NOT F-ADE AWAY

Jaguar will soon be electric-only. James Elliott enjoys a final fling across Spain in its petrol-snorting, 567bhp, supercharged V8 F-type

What better way to say farewell to Jaguar's long line of brutish petrolpowered sports cars than a coast-to-coast dash across W Spain from Barcelona to San Sebastián? That's a 550km, sub-six-hour all-motorway blast if you are time-efficient and obeying the speed limit, but 800km-plus if you're exploring the Pyrenees to say a more hairpinny goodbye, as we are. Farewell not only to the F-type, but to Jaguar's 75-year ancestry of meaty two-seater and two-plus-two (you need to include the XJ-S and XK8 to avoid a massive hole in the timeline) internal-combustion-engine greats.

This really feels like a significant and sombre changing of the guard. And with it the laying to rest once and for all of the most difficult job that any car could have being perceived (by the public) as the (intended) successor to the E-type. The irony is that this is a job the F-type has done better than any of its predecessors with its bulbous haunches, frowning face, piercing rear lights and rorty V8.

There were other F-type engine options, of course, and they were excellent, but who would want to mark the death of such a golden era with a 2.0-litre modular four-pot? The traditional Jaguar sports car as a breed is dying and it needs to go out in a blaze of tyreshredding glory rather than a docile whimper.

Well, as much glory as fun-sapping fat tyres and four-wheel drive will allow.

Even when the F-type was introduced in 2012 it seemed to be a return to form, to the uncompromised purity that demographics had forbidden since 1975. Using a shortened version of the XK8 platform, it was the work of Ian Callum and widely praised on launch, even if people had to wait a year for the perfectly formed coupé to join the convertible. The F-type had a facelift in 2020 and this R75 special edition doesn't add a great deal to the history... except the full stop at the end of it.