With the prospect of Jaguar becoming an electric-only brand from 2025, the big supercharged V8 engine under the bonnet of the Jaguar F-Type is suddenly even more attractive.
It produces 543bhp and a thumping 502lb ft, sufficient to launch the car from 0-62mph in 4.0sec. The F-Type R might be one down the pecking order from the pants-on-fire SVR but is arguably the better choice when shopping second hand. Cheaper, too.
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Our example is a 2014-reg car with 57,000 miles and a full Jaguar service history. It looks fabulous in Stratus Grey metallic paint with, inside, black and ivory two-tone leather sports seats. Features include four-wheel drive, 20in alloys, an electronic active differential and LED headlights. It also has Jaguar’s adaptive dynamics system that controls vertical body movement, roll and pitch. When new, it cost £90,000, making its £35,500 sticker price today rather appealing.
Were we to put our money where our keyboard is, we’d want to check all recall work had been done. In fact, we have, courtesy of the online recall check service, and praise be, none are outstanding. Using the MOT check service, we can see it failed its first test for a damaged tyre but flew through all subsequent ones.
The car has barely turned a wheel since the last MOT, in November, so it has either been sitting on the previous owner’s driveway gathering dust and algae or on the dealer’s forecourt. Whatever the story, that screen price looks ripe for some determined haggling. But before we got to that point, we’d also want to check the cam chains aren’t noisy, the differential isn’t leaking oil and the rear subframe isn’t corroding. Then we’d take it for a spin and try not to grin – too much.
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That AX looks appealing as well, so light and flimsy but great fun to drive iirc, it's been years since I drove one.
That Alfa's timing chain service is quite a frightening cost, I wonder how many people actually research these sort of costs before buying, reminds me of the scary, but less so compared with the Alfa, ZT/75 V6 cambelt service, as that was around a grand and needed the engine lifting from its mounts and front subframe removal iirc
Photo doesn't look like a 1998 300ZX to me.