Jaguar F-Type SVR

– Detroit, Michigan

The Jaguar F-Type does everything well – it’s so fast, so comfortable, and rewards the driver with an experience that stimulates so many of the senses. And with the SVR variant, every great thing about the F-Type experience is brighter, louder, more engaging.

So, what could be better, you ask? Well, this, the F-Type SVR Convertible. Take everything that’s great about Jag’s lighting-fast coupe, add a dose of sunshine, and crank up the volume on that incredible exhaust. My followup test of the SVR may swap California beauty for Detroit grit, but I had no trouble falling in love with the SVR all over again.

Pros

Dressed to kill. Everyone loves an F-Type. Even in this decidedly drab color combination of silver over black wheels, the pretty Jag turns heads everywhere it goes. It’s your classic sports car – long hood, short rear deck. Nothing about the design is overwrought or aggressive. It’s both elegant and menacing at the same time, and years on, the F-Type looks just as gorgeous as it did the first time I saw it. That wing, though... well, I’ll get to that in a minute.

Powerrrrrrrr. The SVR uses the same supercharged 5.0-liter V8 as the F-Type R, but it adds 25 horsepower and 14 pound-feet of torque. That’s not a ton, sure, but it means output levels are a staggering 575 hp and 516 lb-ft. Jaguar estimates a 0-60 time of 3.5 seconds for this all-wheel-drive convertible, and it’ll run all the way up to 195 mph on the top end. From behind the wheel, the Ja...