So far, there's been a pretty strong consensus: fantastic styling, an ear–shattering engine note, and – slightly less happily – a price that's too high. In its early days, Jaguar was famous for offering world–beating performance at a fraction of the cost of its rivals, but not any more. 

Still, that's not what the F–type is about. Its purpose is to generate that magical aura of desirability around the whole Jaguar marque, so we headed to Pamplona to judge for ourselves whether the brand–new big cat is up to the job.