Jaguar Discontinues Manual Option in the F-Type

It’s sunset-time for the manual F-Type

Isn’t it interesting how, when Jaguar introduced the F-Type without a manual transmission option, petrol heads all over the world screamed their heads off and decried the F-Type as not a proper sports car? And woe unto Jaguar, for not knowing what a sports car was, if it rear-ended them at 250 mph on the Mulsanne Straight.

Well, guess what? Jaguar did eventually make a manual option available, and almost no one went for it. Less than four percent of all F-Types sold, according to en estimate by Car and Driver. It’s not all doom and gloom though, the manual option will still be available in the UK. So, there’s that.

A Brief History of Jaguar – Part 1

The famous Jaguar “leaper” mascot.

Thanos Pappas of the web site CarAdvice has produced an excellent writeup of the history of Jaguar. Click below for Part 1, which takes us from the first Swallow Sidecars in 1922, through to the Egan era and privatization (with the split from British Leyland) in 1984.

You can read the whole article here: Part 1 of The Story of Jaguar

Series 3 E-Types fitted with the 4.2 XK engine

Check out the third to last paragraph.

Apparently, the Jaguar Series 3 E-Type, famous for its 5.3 liter V12 engine, was also made available with the six cylinder 4.2 liter XK engine.

According to the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, only 2 or 3 were ever made, and none delivered to customers.

You can read the Twitter thread here.

JLR to open new Classic Center in the US

Jaguar Land Rover Classic Works

The new center, which will be Jaguar Land Rover’s first outside of the UK, is set to open in Savannah, Georgia in the summer of 2019.

It will feature 42 bays and will be available for repairs and restorations of models that have been out of production for 10 years or longer. Presumably, parts for older cars will also be offered for sale.

You can read more in Cnet Road Show’s original article here.