Jaguar F-Type - First Ride - Road Tests - Motoring - The Independent How much can you tell about a car by sitting in its passenger seat? Not as much as by driving of course, but the opportunity to take a seat in Jaguar's new F-Type does provide some early indications of what the most eagerly awaited car of 2013 will be like on the road when it goes on sale this Spring. In truth the passenger ride - normally with a manufacturer's test driver behind the wheel - is a well established tool that car manufacturers" PR department used to get more coverage before a car is given to journalists to test. And spending three or four hours in the passenger seat isn't enough to really know how a car really performs, but the opportunity to see Jaguar's new two-seater convertible being thrown around by chief power-train engineer Tim Clarke is simply to good to turn down. Since its launch at the Paris motor show last year the car hasn't been short of publicity but in the metal - on British roads with a good coating of Welsh mud - it looks fantastic. It's a car that Jaguar's design chief Ian Callum admits he's wanted to design since he was a boy. And like all the best designs it could be illustrated in one smooth line from it's raised rear and spoiler (which pops up at speed) to flared wheel arches and an aggressive front end. Inside there's not a touch of wood in sight and just the right combination of sharp styling, such as pop-up heaters, and carbon fibre, but not too much bling. It's a pretty car then but what's its performance like? Again it's hard to tell from the passenger seat but Clarke is able to take it to the limits of traction of slippery road. It follows the classic sports car formula of real-wheel drive and an engine at the front and prices will start at £58,500. It will have a three-strong engine line-up; two V6s and a V8. The entry-level will offer 335bhp, give a 0-62mpg time of 5.3 seconds and a limited top speed of 161. The V8 engine in the S specification will produce 488bhp to hit 62mph in 4.5 seconds before topping out at a speed of 186mph. These are all mere number, says Clarke explaining that 0-62 mph times have almost become meaningless it modern performance cars. "It's all about how you deploy that power," he adds as he squirts the V6 S we're in out of a damp Welsh bend. As far as I can tell from the passenger seat that power is laid down well and with precision. The ride is firm as a sports car should be, but it isn't overly tough. Thankfully the engineers at Jaguar haven't fallen for the trap of tuning it for Nürburgring - Germany's road circuit so loved by sports manufactures - but have instead done much of the development work on the broken and challenger roads of north Wales. Clarke and I follow the route of the so-called Evo Triangle - a route made famous by the motoring magazine Evo's performance car test route. They are challenger roads with tight bend, hairpins and fast straights and the F-Type acquits itself well in both the V6 and V8 form, but by the sweet note of the smaller engine it sounds like the V6 S will be the sweet spot of power, sound and affordability in the F-Type engine range. I finish up in the passenger seat with Jaguar chief engineer Mike Cross behind the wheel. "It's important that a car drives like it looks," he says. The F-Type certainly looks great and by early indications it feels like it will handle well. Watch this space to find out more in April.