For durability testing, as an example, we do around 5,000 miles, which is around 390 laps of the Nürburgring driven by current or ex racing drivers," Phil says, like he's repeating a shopping list. "People like Dirk Schoysman, who's probably recorded around 16,000 laps of the €˜Ring; double Belgian touring car champion Jean Francois Hemroulle; ex British touring car driver Vincent Radermecker. This is the calibre of people we use - they're not hanging around."
They're not hanging around because they're trying to break the F-Type; lap it to destruction. Jaguar told TopGear.com that to date, the F-Type development has eaten up around 300 sets of tyres, 180 brake discs, 80 sets of brake pads and has covered more than 1,200 laps of the Nordschleife. In its busiest week, the centre hosted 28 test cars with 40 engineers. That's more than Jaguar has ever done.
"The durability cars would be knocking out 20 to 30 laps of the Nürburgring every day," Phil notes. "When they come back in, we assess the data (the cars are loaded with data loggers) and ask if everything felt all right. We obviously ask the racers for their opinion on how it drives because they've driven lots of nice cars themselves."
And? "The drivers have been really complimentary, actually. They like how agile the F-Type is."
