DRIVEN

FROM CHILDHOOD DREAMS TO A RED F-TYPE COUPÉ ON THE WELSH COAST, JOHN’S STORY IS ONE OF LIFELONG FASCINATION WITH THE MARQUE THAT DEFINES BRITISH ASPIRATION.

Words & Photography Wayne Scott

We’re gliding through the leafy streets of Penarth, looking for John’s home alongside the harbour front, when we round the bend of a crescent of houses and spot his red Jaguar F-TYPE Coupé V6 gleaming on the drive. Here, we also see John Hunt, the owner, busy buffing the paintwork to perfection.

John has been a member of the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club for only four years but has already made his mark on the Club, both in the Region and nationally, with his role as Model Section coordinator for the F-TYPE and an involvement in local activities in South Wales.

After a tour of the house, including the garden and balcony that overlook the harbour and seafront stretching to the high-rise buildings of Cardiff beyond, we record the interview before heading out on the road with his pride and joy.

The first location for photos is found minutes from his house, with the backdrop of the quayside. The light is soft and sea-salted, bouncing off painted townhouses and the curvaceous panels of the Ian Callum-designed bodywork. John’s is infectiously enthusiastic but warm with it — the sound of a man content in the company of his car. But where did all this passion come from, and how did it begin?

The spark that started it all

“I was seven,” John explains. “We’d just moved house, and one of the neighbours had this long, sweeping car. Everyone else had Vauxhalls or Austins, but this one looked like something from another world.”

He smiles. “I didn’t even know it was a Jaguar. Years later, I realised it must’ve been a Mk X or 420G. That’s the car that started it all.”

From there, the thread was set for a childhood fascination with the lines of an SS100 seen racing across a black-and-white European film reel, and later, the sleek white XJ-S from The Saint .

“As a kid, success looked like a modern house and a white Jaguar on the drive.”

Stepping closer to Jaguar ownership through code and chrome

We moved on to a local country park, then onwards to the beach front with Barry Island in the distance. The F-TYPE looks magnificent and at home in the semi-urban coastal landscape, and we watch as the locals stir from their enjoyment of the seaside to look at the Jaguar parked overlooking the watery expanse. The F-TYPE still turns heads in a world of dull and mundane motors.

John talks about school: “I was dyslexic, so the classroom wasn’t my friend,” he says. “Then computer programming came along, and suddenly, I could do something better than anyone else.”

That talent led him to university and eventually, into Jaguar’s orbit. “My PhD was with Jaguar and Ford, developing software to analyse component failures,” he explains. “The XJ40s and X300s surrounded me, I’d dreamt about as a kid. I’d walk through Browns Lane, see parts of cars I’d only ever read about — it was heaven.” “I remember walking into the Jaguar engineering corridors and thinking, this is it — I’m inside the dream.”

Though his later career took him to the BBC and the finance world, the connection to Jaguar never dimmed. Even his computer servers were named after classic models: XJ-S, Mk X, SS100 — each a quiet nod to the cars that shaped his imagination.

Family life, estate cars, and European roads

The F-TYPE gleams in the late summer sun, and John’s eyes take on that nostalgic gleam all true Jag fans recognise. “When you’ve got small kids, practicality wins,” he admits. “Then Jaguar brought out the X-Type Estate — and suddenly, I could have the badge AND the boot space.”

That 2.5-litre V6 sport model became the family chariot, clocking miles across France and Spain. “We took it on the ferry to Menorca,” he laughs. “I opened the door to a thirty-foot drop off the ferry deck - Only in Spain!”

But for John, that car was more than transport — it was identity. “People stopped us in Barcelona to take photos. They’d never seen one. It looked like a proper Jaguar. I wish I’d never sold it.”

A brief flirtation with an XJ6 Sport followed — elegant, but short-lived. “Beautiful, but temperamental,” he admits with a grin. “A proper Jag, then.”

The f-type: a dream realised

We take some pictures of the car moving along the coastal road toward Barry Island, the sea bright under a Welsh sky. The F-TYPE has such a sense of road presence, a car both taut and graceful — it’s easy to understand its driver’s affection for it.

“When the kids moved out, I finally had the chance,” John says. “I’d looked at Porsches, maybe even an Aston Martin, but I kept coming back to the F-TYPE. I’d told a friend years before, ‘That’s my ultimate car.’ And when lockdown hit… well, you spend too long online, and one thing leads to another.”

He found his R-Dynamic V6 380 in Caldera Red during that strange quiet of 2020. “We told ourselves we were just going to look. You can guess how that went. We came home with it - and I’ve never regretted it since.”

The car is more than a weekend indulgence. “It’s a daily-driver kind of supercar,” he says. “I’ve used it for meetings, shopping, and road trips to Beaulieu and back. It’s civilised in town, thrilling on the open road, and just… right.”

The F-TYPE R-Dynamic: The modern Jaguar spirit

When Ian Callum first sketched the Jaguar F-TYPE, he wasn’t designing just another sports car — he was reviving a legacy. “We wanted a car that looked alive even when standing still,” he once said. “Something muscular, taut, and elegant — a car that made people feel something the way the old E-type did.”

