base Corvette is going to outpace its top SVR version in the straight line anytime, so it has a special card to play on.
This is one the most entertaining cars to drive in years, and it is all about fun with it. Engineers have lost their minds in a race to scale down acceleration time for one-tenth of a second, and they completely have forgotten that path to 60 mph could be entertaining besides being quick. For this year, Britons have decided to nip and tuck it a little bit, and it just received a refresh, but we are here, in the first place, to examine special version fully called 2018 Jaguar F-Type 400 Sport Launch Edition. The name might be a little bit long, so let’s see is it worth of wasting your breath while pronouncing it.
2018 Jaguar F-Type 400 Sport REFRESH
Refresh brought some styling changes, that seemed to soften its visual brutality. Headlights are configured and offer LED tech now, which represents an adaptation to modern trends, while front bumper is also revised with different side air intakes. Mentioned new and more round intakes replace the previous sharper, double slot ones, making its look more tamed at front.
Inside visually almost nothing changed, apart from new seats which effectively went on a diet losing 8 kg in total and liberating extra 2 inches, made possible by new slimmer shape. Not so visual changes are new infotainment system and satnav.
SPECIAL EDITION TWEAKS
If you are looking at the pictures, you are wondering where are the tweaks, and honestly, you do need a guide for spotting them. First, that could be noticed is the exterior color which in our special edition case could be Yulong White, Santorini Black or Indus Silver. There is “400 Sport” mark at the bottom of front bumper and also above the rear bumper. In the interior, you could spot yellow contrast stitching and more designations, one at the wheel and other on aluminum door sills.
WHY SO LITTLE
When it comes to the special editions of F-Type, British has taken two separate approaches. In one, only subtle and hard to notice changes are applied, as we have in this case or the case of older British Design Edition and Firesand version. Other approach carries more visual distinctions as with Tour de France Special Edition or even completely radical alteration of the car body with Project 7 version. So, with Jag, we have clearly a little bit of everything for everybody.
2018 Jaguar F-Type 400 Sport ENGINE BAY
400 Sport does bring the aforementioned number of hp, it is easy to notice and really appreciated change. That is 20 hp more from 3.0-liter V6 producing 380 hp in S model. So, now we have 400 hp, which despite sounding nicer lowers 0-60 time by 0.2 seconds to respective 4.6 seconds and improves top speed by 2 mph to 173 mph. Also, torque figure has increased, now at 345 lb-ft, which is just complementing the whole positive picture.
CONCLUSION
2018 Jaguar F-Type 400 Sport Launch Edition is going to be sold only for one model year, respectively only through 2017. Price would be around $85,000 in the UK, which is increase by almost $10k compared to S version that actually changed the name to R-Dynamic after this refresh, but it does come with more power. Limitation of production for just one year will add to its exclusivity, and if you are enlightened enough, you may find enough pleasure in its subtle detailing.
