The trunk of the Jaguar sports car only offers 7 cubic feet of space. So, my plastic box stuffed with fly spray, hoof picks, and grooming brushes for our two quarter horses boarded down near Cleburne had barely fit inside the thing. The midget-sized trunk was really the last thing on my mind, though, as I roared down U.S. 67 toward Johnson County in the 2016 Jaguar F-Type R convertible.
The two-passenger ragtop—whose roof can be lowered automatically in just 12 seconds—was the perfect car to drive that sun-splashed Saturday morning. Inside the sleek, compact, slightly menacing-looking package, the Jag’s powerful engine—a 5-liter Supercharged V-8 that’s paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission—bellowed loud and low. Using all 550 horses and 502 pound-feet of torque, I easily passed up other cars like they were standing still. (Actual time from 0 to 60: 3.9 seconds.) The 770-watt Meridian surround-sound system added to the cacophony, blasting out Waylon’s “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” through no fewer than a dozen speakers.
Talk about moving with speed, style, and luxury as the smokestacks, natural-gas rigs, and cowboy churches along 67 slipped by. My black-painted Jag (actually, it’s “Black Berry”) was complemented inside with a luxurious “Ivory” and “Jet” interior (with Ivory stitching). Think comfortable heated leather seats (they adjust 14 ways), central air vents jutting up from the dash, an 8-inch touchscreen, and a rakish orange “start” button.
The all-wheel-drive F-Type, which competes with sports cars like the Porsche 911 and the Chevy Corvette, will set you back a cool $120,395 once everything’s added in. And it only gets 18 miles to a gallon of gas. Who cares, though? We’re talking about a Jaguar, after all—a nameplate that Dallas CEOs like Andy Stern, Carol Reed, Mark Humphreys, and Allie Beth Allman have come to swear by. After driving the ’16 F-Type, so have I.