Launched in 2013, the F-TYPE was Jaguar’s first true two-seat sports car in decades — a long-awaited spiritual successor to the E-type and a statement that the marque still knew how to stir the soul. By 2018, the design had matured into the R-Dynamic range, where the blend of performance, refinement, and drama found its perfect balance.

Sitting at the heart of the range

John’s model, a 2018 Jaguar F-TYPE R-Dynamic Coupé V6, occupied the sweet spot of the lineup — above the entry-level 2.0-litre four-cylinder, but below the ferocious V8 R and SVR models.

Its 3.0-litre supercharged V6, producing 380PS, delivered a thrilling yet manageable performance envelope — enough for 0–60 mph in under 5 seconds, but without the raw brutality (or running costs) of the V8. Rear-wheel drive ensured pure handling - the optional all-wheel-drive variant providing added security in wetter climates for those who need it.

Visually, the R-Dynamic gained subtle upgrades over the standard model, including gloss black detailing, 20-inch split-spoke wheels, performance seats, and configurable dynamics, which allow the driver to tune throttle, steering, and gearbox response to their preference. The result was a car that could cruise serenely through town — or transform into something appropriately feral with a single flick of the mode switch.

“It’s a daily-drivable grand tourer one moment, a British muscle car the next. That duality is what makes it so rewarding to live with.”

Owning an f-type r-dynamic

Owners like John often describe the F-TYPE as a modern classic — a car built at the perfect intersection of analogue feel and digital finesse. It’s modern enough to be comfortable and connected but still has the old-school charm of a front-engined, rear-drive layout with a proper exhaust note.

Maintenance is refreshingly straightforward for a high-performance car. The AJ126 V6 is a proven evolution of the AJ133 V8 engine, using an Eaton twin-vortex supercharger that’s robust if serviced regularly. Oil changes every 10,000 miles, coolant monitoring, and attention to the auxiliary belt are the key priorities. Brakes and tyres are costly only if driven enthusiastically — which, of course, they often are.

Electrical reliability, once a Jaguar concern, is solid on post-2016 cars. The 2018 model year benefited from upgraded infotainment and improved wiring looms. Many owners, like John, retrofit later software or Touch Pro systems, keeping the cockpit up to date with current expectations.

In the real world, owners report 30mpg on a cruise, mid-20s around town, and little in the way of unexpected costs. Servicing through main dealers or Jaguar-specialist independents is predictable, and thanks to its aluminium construction, corrosion is rarely an issue.

Behind the wheel

Driving the F-TYPE R-Dynamic is a lesson in balance. It’s not a lightweight sports car in the Lotus sense — it’s a grand touring coupé with muscle and manners.

The steering, quick and beautifully weighted, gives a sense of intimacy often missing in modern cars. The supercharged engine’s throttle response is immediate — no lag, no hesitation — and the eight-speed XF Quickshift gearbox is undoubtedly the best automatic ever fitted to a Jaguar.

Then there’s the sound. In ‘Dynamic’ mode, the active exhaust opens with a basso growl that hardens into a howl above 4000rpm — unmistakably Jaguar, blending refinement and theatre. “The exhaust note,” Callum once said, “is part of the design. It had to have character — a voice.”

It’s a car that makes you feel you’re part of something mechanical again — not just along for the ride, though I have to admit that John’s car fooled me at first – it does sound misleadingly like a V8 every time I hear it at full chat!

Ian Callum’s masterstroke

Ian Callum’s design team faced an unenviable challenge: to truly follow the E-type and the stillborn concept that ended up creating the Aston Martin DB7, without imitating it. “We resisted copying the past,” he explained. “We wanted to capture its spirit, not its shape.”

The result was a design that feels timeless: the long bonnet, short rear deck, and muscular haunches hint at classic proportions, but every surface is taut and modern. The coupe roofline — especially viewed from the rear three-quarter angle — remains one of the finest in contemporary automotive design.

Callum famously agonised over the headlamp signature. “It’s the car’s smile,” he said. “If you get that wrong, you lose the emotion.” The final design, with its razor-thin LED bladestapering into the haunches, became an instant Jaguar hallmark. The rear lamps also give a nod to its E predecessor, when alight they pay homage to the earlier lamp shape. Even the car’s door handles, which sit flush until touched, were engineered as a visual surprise — disappearing to maintain the purity of line. “It’s that sense of theatre that’s always been part of Jaguar,” Callum said. “You have to want to look back at it as you walk away.”

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It’s that sense of theatre that’s always been part of Jaguar…

Coupé over convertible

We followed the coast road west from Penarth, where the cliffs give way to long stretches of pebble and sand, the sea glinting in and out of view. At Cold Knap, the promenade opens wide, the old lido’s curved walls still echoing with the ghosts of summer holidays long gone. We stop to take in the view: the view stretching toward Cardiff, gulls wheeling overhead, the F-TYPE’s scarlet paint catching every flicker of sunlight.

