2024 Mustang GT vs. 2024 Jaguar F-Type: How Does America’s Last Sports Car Fare Overseas?
We always think of the oval track-bred battle between the Mustang and the Camaro. But since we’re waving goodbye to Chevy’s muscular GT, Ford’s pony car needs a new playmate. And with the new Corvette going mid-engine, the Mustang is effectively America’s last true sports car. To find a worthy rival, we’re pitting the 2024 Mustang GT against the British-branded Jaguar F-Type for a gentlemanly contention with a V8 soundtrack.
2024 Mustang GT vs. 2024 Jaguar F-Type specs
An American muscle car against a European GT? Despite those with mouths of meal choking on their Earl Grey muttering incoherent nothings, it’s a reasonable comparison. The Mustang has matured.
| Make/Model | Engine | HP | Torque (lb-ft) | Transmission | 0-60 mph | Top speed |
| 2024 Ford Mustang GT* | 5.0-liter N/A V8 | 480 | 415 | 10-speed auto or six-speed manual | 4.4 seconds** | 155 mph |
| 2024 Jaguar F-Type R-Dynamic P450* | 5.0-liter supercharged V8 | 444 | 428 | eight-speed auto | 4.4 seconds | 177 mph |
What’s new in the 2024 Mustang GT?
For the seventh-generation Mustang, Ford outdid itself in subtly yet significantly redesigning the iconic sports car. Even though engineers employed the same overall architecture, there were massive changes in styling, technology, and performance.
Above the Mustang’s beltline, everything is a carryover, but below, the sheet metal is new. Ford removed the “pucker” from the front fascia and grille, stiffened the lines, and flattened the long hood for a more chiseled, distinguished look. Around the sides, the Mustang sports brawny haunches, but the rocker lines have been toned down, as are the lighting signatures, which are much thinner. The dozens of changes to the surfaces, proportions, and details give the 2024 Mustang GT a crisp, clean appearance.
Inside, Ford furnished the cockpit with a “fighter-jet-inspired” design. A new 12.4-inch digital instrument cluster replaces the old one’s rather retro look. The updated unit can even be customized with colors, alternative gauge displays, and even a setting that mutes most of the details for more focused driving. Overall, the Mustang is a refreshingly modern car, which is more than can be said for the Jag.
What’s new in the 2024 Jaguar F-Type?
Unfortunately, 2024 is the swansong F-Type, coming as Jaguar celebrates 75 years in the automotive industry. To commemorate both milestones, the 2024 Jaguar F-Type will feature two special editions: the 75 and R 75 coupe or convertible. Each will come with standard all-wheel drive, special badging inside and out, unique 20-inch wheels, and an exclusively decadent “Giola Green” exterior paint hue.
The F-Type 75 features the entry-level R-Dynamic P450’s supercharged powertrain, but the R 75 boosts output to 575 horsepower. Otherwise, much has stayed the same since the F-Type’s major update for the 2021 model year. It still sports the same squinty-eyed, ready-to-rumble look of the Mustang.
How should the 2024 Mustang GT and 2024 F-Type handle?
The Mustang is not the traditional high displacement, low compression muscle car it once was. It can corner with the best Europe has to offer—at least with sports cars. Bending around corners is now one of the Mustang’s party pieces.
Along with updated, customizable tech, steering can be adjusted on the fly. The 2024 Mustang GT’s electric power-assisted steering system has new ratios making it far more precise, but it also features driver-select modes. “Comfort” for around-town settings, “Normal” for a factory-spec ride quality, and “Sport” for quicker lateral movement. To maintain hunkered down under hard acceleration and flat through the corners, the Mustang has a suspension foundation that’s nothing like the muscle cars of old.
Up front, drivers get double ball-jointed MacPherson struts with a stabilizer bar and aluminum control arms. In the rear, the Mustang sits on an integral-link independent setup with coil springs and a stabilizer bar. The optional GT Performance package enhances both ends of the car with magnetic dampers. What does all that mean, though? If you don’t stomp the accelerator through the firewall leaving a Cars & Coffee event, it’ll flex around an apex like no Mustang before.
To stop the car, standard on the 2024 Mustang GT are 13.8-inch vented brake rotors with four-piston calipers in the front and a set of vented 13.7-inch rotors with a single-piston caliper in the rear. Ford’s optional big brake package bumps that up to 15.3 in the front and 14 in the rear, with front six-piston fixed aluminum calipers and four-piston units in the back.
Only the top-tier F-Type can match the Mustang’s brake piston ratio. Like the Mustang GT, the F-Type features meaty 305-mm-width rear tires, but the Jag’s discs are bigger—over 15 inches in the front and just under that in the back.
Is the Jaguar F-Type a supercar?
The raucous 575-horsepower F-Type R sits dangerously close to its continental supercar brethren. A manufactured-claimed 3.5-second 0 to 60 mph time certainty grants it entry. However, we’re talking about the entry-level Jag, here. At a shade under two tons, the F-Type was built with extra leather over excess carbon fiber.
If you think the drop-top will add weight, the coupe’s fixed glass roof is heavy enough. The convertible weighs just 26 pounds more than the coupe, far less than the optional all-wheel drive system’s 200. And it doesn’t even increase standstill-start acceleration, with most of the power going to the rear wheels.
