Jaguar F-Type Coupe launched at LA Motor show

Well here it is. The F-Type R Coupe, a car Jaguar promises is its most badass yet, has been unveiled at the LA Motor Show. Actually “performance focused” is the official language used, but with 550bhp in a relatively compact all-aluminium body and some nifty new brake-steer technology, who are they kidding? Simultaneously, Jaguar has been going a little Miley recently, urging us to tweet that #itsgoodtobebad and generally wanting to be regarded as the industry’s transgressive. As if.

What is shocking about the F-Coupe, however, is that it is even more expensive than the convertible; the fastest one, the one with that supercharged V8, is £85,000. Now you will find a lot of people with a lot of nice things to say about the Jaguar F-Type, but you won’t find anyone who will tell you it’s too cheap. But Jaguar is bullish about the F-Type’s appeal and seems equally convinced there are enough people out there who rate performance and dynamic ability above — well — above just about everything else in their lives. “I can’t be alone in having something of a mid-life crisis…” Jaguar seems to be thinking.

Me? I much prefer the way this car looks when compared with the convertible; pretty certain too that many will now come to see the convertible as too generic, bland, but with really nice rear lights. Those lovely lights are there again, tucked under the new hatchback that deals with another of the convertible’s problems — its almost complete absence of boot space. A little spoiler pops out of the trailing edge of the hatchback which hinges, traditionally at the top and not the side in the way it did when we first saw this shape as the CX-16 Concept in 2011. Shame, that was cool.

So otherwise it is what those familiar with the convertible would expect, inside and out. Less pokey F-Type Coupe (£51,235) and F-Type Coupe S variants (£60,235) stick with industry convention and cost less than their similar V6-engined convertible sisters. That entry-level car would give the Porsche Cayman a run for its money, if it wasn’t like all F-Types and so unaccountable porky considering its all-aluminium bones. You can choose to have the roof in aluminium or in glass. Either is as tough.

In coupe form then, the F-Type continues to eschew the E-Type’s otherworldly beauty for something more familiar. It’s athletic alright, the kind of car that would paste endless selfies in Lycra at marathon or triathlon’s end, smiling though the pain; “NEW PB!!!”. But you wouldn’t catch the E-Type doing that. Then again the E-Type knew you don’t get to be badass by acting like a badass. That just makes you an...