The quickest way to get tongues wagging about a car is to wrap it in camouflage and turn it loose on Germany’s fabled Nüburgring. Jaguar recently did just that with a slightly tweaked version of the Jaguar F-TYPE. The big news wasn’t the slightly modified nose on the test car. It was, instead, leaked news of what was under the hood: an inline four-cylinder engine.
If you recall, the 2016 Jaguar F-TYPE comes with a choice of two supercharged engines: a 3.0 liter V-6 tuned to 335 or 375 horsepower (depending on the trim level) or a 5.0 liter V-8 tuned to 488, 542, or 567 horsepower. There’s no definitive word yet as to whether the rumored four-cylinder would supplement or replace the existing six-cylinder. Also open to debate is which four-cylinder engine Jaguar would choose for the 2018 Jaguar F-TYPE. They have two options. One is the 2.0L inline four-cylinder 240hp intercooled turbo engine currently slated for the upcoming 2017 Jaguar XE. The other option is a different Ingenium inline four that’s currently getting the finishing touches. Either engine could be tuned to ~300 horsepower, which would ensure that even with a four-cylinder engine the 2018 Jaguar F-TYPE would remain a formidable contender.
Our verdict? The indicators that point to a new engine (among them the sound, exhaust, and a registration check that confirmed a 2.0 liter engine) may not seem like much, but the reporting does come from sources with a good track record. Furthermore, there’s not a two-liter six or eight-cylinder engine in the current Jaguar lineup, which tends to lend credence to the idea of an inline four.
Then again, why wait? You can get behind the wheel of a perfectly good 2016 Jaguar F-TYPE now, or you can come to Jaguar of Peabody to find out more about the upcoming 2017 Jaguar F-PACE SUV or 2017 Jaguar XE Sedan.
