Jaguar F-type is go! C-X16 sports car will launch in 2013

Jaguar tonight confirmed it will build the F-type - the final production name for the C-X16 concept car. The new Jag F-type will go on sale in a year's time, in early summer 2013, as a convertible first with an F-type coupe to follow in 2014.

CAR understands it'll be positioned halfway between a Porsche Boxster/Cayman and a 911. Let's call it £55,000 for now.

The announcement at the 2012 New York auto show brings an end to speculation of what the C-X16 will be called. And these first photos of the F-type bring further good news - the style of the gorgeous C-X16 concept is intact!

Indeed they are. And why not? Jaguar is sitting on a rich back catalogue of badges and the F-type will continue the series of C-, D- and, most famously E-type names. The F-type name was first applied to 2000's concept car, developed during the Ford era. It, however, proved to be a cul-de-sac as the Blue Oval preferred to spend its money developing diesel engines and X-types.

Adrian Hallmark, Jaguar's global brand director, said: 'We showed the C-X16 concept in September 2011, and the reaction to it has been so positive that we've accelerated our development of an all-new Jaguar sports car.

'That car will be called the F-type, and it will be unveiled in production form later this year. The core appeal of Jaguar's cars is their sporting heart, and that heart will beat stronger than ever before in the F-type. Its development is a vivid representation of the confidence and ambition of the Jaguar brand, and the desire amongst our engineers and design team to produce a world-leader in a market segment that we have been absent from for too long. But no longer – the F-type is coming.'

Jag has given us a few clues about 2013's new F-type. It'll be built using the same aluminium technique as the XJ and XK, and will be manufactured alongside those cars at the Castle Bromwich factory outside Birmingham.

Other facts are few and far between: this will be a two-seater and, at launch, only petrol engines will be offered, including 'a new powerplant family' understood to be a suite of new V6s, rather than any downsized four-pots.

Strip away the silly F-letter disguise shrink-wrapped around this 'M1' final stage prototype, and you can see a compact roadster mirroring the details of the C-X16. The same pert front end, the compact dimensions and the slimline lights have all survived for production.

In a bid to sideswipe all those pesky scoop photographers, Jag has issued its own shots of the first F-type prototypes. As this is an incremental model with no existing car whose sales could be damaged, Jag is promoting the first F-type test cars with official shots.

Design chief Ian Callum said: 'A true sports car needs to be pure in both its purpose and its form. The C-type, D-type and E-type Jaguars were all sports cars that held true to this principle in their era, and the F-type will hold true to that same principle in its time, a time that is soon to arrive.' 

Expect to see the finished Jaguar F-type at the Paris motor show in September 2012. Global sales start in mid-2013.

By Tim Pollard