Ride along for Jaguar F-Pace testing

Published Aug 26, 2015

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Whitley, West Midlands - Jaguar's upcoming F-Pace will be the maker's first crossoverv - but first and foremost, says the maker, it will be a Jaguar.

And that implies a driver's car, with technology borrowed from its sporty two-seater and luxury sedan stable-mates to ensure precision and control.

It's based on Jaguar's lightweight aluminium architecture, using its inherently high torsional rigidity to get the best out of its expensive but sophisticated double-wishbone front and integral link rear suspension for catlike suppleness and responses.

The electrically assisted power steering is designed for maximum feedback without bump steer, keeping the inevitable dead spot in the centre as small and unobtrusive possible.

MILLIONS OF KILOMETRES OF TEST DRIVING

Derived directly from and F-Type sports-car are the torque vectoring system, combating understeer by selective braking on the inside wheels, and the torque-on-demand all-wheel drive system.

But in the final analysis, it's the test drivers who asses what the boffins and their computers have come up with, driving the development mules literally millions of kilometres on all types of roads in all weathers.

Their input is fed back into the computer-aided engineering tools. That improves the virtual models, for better simulation results - and vice versa.

The video gives an idea of how that works - and how much actual driving is involved.

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