7 minute read
Petrol Heads' Corner
Jaguar F Pace-SVR
David O’Neill*
Duncan and Ebbett of Hamilton loaned me an F Pace–SVR to review. I have decided that given that petrol cars with enormous motors are definitely on the outer, I should drive as many as possible before they become outlawed.
You might think that I merely go out to indulge myself with driving nice cars. To a degree, you are correct, I do. By the same token, while I like driving nice cars and, as you may have already guessed, powerful cars, I do enjoy telling other people about these sorts of cars because most people never get an opportunity to check-drive lots of different vehicles to find out what they might or might not like.
I am also making a bit of a pig of myself on V8’s. V8’s will become a thing of the past one day and until that happens, I want to try and drive as many as I can. If cars aren’t your thing and the sound of a V8 rumble doesn’t reverberate in you, then you can still read about these cars and imagine getting one which might have a different sized motor in it, for example. You might even (quelle horreur!!) imagine it as an electric vehicle. It really comes down to whatever rocks your world or spins your wheels. For me, it’s driving a V8 powered car which can handle well and looks a million bucks. For you, it might be a Nissan Leaf. It’s whatever takes your fancy.
The F Pace-SVR is one of those vehicles that not many people get to drive and it is probably out of the price range of a lot of people (but not you lot-that’s what I keep telling the suppliers of fine motor vehicles anyway), however, by the same token, if you really want to drive a car like this, then go out and try it, drive it, fall in love with it and buy it. Just remember, you will only have to work an extra 5 years to afford it…… smooth stretch of tar seal, it's very comfortable.
This car didn’t have any plug in anything. No threepoint plugs. No electric motors (apart from the ones that drove the sunroof). It was the top-of-the-line F Pace.
The F Pace is an SUV. The SVR stands for Special Vehicle Ratings, created by the Special Vehicles Operations Group at Jaguar. The SVO division of Jaguar has created a car that is an SUV, with all the bells and whistles and can still go from 0-100 kms/ hour in 4.0 seconds flat.
Naturally enough I was tempted (and succumbed) to trying out the acceleration and it certainly is blisteringly quick when you put your foot down. In fact, the only thing that moves faster than the car is the petrol gauge when you put your foot down.
It’s an attractive looking vehicle. Mine was a bright blue colour. I can’t say it was my cup of tea but then again, I’m not buying it.
It had a 5 litre V8 petrol engine with a supercharger. It puts out 405 kw and 700 nm of torque. To translate – that’s a ton of power and heaps of torque. Jaguar claim that its top speed is 286 kmh. I didn’t go therehonest.
The car that I drove, spec’d out completely, was $179,650. It came with a sliding glass roof, privacy glass, a roof blind, bigger wheels (22 inch) with suede cloth/leather seats. As you can imagine, it does all the things that it needs to do effortlessly. It is a lovely car to drive. It feels like a small car once you’re inside it, despite weighing 2.59 tonnes.
Once you get in it, you are confronted with touch screen everything and finding your way around that is a bit of an issue initially. The cabin was beautifully finished, covered in Alcantra and leather and some metal with little plastic on show.
My car had bright blue paintwork with black bonnet vents and very large air intakes on either side of the grill and black wheels with red callipers for the brakes.
The car comes with everything one would want. The list of standard features is incredibly long and there aren’t an awful lot of optional extras for the money. The seats are very comfortable. I found the ride quite harsh, but I suspect that is more to do with trying to make this into a sports SUV than anything else. We drove the road from Hamilton through to Pauanui, which goes via Paeroa, Waihi, Whangamata and then over the hill to Opoutere and Hikuai. The road is not in great shape. It’s been thrashed to death by all the heavy traffic and the weather. Because the car suspension is relatively hard it was a jarring sort of ride but when it’s on a smooth stretch of tar seal, it's very comfortable.
The car doesn’t feel that long but it is. It’s 4.76 metres end to end and from one edge of one mirror to the other edge of the mirror on the opposite side of the car, it’s 2.1 metres wide.
The seats in the back fold down. The headrests are fixed so you have to have the front seats forward a bit to get it down completely, but the boot does absorb a lot of gear (we needed it).
Like all cars in this category, the steering wheel delivers a number of functions. To be fair, you probably don’t have to take your finger off the wheel to just about do anything with the car. You can change stations, call somebody, change songs on your Apple CarPlay and even switch on the lane assist feature.
Jaguar have a history of sports cars (remember the E type) and, in my view, are trying to marry up a sports car type of vehicle with an SUV like this.
I think they have succeeded. The car is good looking, even for an SUV. It goes at a blistering pace, albeit consuming petrol like it’s going out of fashion and goes round corners pretty well. I confess we didn’t try that out too much because we were driving on the coast road, at night and it was wet. Suffice to say I took it easy.
It is difficult to compare this car with other SUV’s. It’s nothing like, for example, a Range Rover. A Range Rover to my way of thinking is aimed at a different market. This is a much sportier type of vehicle and is probably aimed at the person who wants the utility of an SUV but wants it to go really quickly. Buying this one will get you all of that. You’ve got a ton of space inside, enough room for five people (but four would fit better) and you can go to the dump and unload an awful big load of rubbish if you really wanted to.
If you like Jags, want an SUV and have got a lazy $180,000 floating around, then this car is for you.
