(Photos by Dave Nutting) – I’ve never been a guy to seek out two-seater cars. Maybe it is because I am from New England, maybe it is because I’m on the larger boned side, or maybe it is because I like to pretend that I have friends but they have never really been something that I deeply desired in the automotive sense. Well, that stupidity was erased after several days and hundreds of miles in the 2016 Jaguar F-Type R convertible with its 550hp supercharged V8, amazing eight speed transmission, and uproarious exhaust note. This car is a velvet brute in the best of ways and with the all wheel drive system that this one was equipped with, it’ll make you feel like a hero behind the wheel.

It is amazing how the personality of the car changes with the engine. I spent some time in an F-Type it the blown 380hp V6 last year and I came away from that car appreciating the balance, scream, and very refined European feel that it exuded. It was a car that you could spend many hours in touring the country side or short bursts in as your darted through woodland roads and let the screaming V6 do its thing in the upper RPM range. With the addition of another 170hp, this thing goes from that very European feeling two seater to a roaring beast that can do virtually all the same things (and some better with AWD) than the V6 but it carries the attitude of a brawler with it. The thing runs 11s at the strip and when you lace the gas pedal on the road and it finds the right gear instantly, you have a warp drive sensation that you’ve likely not caught in a factory produced car for some time.

But I am getting ahead of myself here because it isn’t all about running 11s and scaring the wits out of every person that gets into the car. This is a $109,000 base priced and $120,995 as tested car so that means you should be expecting a true luxury experience, right? The answer here is yes, or as much of one as you can cram into a very small and aggressive feeling cockpit in the car. The seats are among the best we have ever plunked into. Putting them to the test on a six hour cruise left us with the same impression that we started with, heavenly. The leather used on the seats is of the quality that you would expect and the tactile feel of all the stuff in the car is the same way. Things have weight, nothing feels flimsy, and the design is all very well executed. You never find yourself craning your head or trying to figure out if something is down in a black hole next to the steering wheel, etc. Our car was painted Italian Racing Red and the interior was black on black with red stitching. As you can see below, it is a pretty tightly packaged driver/passenger area.

The styling of the car is evocative and it certainly gets people’s attention. While cruising down the highway there were lots of people looking at the Jag and when we ended up at our favorite restaurant and decided to valet park this sucker, they put the F-type front and center. It is that kind of a car. It is a statement upon arrival kind of car. Buying this thing is a tacit admission that you want people to see you and you certainly want them to hear you because the exhaust…oh the exhaust!

We’d be willing to submit that this in the top five best sounding OEM cars available right now, maybe top three. The only ones we can say for sure that can hang with the noise this thing makes with the “sport” button for the exhaust engaged would be the flat plane crank powered Mustang and the Z06 Corvette in track mode. There’s a difference between those two and this though. The Corvette bellows, the Mustang absolutely wails, and this Jag roars. Driving to the photo shoot area, Nutting and I were in downtown Boston at a very early hour of the morning and with the exhaust “open” hammering on the throttle resulted in the glorious noise made by the 5.0L DOHC blown engine bounding off the buildings that line the streets. We were giddy like school kids. This is not some tinny supercar V8 sound, this is some “come and try it” noise that many did not expect to hear coming from a package as nicely and stylishly wrapped as this one is. The damned thing is fast as blazes as well.

The acceleration from a standing start is brutal because of the all wheel drive system. From a 30mph roll it is literally breathtaking. Some friends who wanted to go for rides in the car got to experience a 30-70 blast and most were either giggling like eight year olds or they were screaming and asking for some sort of relief from the forces they were experiencing. We spend lots of time talking about hot rods and how every guy at the car show has a car that will “run 10s”. Well, this being a-mid 11-second car on the street we can tell you that it is an awesome thing to know that you can walk 99% of the stuff you will ever see in the other lane at the stop light.

Coming in at about 3,600lbs the 2016 Jaguar F-type R weighs about as much as a Corvette, the other two seat model I kept thinking about while driving this car. I don’t see this car as a competitor for the Corvette because a Jaguar buyer is (I am surmising here) looking for a different experience than the Corvette. There is more and more cache in the Jaguar nameplate these days as the company has done a masterful job at recapturing some of the mystique it lost during the dark days of control by Ford. It has established itself as a premier brand again and every Jag we have driven in the last couple of years lived up to the expectations we had for them. This one even more so.

While we don’t have $120,995 to sling around for a 2016 Jaguar F-Type R we’d tell any of our pals that do to consider this thing when they go car shopping for a two seater. It’s fast enough to dominate any potential opponents on the street and it is refined enough to make for an amazing cruiser and commuter. It was a damned shame to have to give it back.

We’re going to tell the rest of the stories through Dave Nutting’s photos!

The shapes that make up the F-Type are compelling and cool. There isn’t a straight inch on this car. Just look at all the curves happening here.

It was daybreak in Boston when we shot these photos and there’s not much better than dropping the top, letting the exhaust scream, and taking in the morning light.

Muscular, kind of sinister, and that is before you hear it. Jaguar designers have done a nice job of managing to blend the past with modern looks to keep the heritage of the brand alive and recognizable in these new models.

Boy, packaging is TIGHT in this thing. We do not envy the Jaguar techs that will someday be wrenching on these cars at their dealer. The motor has to be dropped to do everything!

The blower and intercooler setup is a packaging marvel. It also helps to create the 550hp this beat is capable of making.

No, they are not sourcing this stuff from someone else. We saw this cast into the intake and thought it was cool.

Our car was equipped with the adaptive and intelligent front lighting which means the lights change depending on what’s in front of you as well as what is coming the other way.

That R badge is what denotes this as being a supercharged fun machine. It was one of the most entertaining cars we have ever driven.

Never has the cat been more pissed off than this!

Spoiler is speed activated but can be manually deployed as well at the push of a button. It is a fun looking little widget with some great tech behind it.

Good sized meats combined with the all wheel drive system make this thing capable of handling like a slot car. It was big fun to attempt to push the car to its handling limits and finding out that I could not do it.

Dash layout is modern and cool with two big gauges giving you the vitals and the digital display helping with everything else.

As I mentioned earlier, the seats can be controlled to do about 600 different things and you can see the badge for the Meridian sound system which is fantastic.

If you need to use that factory equipped roll bar, you have done something VERY wrong in this car.

The QuickSift eight speed is a highlight of the car. It can be controlled manually or left to work on its own. The rev matching and instant manual control are very fun. It is our favorite transmission out of the hundreds of cars we have driven over the years. It adapts to aggressive driving as well.

Small details like the flush mounted door handles that pop out as you approach the car make this thing special. For the class and the price it should be.

Two seats I’d like to get back in right now if I could….