Jaguar F-Type R 75

FIRST DRIVE: Special edition celebrates Jag's final V8 sports car

- Matt Robinson

LIKE many premium brands, Jaguar is keen on special editions. Normally, these amount to little more than subtle spec changes- maybe a unique colour and perhaps some new badging. Often a little bit of Jaguar history will be referenced.

A quick glance at the F-Type R 75's specs shows it fits that bill. It gets the normally optional Windsor leather as standard, along with Ebony 'suedecloth' headlining, lighter 'slimline' seats and little badges displaying the silhouette of the F-Type.

There's a gloss black, diamond-turned finish for the R 75's 10-spoke, 20-inch wheels, and when it comes to heritage, the '75' refers to 75 years of Jaguar sports cars, the first being the XK120 of 1948.

If you want a V8-powered F-Type now, it has to be a 75, and if you're thinking of ordering, you ought to do so soon, given that this is, sadly, the vehicle's final model year. Jaguar will go all-electric from 2025, so this will be its last petrol sports car.

In the metal, the design and trim tweaks do a good job of building on the groundwork laid by the F-Type's 2020 facelift. The same can't quite be said of the cabin, though. While the overall design is still a success, with a chunky centre console and thick grab handle giving a cocooned feeling to the driver's seat, it's saddled with Jaguar's previous-generation infotainment, its dated-looking graphics and a sluggish touchscreen rather than the newer, slicker Pivi Pro set-up. The quality of the cabin could be better, too.