FIRST DRIVES
24 APRIL 2 019 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 29
Of the rest of the interior, there’s
plenty to like. Spaciousness and
convenience are both good by
class standards, and although the
F-Pace’s cabin doesn’t get JLR’s latest
infotainment set-up and isn’t the
most up-to-date interior the firm
currently makes, it’s still a rich,
comfortable and very pleasant place
in which to find yourself staring
down a road cut into the side of a
prehistoric French gorge like a piece
of loose ribbon draped off the side of
a titan’s wedding cake.
This F-Pace is a car that feels its
size on a fairly narrow, serpentine
stretch like this – and I’m not sure
you’d say that of a Porsche Macan
or a n A l f a R ome o St e l v io. It r ol l sand leans just a little bit under
high cornering loads, and while it
has more lateral grip and smarter
directional responses than many
would expect of it, it doesn’t exactly
dive and rotate like a gymnast in
a fat suit. It steers enticingly well
but not with alarming pace or
cloying weight. Rather, its handling
responses seem just a little moderate
and measured, so that they’re
natural-feeling and easily intelligible
- and, moreover, so they can be
combined with a ride comfortable
enough to suit any £70,000 SUV.
The car’s engine, meanwhile, is a
gem: not only bluntly potent but also
with a depth of audible character and
intrigue that would be beyond any
equivalent turbocharged V8, and a
brilliant balance of accessible grunt
and rewarding high-range linearity.
It makes enough torque to move
the F-Pace along briskly without
breaking a sweat or kicking down a
gear, at middling revs and leavingplenty in reserve – a quality you want
in a performance car like this. It runs
smoothly and quite lavishly when you
w a nt it t o a s w e l l , a nd it a l s o c ome s
alive with wonderfully raucous
brimstone when you f lick a couple of
downshifts and bury the pedal.
The upshot is that this fast SUV is
a real giggle to drive but doesn’t get
so carried away with the handling
dance routine that it forgets its place.
It’s the kind of car you’d be delighted
to take a few mates out in for a fast, @thedarkstormy1
Price £75,335
Engine V8, 5000cc,
supercharged, petrol
Power 542bhp at 6000-6500rpm
Torque 502lb ft at 2500-5500rpm
Gearbox 8-spd automatic
Kerb weight 1995kg
0-62mph 4.3sec
Top speed 176mph
Economy 22.6mpg
CO 2 , tax band WLTP figures tbc
RIVALS Alfa Romeo Stelvio
Quadrifoglio,
Mercedes-AMG GLC 63 S
JAGUAR F-PACE SVR
Gutsy and gregarious but knows how
to be grown up when the need arises.
A very well-judged fast family car
AAAAB
Wh e e l s u p to 22i n a r e of fe r e d ; fi xe d - h e a d r est se ats a r e n’ t th e m ost co m fo r ta b l e
ELECTRONIC ACTIVE
DIFFERENTIAL
EXPLAINED
The F-Pace SVR’s electronic
active differential, sitting between
its rear wheels, is a new piece of
hardware for Jaguar’s SVO team
in as much as its gearing and
tuning differ from those of any
e-diff the firm has used before.
So says SVO’s dynamics manager
David Pook – although he also
says the software calibration for
components such as this is now amore decisive factor in defining
how they influence a car’s handling
than anything else.
It’s part of a four-wheel-drive
system that, according to Pook,
was a year in the tuning and
which helps make the car handle
particularly well on UK B-roads.
“That’s where the car really
excels,” he says.
“Delivering a performance SUV
is a proper challenge,” Pook says.
“They’re much harder to position
than sports cars. Getting it to take
the kids to school and to be able
to th r i l l w h e n yo u wa nt i t to r e a l l y
takes fine tuning.”
memorable trip somewhere, but
which you wouldn’t feel inclined to
apologise for on grounds of comfort,
practicality or anything else. It’s a
great laugh but stops well short of
becoming a bad joke.
And while this might only be
my p e r s on a l t a s t e t a l k i n g, I hop e it
serves as a lesson to other makers
of p e r for m a nc e SU Vs t h at c a r s of
t h i s i l k ne e d s t i l l t o b e v e r s at i le ,
comfortable everyday drivers.
B e c au s e a f a s t SU V t h at i s on l y f a s t ,
exciting and a bit bonkers might just
b e le s s u s e f u l t h a n it i s or n a me nt a l.
MATT SAUNDERS
`
The F-Pace moves
along briskly without
breaking a sweat
a