6 Reasons Why The F-Type SVR Is So Damn Good

It gives you the fizz...

More power, better aero, wider tyres, and an exhaust note you’ll remember for life all mean that the F-Type SVR is an intoxicating and exciting machine that makes Viagra look like herbal medicine. You know when James May talks of the ‘fizz’ you get when driving certain cars? The F-Type SVR is that car.

On a private road like the one we had at our disposal, an hour blasting the SVR up and down resulted in two things; firstly, and despite the fact that I don’t smoke, I felt compelled to have a cigarette as if in post-coital bliss. Secondly (as you’ll have seen in the video), it seems that I wasn’t the only one to get a bit too excited, because the car leaked its coolant all over the ground in seven minutes flat. As it turned out, our SVR had a faulty coolant expansion tank, which meant that the filler cap wasn’t sealing properly.

The grip is...just wow!

Before getting into the SVR, I was expecting the fastest ever F-Type to understeer when really pushed through corners. But you know what? I couldn’t believe just how much the front end bit into the road after an initial slip from the tyres.

This is thanks to 10mm wider rubber all round that increase the contact patch with the ground, as well as the tweaks underneath the skin, including thinner anti-roll bars at the front which, together with revised damper and torque vectoring settings, help reduce understeer.

The result is a car that dances surprisingly light-footedly through tight bends, which in turn makes an idiot like me look like he knows what he’s doing. (Truth is, my eyes were closed through fear for most of these corners).

Its sexy and comfortable interior

The F-Type’s interior has always been awesome, but the SVR adds a few things to make it good enough to move into. The seats, for example, are 14-way adjustable (including the bolsters to keep you in place) and are super comfortable, while the instrument cluster and centre console is finished off in suede. You also get larger anodised aluminium shift paddles than the F-Type R, which makes grabbing at gears a little easier.

There are rear seats, but to fit into them would require above-knee amputation (even for me).

The fact that it'll hit 200mph

Supercars and hypercars these days are all about big numbers: 1500hp, 270.49mph, 0-62mph in 2.5 sec and so on. And while we’re some way off these stats with cars like the GT-R and F-Type SVR, the fact that the latter will really hit 200mph is something that kids will use to their advantage when talking cars in the playground.

The top speed figure is thanks to SVR’s enormous 5.0-litre supercharged V8 which churns out 575hp (567bhp) and 700nm (516lb ft), as well as the fact that the F-Type SVR is more slippery through the air than the comparatively blunt-nosed GT-R. In fact, with the aero enhancements (including its flat underbody) over the standard F-Type R, the SVR is up to 7.5 per cent more slippery with lift improved by a massive 45 per cent.

It really looks good, doesn't it...

Looking at the YouTube comments to our review, it seems that a few of you guys aren’t fans of the “Autozone” carbonfibre rear wing (tough crowd!). But as for me, I like the look of it. And I especially like the fact that it serves its purpose, not that it’s been designed to look more useful that it actually needs to be. No matter, the fact remains that the F-Type SVR is drop dead gorgeous from every angle. Sure, the V6 S we drove a while ago is more elegant and prettier still, but damn, I would!

It fails the fist test and I don't even care

It’s an industry-wide test these days (in my head) that the measure of a good car is if the exhaust pipes (of which there are four here) will accommodate a man’s fist. Despite the fact that the F-Type SVR fails the test, I don’t mind too much, because when a car sounds this good, quite frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn…