2014 Jaguar F-Type S V-6 Convertible Long-Term Update 3
Does Fashion Come at a Performance Price?
I couldn't stand the look of the base wheels that arrived with our otherwise gorgeous long-term Jaguar F-Type V6 S Roadster. Such a hottie of a car, with such exquisite paint, but those downmarket, afterthought, dullard wheels wouldn't look good on a Mazda6, let alone one of the prettiest cars to see the light of day this decade. So they had to go, and in their place I had some lovely, $2500 black alloys installed. But that's not the real cost.
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We retested the V6 S with the new wheels, and, well, the results were interesting. First of all, here's how this here car performed with the basic wheels and 19-inch Pirelli P Zero tires: 0-60 mph happened in 4.4 seconds. The quarter-mile was dispatched in 13 seconds flat at 108.7 mph. Braking from 60 mph happened in 108 feet. Peak lateral grip was 0.93 g, and the base wheels helped hustle the 375-hp convertible around our figure eight in 25.4 seconds.
The new wheels and larger P Zeros? Not so hot on the strip. Zero to 60 mph happened in 4.7 seconds (0.3 second slower) and the quarter mile required an extra 0.2 second at 13.2. The trap speed was lower, too, at 105.7 mph. However, braking performance was better by 5 feet, with a stop from 60 mph happening in 103 feet. Lateral grip improved as well, with peak grip at 0.95 g. The figure-eight time looked to be from a different car entirely at 24.8 seconds. Half a second around our figure eight is indicative of a huge gap, and 0.6 second is the difference between night and day, metaphorically speaking. I should add that in terms of pork, the new wheels only added 7 pounds to the car's heft, from 3802 to 3809 pounds.
The results, then, are a mixed bag. In terms of outright acceleration, the slightly smaller wheels and tires are your friends, despite however awful they look. But when it comes to stopping power and hugging a winding canyon road, the larger wheels and tires are clearly the way to go. It depends on what you value. As for ride quality, I honestly couldn't detect too much of a difference between the base wheels and the larger ones. Like all Jaguars save for the XKRS-GT, the F-Type's ride quality is better than it should be. I see it like this: 0-60 mph in 4.7 seconds is still damn good, the car's handling measurably improved, and it looks the absolute business with the big, black wheels. For me, the new rims were an easy choice. One that's now backed up by data.
More on our long-termJaguarF-Type S V-6 Convertible:
When I was just one-year-old and newly walking, I managed to paint a white racing stripe down the side of my father’s Datsun 280Z. It’s been downhill ever since then. Moral of the story? Painting the garage leads to petrolheads. I’ve always loved writing, and I’ve always had strong opinions about cars.
One day I realized that I should combine two of my biggest passions and see what happened. Turns out that some people liked what I had to say and within a few years Angus MacKenzie came calling. I regularly come to the realization that I have the best job in the entire world. My father is the one most responsible for my car obsession. While driving, he would never fail to regale me with tales of my grandfather’s 1950 Cadillac 60 Special and 1953 Buick Roadmaster. He’d also try to impart driving wisdom, explaining how the younger you learn to drive, the safer driver you’ll be. “I learned to drive when I was 12 and I’ve never been in an accident.” He also, at least once per month warned, “No matter how good you drive, someday, somewhere, a drunk’s going to come out of nowhere and plow into you.”
When I was very young my dad would strap my car seat into the front of his Datsun 280Z and we’d go flying around the hills above Malibu, near where I grew up. The same roads, in fact, that we now use for the majority of our comparison tests. I believe these weekend runs are part of the reason why I’ve never developed motion sickness, a trait that comes in handy when my “job” requires me to sit in the passenger seats for repeated hot laps of the Nurburgring. Outside of cars and writing, my great passions include beer — brewing and judging as well as tasting — and tournament poker. I also like collecting cactus, because they’re tough to kill. My amazing wife Amy is an actress here in Los Angeles and we have a wonderful son, Richard.Read More
