We got the news of a deadly predator prowling the streets of Kathmandu and it immediately caught our attention. A rare breed in this part of the world, it was imperative that we responded quickly—which we did. What fol­lowed were a series of events that left us sweaty, shaking and with a massive grin on our faces. Here, we bring to you the exclusive review of our adventure with the Jaguar F-Pace, a phenomenal machine that integrates the driving enjoyment of a sports car, the practicality of an SUV, and the impeccable styling of a modern Jaguar.

 

Exterior

The Jaguar F-Pace is the compa­ny’s first SUV, where they’ve taken a page out of their cousin’s hand­book and integrated some Land Rover genes into the Jaaaaag! So it isn’t completely surprising that the F-Pace is roughly the size of the Discovery Sport. However, it isn’t an exact copy of the Land Rover. This, of course, was a carefully strategized maneuver. Slapping the leaping cat emblem on any of the SUVs from the Jaguar Land Rover roster would have resulted in a lukewarm prod­uct. On the contrary, its underpin­nings have more in common with the Jaguar’s XE and XF saloons. This means it has a rigid, largely aluminum (80 percent) structure to improve agility.

Concealing all this effort is a body that has been designed by the very best from Jaguar. It is an SUV that has been packaged in a sporty and exclusive manner. Come up to face the F-Pace and you’ll get the chance to admire the stunning beauty of the machine. The Jaguar crest sits at the center of a large honeycombed grille, flanked by bright LED head­lights on either side that stare right back at you with a strong confident frown.

Move on to the side and you’ll notice the bulk of the F-Pace. The swooping roofline gives it a sporty appeal. The sleek taillights inspired from the F Type wrap around to the rear, which is where the F-Pace resembles the mean stare of a big cat. Since you’ll have most of the traffic behind you when you’re driving the F-Pace, they are certain to get a pretty decent view. If we dare to gripe about one single thing on this wild cat, it would be the less-than-enticing tailpipes.

 

Interior

As you’d expect, the interiors are splendid. Leg, knee and shoul­der room are adequate for all pas­sengers. Get into the driving seat and you’ll have in front of you a chunky three spoke with a pleth­ora of buttons for telephony and audio controls.

The layout is driver-friendly and has a premium feel to it. The SUV gets a digital instrument cluster with different types of displays to suit your needs. The center con­sole gets a large touchscreen, which is very easy to connect and operate.

Additional cool features are the panoramic sliding roof and the circular rotary gear selector that smoothly elevates and reveals itself on ignition.

You get a good vantage point from the cockpit, with a clear view in front. The same can’t be said about the rearward visibility, albeit the large ORVMs do a good job of letting you know what’s going on. A quirky bit of design, which can also be seen on the Land Rover SUVs, is the placement of the window switches, which is on the windowpane instead of the door panel.

 

Performance

We have established that the Jag­uar F-Pace is a sight for sore eyes. It has all the amenities you’d want in your everyday SUV and more. But what the F-Pace really brings to the table is the DNA it shares with the F-Type. So, what that means in essence is that this surpasses the performances of a normal SUV. And boy, doesit deliver!

The body control is superbly sus­tained for an SUV this size and it maintains its composure decep­tively well in the corners. Much like a predator fixated on its runaway prey, it throws caution to the wind and flings itself into corners with reckless abandon and regains its poise on the exit, still fixated on its target.

As difficult as it may be to believe, the Jaguar F-Pace turns into even more of an animal on the straights. Powered by a 2.0-liter engine that churns out a 177bhp and peak torque of 430Nm, this translates to a machine that is eager to impress. The idle growl emanating from the bonnet explodes into a full-grown blare when you stamp your foot hard on the pedal.

There are several driving modes you can choose from to alter throttle response, steering weight and gear­shifts as per your needs. You get to choose from the eco mode, adaptive service response mode, low fric­tion launch, and (our favorite) the dynamic mode.

 

Verdict

Although Jaguar has been a promi­nent name in the automotive world, it has always been outnumbered in terms of sales by other European firms, mainly the German moni­kers. They sell millions of cars in a year, while Jaguar sells fewer than 100,000. The F Pace is the British carmaker’s wild card that is set out to change this by taking the fight to the Germans. However, in the Nepali market the Jaguar is king of the jun­gle. Rivaled only by its Range Rover cousin, the F-Pace is as fun as an SUV gets. There are a mindboggling number of features that you get and the quality of the interiors speaks for its class. And when you drive it, a wide smile is guaranteed.

Last, but not least, the appearance puts the Jaguar F-Pace right up there in the head-turn-o-meter. The only shortcoming is that the dealers did not bring the F-Pace in red, which they should have. But we’re just going to let it slide this one time O