Jaguar F-Type ZP Edition: A thunderous celebration of combustion

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If there is to be a swan song for the Jaguar brand, then the Jaguar F-Type ZP Edition plays the perfect melody.

The V8-powered monster is the last-ever petrol-powered sports car built by Jaguar, with the fabled and famed British brand (now owned by Indian conglomerate Tata) transitioning to a fully electric lineup beginning in 2026.

Which makes this, this sleek and powerful sports car, a fitting finale for a brand that has, in its 91-year history, traded on sleek and powerful sports cars.

The Jaguar F-Type, even without the 'ZP' designation emblazoned on this final limited edition, was already an heroic sports car, revered for its supercharged V8 and accompanying soundtrack that didn't just sing to the gods of internal combustion, but positively howled and roared. If there is a place in Valhalla for a God of Cars, then the F-Type could rightfully stake its claim, sitting on the throne right there next to Thor.

Like Thor, the F-Type was, and for now remains, a thunderous celebration, a cacophony of combustion that few have, few can, match.

Sure, Jaguar dabbled with a six-cylinder F-Type, and, may the motoring gods accept our penance, a four-cylinder version. But really, the F-Type was always, and will be for ever more, about that glorious 5.0-litre supercharged V8.

In its most potent F-Type SVR form, the blown V8 made 423kW and 700Nm. It could propel the sleek two-door from 0-100km/h in 3.7 seconds, which seems quaint now in the age of electrification and fairly commonplace sub-three-second acceleration claims. But back in 2016, 3.7 seconds was a serious number, one that made you sit up and take notice.

And you could hardly fail to notice, the howl of the supercharger, the thunderous timpani of pumping pistons, and the shock and awe of an exhaust note that is the very definition of auto eroticism.

Fast forward to 2024 and the final ever F-Type, heck, the final ever petrol-powered sports car from the Leaping Cat, heralds the end of an era.

This last ZP Edition is more than just a farewell to the F-Type; it's an homage to what is arguably the British brand's most famous, most iconic, most revered car in history – the Jaguar E-Type.

Born in 1961, the E-Type wowed the public from the moment it broke cover, a public beguiled by its sweeping teardrop lines and astonishingly long clam shell bonnet under which lurked the snarling and growling six-cylinder engine that is the stuff of lore.

It was a car born for competition and within weeks of its debut at the 1961 Geneva motor show, the lightly-modified racing E-Type, codenamed Project ZP, had started chalking up race wins.

It's that success, that tradition, underpinning the last Jaguar sports car of them all, the F-Type ZP Edition which makes the same 423kW and 700Nm as its SVR sibling, and offers the same 3.7-second 0-100km/h claim.

Limited to just 150 worldwide, the F-Type ZP Edition comes in just two colours – Oulton Blue or Crystal Grey – each with their own interior trims. Mars Red and Ebony leather adorns the cabin of Oulton Blue examples while cars finished in Crystal Grey are clad in Navy Blue and Ebony leather.

Outside, a Porcelain White hand-painted roundel on the doors is complemented by a grille surround painted in the same glossy colour. All models feature 20-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels, ZP Edition treadplates, and a numbered plaque inside the cabin. The price for this celebration? In Australia, which has been allocated 24 F-Type ZP Editions, $373,547 plus on-road costs.

For that spend you get what is the last of its kind, a punk rock concert in an era of restraint. There's no restraint here, the ZP Edition unbridled and untethered by today's societal expectations. It harks back to a glorious epoch where sight and sound and smell all worked together to set heart rates pumping and jumping.

Yes, the all-inclusive, all electric new Jaguar will no doubt build a more powerful, possibly a more attractive and even faster sports car. And it will woo with its technology and beguile with its on-road performance. It will look like the future we have been promised, make a statement about the people we are, have become.

But it will also serve as a wistful reminder of what we once had, a growling, snarling, thundering monster that assaulted the senses and weakened the knees.

The Jaguar F-Type ZP Edition, a fitting farewell to an icon.

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