F-PACE “WE’VE TAKEN

F-PACE “WE’VE TAKEN A JAGUAR TO WHERE A JAGUAR HAS NEVER BEEN” ALEX HALL, DRIVELINE 24 j THE BLOCKBUSTER ISSUE

The F-PACE isn‘t just about luxury car accoutrements and on road manners - it‘s safe too. This is largely thanks to innovative safety systems including Autonomous Emergency Braking, Driver Condition Monitoring and Reverse Traffic Detection with Blind Spot Monitor and Driver Condition Monitoring with Lane Keep Assist. It’s got real skills beyond the tarmac, as group leader for Off Road Capability, Jason Walters, explains: “The sweet spot we’ve achieved is saloon dynamics with a credible level of all surface capability. Typical surfaces like snow and ice and muddy fields – that’s where this car excels. Come winter, when those backroad surfaces are covered in ice, you can push on and the F-PACE is still rewarding. You won’t feel it wallowing around. You won’t lose that great Jaguar feeling.” Given Jaguar’s sister brand Land Rover’s experience in extremely challenging terrain, it comes as no surprise that the JLR engineering teams were always going to want the F-PACE to be more capable than a regular crossover. One example of how it does, is a special system called Adaptive Surface Response that assesses terrain and changes its settings accordingly, as Walters continues: “We’ve got a ‘Rain Snow Ice button’ on the central console you can press. If the snow’s two centimetres deep when you start off, the system will stay in ‘rain, snow and ice’ mode. We’re taking a team that’s spent 15 years calibrating Land Rover products for differential control and applying some of that learning to a Jaguar product with a bit of a twist. What you wouldn’t want to do is make a Jaguar that handles exactly like a Land Rover or a Range Rover. So you bias it more to the rear, to make it more sporty.” With a 80% aluminium body to ensure a lighter weight overall and outstanding dynamics, economy and emissions, plus a fantastic engine manufactured in JLR’s state-of-the-art new UK facility, the new F-PACE really does seem to have an awful lot going for it. As driveline specialist Alex Hall concludes: “We’ve taken a Jaguar to where a Jaguar has never been.” All of which suggests you’ll be able to enjoy the F-PACE in a lot more interesting new destinations and on many more adventures than any other Jaguar in history. Blockbuster stuff indeed... Figures are for UK specification cars and all data is correct at time of publishing. THE BLOCKBUSTER ISSUE j 25