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[Car sounds] Just what is the world coming to.
First Jag brings out a small saloon in the form of the excellent XE.
And now it's brought out an SUV.
This one The F pace.
Now this is an SUV made by Jaguar, the same Jaguar that shares a company with Land Rover, the people who specialize in making SUVs.
So there's two things to learn here.
One, how is Jaguar going to avoid treading on Land Rover's toes?
And two, does it feel like a Jag?
Now about this whole treading on toes thing.
There's a couple of things you have to remember.
That first just because someone is doing something similar to you.
It doesn't mean they're trying to copy you.
There's plenty of space in the world for many similar things.
The second is something my old maths teacher use to say.
There's more than 100 ways to skin a cat.
And when you think about it She had a point, a really really creepy point.
Now the name S-Pace, it's got S in it like the S type sports car.
Jag's leaning more heavily on the S in SUV, it wants to be sporty but also practical.
A car for everyone.
Now to back this whole thing up, you can get an F-Pace S with the same 3 liter, supercharged V6 that you get in an F-Type S.
It's got 380 horsepower.
It'll do naught to 62 in five-and-a-half seconds, and its top speed is north of 155 miles an hour.
Jag also says You'll get more than 31 MPGs in UK money if you're good, which.
Well considering it weighs over 1800 kilos, I think there's some sort of witchcraft afoot.
The whole F thing isn't don't reserve for just the engine.
No.
Unlike a little Land Rover which has an all-wheel drive system that's clutch based system this gets the all-wheel drive F-types electro hydronic cup-link which means all of the power can be sent to either axle in less than a tenth of a second.
And when you're simply tooling around you F-pace keeps all of it's torque at the rear.
Suspension wise you get a very similar set-up to the one you get in the XE and that car handles Handles really really well.
It is of course much bigger because this is a bigger taller chunkier weightier car.
But still it's a set up that works.
And I was talking to some of the guys who developed the car.
[UNKNOWN] [UNKNOWN] today.
And they were saying that it's definitely a car to set up for proper drivers.
But they would say that because they helped set up the car.
Being more geared towards fun almost didn't happen though.
Had Porsche not brought out the Macan halfway through the F-Pace's development, it would've been a very different car.
Dave Shaw, Jaguar's engineering manager revealed in an interview with Autocar that before the Macan, the F-Pace was a bit SUV-ish.
It took Porsche's fantastic motor to push the team to make the car we have today.
This place is a hugely important car for Jaguar.
It's got it's German bating cylinder it has it's hedges sports car.
Now it needs something to take sales away from the likes of highlands macans, X5s, X3s, Team 5s may be even A Range Rover or two.
And, also to do that and still be a Jag, it needs to do three things.
It needs to be sporty, it needs to be comfy and it needs to have that thing that Jag's do.
Pre-ponder your skid at least it does for me.
Here is the things that are quite.
Annoying.
The rear visibility is appalling.
The rear windscreen is quite big from the outside, but it doesn't take up any space in the rearview mirror.
And then there's the entertainment system which, well, we've had the car for two days and it's crashed or broken or done some silly things, More times then is really acceptable for a brand new spanking car.
Comfort wise, to be a decent [UNKNOWN] needs to be comfortable.
And in normal mode, it is very comfortable.
It's nice and smooth, it's notably stiffer then say anything you get with a Range Rover badge on it but that's not the idea of this car.
This isn't here to take over sales for Range Rover.
What it's here to do is be a Jag SUV.
Now we've got the SPS, the one with the petrol V6 and all the performance.
Is it quick?
My god, it's quick.
We've had some fun hurling ourselves around these roads over here in Montenegro.
When you've got everything set to angry and dynamic What have you.
You can get it round a corner.
It's a little bit rolly.
You do feel the weight of the car, but it sounds pretty neat here, especially from the outside.
It's buzzy and raspy and it's a really nice sound.
Definitely not something you'd expect to come from something like this.
The brakes, those work.
Plenty of feedbacks through the peddle and my god, they've stopped the car.
The throttle response is not the most urgent in the world until you're really on it and then it's working with that [UNKNOWN] gearbox that everyone loves so much because it's very good.
Man this thing just flies.
It feels like a sports car even though you're sat quite high up.
You can probably tune it.
You can play with it in the bends and it will do what you want it to.
It's a very communicative car.
I thought it was going to be pretty decent.
But I didn't think it would be quite as good as it actually is.
Being an SUV and all it should probably have a concession convenient off road vehicle.
Now let's be honest Pretty much no one who buys these is every gonna take you on anything worse than a quick bit of grass across a field maybe, or up a rocky driveway.
That's about it.
There is an off road button that promises to do many, many things.
Here's what you need to know.
If you wanna drive it on a field, you should be able to, unless you're a complete spanner.
And if you want to drive it in the snow, you will need to get winter tires.
Just because it's all wheel drive doesn't mean that miraculously it has all the grip in the world.
The closest competitor really is the Porsche Macan.
Performance wise the Macan edges it out, because, well, it's got turbochargers.
A bit more power.
It's also a much shorter car.
The whole Porsche thing is about making [UNKNOWN] sports cars that cut around corners easily.
And they apply this wonderfully with the [UNKNOWN].
It just works.
It's a brilliant brilliant car.
This while it's a proper jam, you can have your fun with it.
But it's still Soft, comfortable, serene when you want it to be.
Their whole thing is grace, space, and pace.
The F-PACE is a mammothly important car because [UNKNOWN] aren't doing it the way they used to for people and not everyone can afford or even justify a sports car.
They need something that can do everything.
They want something that's a bit quick, that's a bit exciting.
They need something that's comfortable.
So when they have passengers, they don't get their fillings shaken up.
And if they have say, children, you need to be able to put all their crap in the back.
And that's what this does and it does it brilliantly.
[SOUND] The V6 makes a great noise and it flings itself down the road.
It's a bit rolling yeah SUV with a Jag badge feels a bit out of place historically speaking.
But it looks good, has plenty of space and is different enough compared to its corporate stable mates at land rover.
The F Pace feels like a Jaguar should.
It goes like one too.
I won't lie, I was worried.
I thought the F bit of the name was just a thing they put on there, to try and convince us they make a truly sporty SUV whereas they could've just slapped Jaguar badge on pretty much anything.
But no, they didn't.
It's fantastic.
People are really going to like it, they're gonna sell them by the bucket load.
And here's the thing.
They'll associate this more with Jaguar than anything else, at least modern Jaguar.
And for some that might seem a little alien.
But you know what, it's still a Jag even though it doesn't look like the ones that we're used to.
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