What is a drifter? If you are talking about a lifestyle you might be describing a self-proclaimed gypsy or someone who moves from town to town that never puts down roots. On the other hand if you are describing someone in the automotive world it would be those drivers who love to see a car slide and move against what it normally would be capable of. For most of us a vehicle that can drift isn’t all that important, but if you have good control of the car and know the capabilities drifting while driving can be a lot of fun.
Until recently the ability to drift was limited to small tuner cars that are made to perform this act, but add the right combination of snow and ice and take a trip to the norther part of Sweden and you just might be able to take a prototype F-Pace SUV from Jaguar around on the track and see how it performs and slides for you.
That of course is the scene that was presented recently as Jaguar has been testing the new F-Pace in these frigid temperatures to see how the supercharged V6 would perform and whether or not it would stay balanced and firm on the ice or if it was prone to roll over. From the view that was given, it appears this new SUV from Jaguar was more than happy to slide around and never seemed out of balance. Of course the driver did have to deactivate every dynamic aid in the vehicle to make it drift, which may just be a reason those who spend a lot of time on the track drifting their cars will steer clear of this SUV, but it’s still really cool to know it can do this if needed.
If you remember the announcing of the F-Pace, we were supposed to see this vehicle on the market as early as 2016, but that didn’t happen. It appears Porsche had a bit to do with that. The development team at Jaguar used the Macan as a basis for some of their performance benchmarks, but the performance the team witnessed with the Macan caused them to feel they needed to develop the suspension springs and anti-roll bars into a stiffer shape to be better overall for the new SUV they were about to launch. Because the F-Pace is meant to be a sport crossover, similar to the Macan, this study made perfect sense and caused a bit of a delay.
The F-Pace is to be built on the same platform as the XF sedan and from the A-pillars forward they seem to be the exact same vehicle. This also means we will see the same engine lineup as we enjoy in the XF which will be a 3.0-liter supercharged V6 with 340 horsepower that is also tuned up to 380 horsepower depending on the trim level chosen. We may also see a 2.0-liter four-cylinder diesel engine, but that has not been fully confirmed as of yet. The models that do make their way to the US will have an AWD system and have the engines attached to an eight-speed automatic transmission.
The F-Pace is expected to give you the feel inside the vehicle that you would expect from a high class sports car from Jaguar. The cabin will be full of leather coverings, comfortable and supportive seating and every conceivable technological feature to make the driving even better.
Will drifters really purchase the F-Pace and put it through the paces; probably not. But it would be pretty interesting to see someone like Ken Block taking this high priced luxury SUV out to see how hard he can push it before it rolls on him.
This post may contain affiliate links. Meaning a commission is given should you decide to make a purchase through these links, at no cost to you. All products shown are researched and tested to give an accurate review for you.