While some lament Jaguar dropping the popular and aggressively noisy V6, the stout V8 offers plenty of power. The eight-speed is geared more toward comfort, but putting the F-Type in “Dynamic” mode will allow what Jaguar calls “engaging, exploitable performance.” It’ll feel like a track monster with double wishbones front and rear, electromechanical rack-and-pinion steering, and adaptive suspension at all four corners. Still, it’ll provide enough body roll in various settings to make cruising to the office comfortable.
Interestingly enough, the tables are turned with torque. Not too long ago, Mustang engines were modular truck engines that prided themselves on low-end grunt. Although the Mustang’s Coyote engine powers the F-150, it’s tuned to shout at its 7,500 rpm redline. The Jag reaches its maximum torque at just 2,500 rpm, whereas you’ll have to ring the Mustang out to 3,850.
Does the F-Type have a nice interior?
The swansong F-Type and the 2024 Mustang GT have similar tensed-up exterior styling, but they differ vastly once you step inside. Jaguar hasn’t updated the F-Type’s interior much since its 2014 debut, and it shows. Yet, it still includes plenty of padded leather surfaces, bits of chrome flair, but some plastics, albeit soft-touch ones.
Jaguar’s F-Type comes with a 10-inch touchscreen infotainment system controlled through physical knobs and buttons. Although it’s a welcome sight riding on a bumpy side street, many claim the system is lazy compared to competitors, and its graphics look like they’re from the later years of the Bush Administration. However, the optional customizable 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster is much more snappy. While the Jag is well-trimmed, it leans a bit too heavily into history and tradition, unlike the Mustang.
What about the Mustang?
Screens dominate the inside of the 2024 Mustang GT. With the massive digital gauge cluster and the 13.2-inch infotainment touchscreen, drivers will have displays from the A-pillar past the other side of the dashboard’s center. Although plenty of leather trappings exist, the interior is about as rigid as the exterior. Sitting in front of the screens, only the flat-bottomed steering wheel reminds you you’re not in a cubicle.
But Ford has replaced any need to sit and type to change the air conditioning or music. Amazon Alexa and Ford Streaming allow voice commands to replace knobs and buttons, which are kept in check via over-the-air updates. While the Mustang is undoubtedly the most serious Pony car to date, it still has plenty of hidden quirks to enliven the ride.
In a collaboration between Ford and RTR, a new electronic drift brake was developed with the help of famed Formula Drift champion Vaughn Gittin Jr. In “Track” mode—turning off traction or advanced traction control—the standard electric parking brake will apply the rear brakes hydraulically in proportion to handling. Therefore, even a “novice” can learn to drift and adjust the settings as competency is gained.
Further Easter eggs include the Track app icon, which is the Grattan Raceway track near Grand Rapids, Michigan, where a lot of the engineering work took place. The 2024 Mustang GT also has a “Remote Rev” function, so you can click the key fob and let the Jag know you’re here. However, it’s only available with the automatic transmission.
What are they like to live with?
Jag made the most no-nonsense F-Type to date. Even without the extra 131 horsepower, the 2024 Jaguar F-Type R-Dynamic P450 is competent on the track and in everyday driving conditions. Though, with such a narrow cabin, the coupe variant doesn’t allow for much head or legroom for those blessed with the gift of height. And it would have been nice if the old-world brand used more padding on the seats.
Although the one-piece sport-back seats provide hip-hugging support, occupants may become bottom-weary on longer cruises. But at least those bottoms will be kept semi-comfortable with optional heated and ventilated seats.
Ford’s convertible 2024 Mustang GT provides plenty of headroom for taller passengers with the top down, but the Fastback coupe was designed with lofty drivers in mind. Ford says the roofline was specially designed for driver entry and exit without needing to remove a race helmet. While only teenagers can fit behind the Mustang’s front seats, it can be a family cruiser for a little while, at least. Fortunately, the rear row features LATCH car-seat connectors, whereas the Jag doesn’t.
With cargo in tow, the F-Type coupe’s 14.4 cubic beats the GT Fastback’s 13.5. But with the top down, the Mustang still boasts 11.4 cubic feet to the Jag’s laughable 7.4 cubes. It’s still enough for a golf bag but not enough to bring a shootout partner’s irons.
Is the Jaguar F-Type a reliable car?
In terms of everyday dependability, the F-Type is unlikely to prove itself as a bulletproof car. iSeeCars ranks the convertible F-Type near the middle of the luxury sports car segment. The coupe, interestingly, is a few spots lower.
In contrast, J.D. Power ranked the Mustang with a far higher quality and reliability rating. But that was for the 2020 model year. Even though redesigns tend to put a damper on dependability, Ford’s enhancement of existing platform architecture instead of all-new underpinnings could very well mitigate that.
How much is the 2024 Mustang GT?
To procure the V8 2024 Mustang GT will take $38,345, not including destination fees. For the convertible, the MSRP jumps to $48,865. Although it may seem steep for a drop-top grand tourer, the Jag is much more expensive. Now that Jaguar dropped the entry-level V6, the price for the base F-Type skyrocketed to $77,900, and the convertible is $2,000 more.
The Jaguar F-Type had a nice decade-long run. As the pinnacle of the British brand’s sporty GT cars, it provided a modern throwback to their ’60s heyday, even though it’s being ditched for inevitable electrification. On the other hand, the Mustang has proven its relevancy with continued booming sales in an American sports car now on the same playing field as Europe’s finest. The 2024 Mustang GT not only shows its overall value compared to its competitors but its ability to mature with time while retaining its rebellious DNA.
