Hakskeen Pan. When Bonneville and the Black Rock Desert simply don’t offer enough clear distance for hyper-banzai speed trials, you find yourself here, out in BFE. Or more properly, BF South Africa. Situated on a finger tucked between the southern nethers of Botswana and Namibia, the Bloodhound SSC crew found its excessive flatness perfect for the task of knocking down the 763.035-mph land-speed record set by the car’s predecessor, Thrust SSC, back in 1997. Jaguar figured associating themselves with a British effort to go 1000 mph on land would make for good good PR, and the South African dry lake seemed a perfect place from which to announce the addition of standard all-wheel drive to the F-type R coupe.
The unveiling wasn’t a static display accompanied by awkward dancing, which is so often how these announcements unfold at auto shows. No, this was significantly more hairball. Equipped with a Bloodhound-spec radio, the all-claws cat was run flat out toward a jet flying 50 feet off the deck at 500 mph. Jag and the Bloodhound crew assert that successful comms at a closing speed of nigh-on 700 mph will come in handy when Wing Commander Andy Green hurls himself across the pan in a year’s time. It seems a little frivolous to us—every speeder knows you can’t outrun the radio.
Jag claims the F-type R coupe AWD will hit 60 in 3.9 seconds. We suspect it may be a mite quicker than that, given that an F-type V8 S droptop we tested performed the run in 3.6, and that car was down a healthy 55 horsepower on the R model. Jag claims that the F-type’s current six-variant range will grow to 12 in 2016, with the full line to be confirmed and explained at the L.A. auto show next month. It means the R Coupe won’t be the only model to receive the AWD treatment. We might also remind you that the D-Typified Project 7 special is in the pipe for production and manual transmissions are on the way.
- Jaguar F-type Platform Can Support All-Wheel Drive, Manual Is Coming
- Hennessey’s Jaguar F-type R Coupe Has 623 Seriously Pissed-Off Horsepower
- Jaguar F-Type Research: Full Pricing, Specs, Reviews, Photos, and More
In other JLR news, the new Land Rover Discovery Sport will make its North American debut at the Los Angeles show. Which makes sense, given Southern California’s importance to the brand. Some joker just fitted a Peel Trident with a homebrew jet engine and went almost 100 mph in the bubbletopped Manx bauble. Might we suggest that Jaguar Land Rover try the same trick with a Disco Sport, substituting a version of Bloodhound’s rocket motor for the janky jet? And why not make the run while bumping LL Cool J’s “I Can’t Live Without My Radio”? Synergies, leathery old chap. Synergies!
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via Agya