“It’s one of those places that’s never quite modern, never quite forgotten,” John says. “You can imagine E-types here in the ’60s, lined up with their bonnets open, everyone in sunglasses and polo shirts.”

The road curves behind the bay, the surface rippling with salt and sun. The car feels alive — poised, unhurried, utterly at home.

From there, the road dips into Porthkerry Park, and we managed to catch a few photographic glimpses of the car in the surrounding streets. But behind the holiday homes and seafront terraces, a sweep of green exists, framed by ancient oaks and the great brick viaduct that towers above the valley. We pause under the arches, where the F-TYPE’s engine note ricochets back in warm echoes. Seeing an F-TYPE in this setting is a reminder perhaps that we here in Britain still know how to build things of beauty and strength. That’s what the F-TYPE is — the modern echo of the spirit of craftsmanship and of beautiful engineering. Not far from us is Whitmore Bay, now made famous by the TV series Gavin and Stacey , though we have no interest in “what’s occurring” apart from marvelling and just how exotic a red Jaguar F-TYPE still looks in this setting. Jaguar might have deemed it archaic and stopped production, but it still looks as fresh as the day the world first saw one back in 2013. John’s F-TYPE rolls past pastel shopfronts and fish-and-chip queues. The tide’s high, and so the sand is a ribbon of light beneath the promenade.

John parks facing the sea, the red car framed against the Atlantic. “This is where you feel the connection between the car and the landscape,” he says. “The F-TYPE’s lines make sense here — the curve of the roof, the sweep of the haunches. It looks like it’s drawn from the coastline itself.”

Behind us, Barry Island hums with life — children laughing, gulls calling, the faint smell of doughnuts drifting across the breeze. The car’s engine cools with the quiet tick of metal, the sound fading into the wash of the waves. A narrow lane leads to Friars Point, the headland that watches over the bay. The view from the top is pure South Wales — the wide sweep of the Bristol Channel, the pier reaching out like a memory, and in the distance, the faint shape of Flat Holm and Steep Holm islands sitting on the horizon.

John leans on the door, looking out across the sea. “This is my favourite stretch,” he says. “You can see Cardiff Bay across the water, the whole coastline laid out in front of you. It’s where I bring the car when I want to just… stop for a bit. You don’t need to drive fast to enjoy it — it’s enough just to be here.”

Below, the tide murmurs against the rocks. The car seems to belong here — as much a part of the landscape as the cliffs and the sea itself.

John explains his choice of a coupe over a convertible. “We wanted something we could use for weekends away. The coupe gives us space for luggage, picnic chairs, raincoats — the essentials of British motoring life. A convertible’s lovely, but not when you’re packing for Beaulieu in the rain.”

His car’s been subtly updated: infotainment upgraded, safety systems added, and a ceramic finish to keep that deep gloss. “It’s a car that’s meant to be used, not just polished,” he says. “Four and a half years in, the only issue’s been an oxygen sensor. It’s been more reliable than our BMW.”

Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club community spirit

We drive back into town, the car’s reflection glancing off shop windows. John talks about the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club, where he now serves as F-TYPE Section Coordinator. He joined even before buying the car. “I wanted to learn from other owners — and that’s how it starts. But what keeps you there are the people.” “You come for the cars, but you stay for the friendships.” That sense of community, he says, is what makes ownership special. “I’ve had MGs, I love old Porsches too, but it’s the friendships in the JEC that make Jaguars unique. When someone asks after your wife, or you all meet at the pub for a run — that’s what it’s about. It’s deeper than the cars.”

Looking ahead

So, will he ever part with his F-TYPE? He smiles, glancing across at the car parked in the seaside sunshine. “We’ve looked at the convertibles, the special editions, even the last 575s. But every time I think about swapping, I look at mine and think, ‘It’s not my car.’”

He pauses. “I suppose the plan is to keep it until I can’t get in or out of it anymore. Hopefully that’s a long way off.”

The tide is pulling out now, the sand glistening under the receding surf. The red Jaguar sits poised against the backdrop of Cardiff Bay, a sculpture in motion, even at rest.

“It’s not just a car,” John says quietly. “It’s a lifetime of memories — from a go-kart imagined as a Mk X, to a drive along the Welsh coast in my dream F-TYPE. Every road I’ve taken has led to this one.” Now, more than a decade after launch, the F-TYPE feels like a swansong — the last of the great internal-combustion Jaguars before the brand moves into its all-electric future.

Collectors already talk of the V6 R-Dynamic as the sweet spot — lighter and more agile than the V8, with a soundtrack and balance that make it the driver’s choice. It’s modern enough for everyday life, yet sufficiently analogue to stir the senses.

For John, it’s more than a car. It’s the embodiment of everything that first drew him to Jaguar — craftsmanship, emotion, and British engineering with a wry sense of theatre. The kind of car that turns a drive to Barry Island into a small adventure.

“It’s a car you can build a life around,” he says. “It doesn’t just take you places — it reminds you why you love driving.”