When I was but a child, learning of things that had happened before I was born, I often wondered if major events of the past would be matched by similar ones in my lifetime. "When will World War Three happen?" I wondered nervously. "Will there ever be a Jaguar F-Type?" I wondered less nervously. And for a while the former seemed more likely to have a definite answer than the latter.Fortunately, things have worked out the other way round. Jaguar has gone into production with its first two-seater convertible in many years, and has done so using an aluminium structure which would have been unthinkable in the days of the E-Type but has become something of a Jaguar speciality in the last decade.There are, at the time of writing, three sorts of F-Type, and the one we've tested first is the Big Daddy of the trio. It uses the now familiar but none the less rousing five-litre supercharged V8 petrol engine found in several other Jaguar, and indeed Land Rover, products, and although this may seem odd in a sports car application it does make some sense (because the F-Type is the lightest car to employ it) that the version fitted here is less powerful than the otherwise identical units in the XKR, Range Rover and so on.Be that as it may, I'll shortly be explaining why I think that its 488bhp maximum output is more than sufficient. Furthermore, there is absolutely no suggestion of limp-wristedness when it's running. On the contrary, it generally sounds VERY ANGRY INDEED, and you can make it sound EVEN ANGRIER by switching on the £350 optional Switchable Active Sport Exhaust system.If you do that, the roaring and shouting and popping and banging become almost overwhelming. At one point I thought the engine had fired a conrod through its own block because it was so cross.Although this wasn't a long test, I had the chance to drive the F-Type over the same roads (interesting, difficult stuff in the countryside) early one evening and then again late the following morning. If I hadn't had that second run, this would be a very different review.That's because, in the evening, the roads were damp, and the F-Type didn't like that at all. It felt insecure even when being driven slowly, and the first time I dared to apply nearly half throttle at nearly half the available revs the car promptly went sideways.The tail slid rather than snapped out of line, and it could be brought back quite easily, but it occurred to me that I could have covered the same ground far more quickly, and more safely, in a one-litre Fiesta.The next day, when the same roads were dry, the F-Type was rather wonderful. The steering, which may possibly be the best thing about the whole car, sent the nose into each bend smoothly but with no suggestion of vagueness, a sturdy application of the throttle made the rear end contribute to the cornering process rather than (as had been the case the previous day) dominate it, the acceleration was savage, the brakes were fit for purpose and, of course, the noise was just fabulous.The only thing I really wanted was a solid roof, because despite all Jaguar's claims of body stiffness the F-Type feels a bit floppy on less than perfect surfaces. Jaguar made a properly-roofed version of the previously convertible-only E-Type in the 1960s, so perhaps it will do the same again half a century later. Let's hope so.I took the F-Type into a city too. It was, you may say, satisfactory. Most people seemed to admire it, as well they might have done since its optional "special paint" would have cost me £1250 if I'd bought the car rather than just borrowed it.The only problem I found was that the Configurable Dynamic Mode (which adds a further £400 to the price and adjusts throttle sensitivity and the programming of the eight-speed automatic transmission) was a little too excitable in its normal setting and ridiculously so in Dynamic.Fortunately, there's a third setting called Rain, Snow and Ice, a list of attributes to which I would add Seemliness because of the way the F-Type becomes almost a luxury car rather than the monstrous sports roadster it is so willing to be in other circumstances. Engine 5000cc, 8 cylinders Power 488bhp Transmission 8-speed automatic Fuel/CO2 25.5mpg / 259g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 4.3 seconds Top speed 186mph Price £79,985 Details correct at publication date
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