LISTEN | Jaguar preserves its V8 roar for posterity

As the automotive world moves into an electric future of near-silent cars, the sounds that make internal combustion engines stir the souls of motoring enthusiasts will disappear.

Jaguar, which will go all-electric from 2025, has preserved the roaring sound of its F-Type supercharged V8 sports car for posterity, sharing sound recordings of the car with the British Library.

As production of the engine comes to a close, the recordings, made from inside the cabin and from outside the car, will enable people for all time to enjoy the sounds of the last combustion-engine Jaguar sports car, says the British automaker.

The British Library is home to the sound archive, a collection of more than 6-million recordings of speech, music, wildlife and the environment from the 1880s to the present day.

Recorded inside  a soundproof chamber at Jaguar’s Gaydon Engineering Centre used to develop the refinement and sound quality of Jaguar’s vehicles, the coupé performed gear shifts and acceleration sprints, composing 30- and 47-second tracks.

Charles Richardson, Senior Sound Engineer, Jaguar, said: “The F-Type’s supercharged V8 makes a unique sound because of the meticulous optimisation work we applied to the entire powertrain, most of all to the intake and exhaust systems — more than 85 iterations before we first launched the car, and developed continuously ever since.

“The culmination of that work — the sounds you experience driving the F-Type R 75 — is something we want to be available for generations to come. Archiving it with the British Library allows us to do that.”

Selected for the recording was a 2024 Model Year F-Type R 75 Coupé special edition. Its 5.0l supercharged V8 develops 423kW and 700Nm, making the car capable of a 0 to 100km/h sprint in 3.7 seconds and an electronically-governed 300km/h top speed.

The second recordings begin with engine start-up, signified by the recognisable “flare” as the revs rise. The F-Type then accelerates and decelerates, allowing listeners to hear the crisp upshifts and downshifts through the eight-speed transmission, and the distinctive crackles and pops on the overrun from its quad tailpipes.

Listen to it here.