Four-cylinder Jaguar F-Type sounds better than expected

The Jaguar F-Type SVR produces one of the most evil/awesome exhaust notes one could possibly conjure up.

How Jaguar managed to get a portal to Hell in the SVR’s exhaust will remain a mystery.

The regular old V6? Still sounds pretty wicked – in fact it puts a lot of V8s to shame. Its roar, coupled with its spits of bangbangbang and rorty crackles, sound like someone’s trying to blow up a bowl of Rice Bubbles.

While Jaguar attempts to focus our attention on the ride quality and improved handling that comes with a lighter front-end, it’s probably not going to escape criticism for turning its beast of a sports coupe into an (albeit quick) turbo-four.

That’s not very ‘Jag’. However, with 221kW at 5500rpm, 400Nm from 1500rpm, and a 0-100km/h time of 5.4 seconds, it’s got enough performance potential to keep most people happy.

It’s also relatively cheap for a Jag. At $107,300 plus on-road costs, it’s about $12K cheaper than the manual V6.

The confusion that accompanies a four-cylinder coupe priced over $100K is that it’s got incredibly competent alternatives, which all appear to have an on-paper advantage.

Putting aside the obvious rival, the similarly turbo four-pot Porsche 718 Cayman, there’s the more powerful Mercedes-AMG C43 Coupe, the quicker Audi TT S, more affordable Infiniti Q60 and BMW M2, which is just…more.

Can the four-pot F-Type fight back with sharp dynamics and those catwalk looks? We’ll find out later this year.