1974 Jensen Interceptor - Jay Leno's Garage

[Music] plenty of power yep adequate adequate as they say well-known the episode of Jay Leno's Garage you know I hear a lot from you guys in the comments section you always like the different the unusual cars and this is an unusual car and probably one of the most misunderstood automobiles from the 60s and 70s it's a 1970 Ford Jensen interceptor it is not my car it belongs to man named Mark Holliday he lives in Massachusetts where I grew up and we heard from him when he wanted to be on the website and I said but your Massachusetts he said well I'll Drive it out so four days later he drives this thing across country proving that British cars are reliable and he's here and we're gonna talk about it and if you're not familiar with the Jensen interceptor a fascinating idea fascinating car let's meet mark mark come on in hey Doyle buddy oh good little bleary-eyed from the trip yeah ya know it's a lot of hours behind the wheel it's great I'm just curious what did the wife save you say how many got to drive out and see Jay she said do it really yes Wow very good well that's very good a very understanding wife I wanted a good adventure yeah but she didn't want to do it with me no as long as you do it yourself yeah well as I said these are one of these terribly misunderstood cars because it's not a sports car it is a GT car yes yeah it's meant for transcontinental travel and it's good on the highway it's a very heavy car right and it's comfortable but you don't want to be going you know around British country roads no but this is really almost what wo Bentley would have built in the 60s and 70s yeah you know I've got a Bentley next door and that was built across the continent big eight leader Bentley it's a big heavy fast comfortable car and the idea of getting driving from England to France a Monte Carlo was quite romantic back in the 60s or 70s that was sort of the dream trip yeah for most people who just drive across the continent and get to Germany and go a hundred miles an hour you can do all that and this is a perfect car to do with suppose you don't know Jensen is an English company quite old this was probably the most successful car ever wasn't it yeah they built 6,000 of these which is the most of any of the Jensen's from 66 to 76 yeah and in the 60s they were doing a fiberglass car the CVA yeah in fact this one shares the chassis with that Seagate now the C v8 was I think they're great looking I had these weird headlights it was really a different looking car I think they're really sexy some people just hate yeah it's an acquired taste it's a bit like a Lamborghini a spa they either get it or you don't but I've always sought a look for one and tried to find one yeah and those did okay and then they started building this and being a four-seater with a chrysler 440 engine and an automatic transmission well in England that was just the height of luxury that's a great combination oh yeah because this is a massive most English cars were just one cylinder of this you know and this has eight of them and it's 440 cubic inches yeah it was in Europe that's unheard of oh yeah and it turned out to be a huge hit I mean people like Roger Moore had one who John and John Bonham Baumann yeah drummer for Led Zeppelin yeah okay Jack Nicklaus a lot of celebrities yeah yeah that Farrah Fawcett yeah this is sort of the celebrity car 6170 said have you lusted after one of these since you were a kid I actually yeah it's funny you ask because I when I was a kid I had a toy Jensen interceptor yeah and ever since then I wanted one yeah so when I moved to LA I actually found this one and decided I had to get it ok so you got it in LA and I saw this car a long time ago yeah I was driving down the 405 pass you gave me thumbs up what was I do remember I don't remember it well it was like all I remember is seeing you yeah give me a thumbs up that was good yeah because I remember these and and being British they have the uniquely British problems oh yeah of the day yeah no mechanical problems usually but rust has always been a problem yeah electrical issues one really scary thing because the friend of mine had won this steering column much like the old Mercedes from the from the old two 20s and whatnot you have the steering column then it connects to a fiber disc yeah and then it goes to the rest of the steering gear and it would take some of the vibration of pounding out the column but it would deteriorate and when do you go down on some of the wheel will just spinning and not be connected anymore you gotta have those replays yeah you gotta have that replaced back when I bought this it was disintegrated and the guy who was testing it refused to drive it really yeah because he knew he knew about that yeah also I remember these fell out of favor probably in the early 90s and then another company in England started to redo these with with the Corvette motor the Corvette engines are they're still building them and very nice rightful restorations they take an old body do a complete restoration put a new drivetrain in it oh that's interesting and it really turns into a modern driving car they've got an independent rear suspension instead of leaf spring oh right right see I can see this with a Hellcat 707 horsepower good that's because this is sort of like like the Bristol fighter out of those cars you know just a big tendon I mean you look like you're coming to collect the rent in this thing you know give the landlord showing up and you get out and you're very suave and you have the cigar yeah but the other thing is is the the the chassis will handle that kind of power yeah because it's very heavy is built for the 440 and there was even the 440 SP the six-pack yeah that was a higher power version okay and so you can handle it so it's kind of like a Dodge Coronet that went to college and down at Oxford so you have the brutish American running gear yeah with the sophisticated English interior and all of that and Italian design touring touring dissolved that's right I forgot about that so it's to me it's the best of all possible worlds is what I'd like to say yeah and it has four-wheel disc brakes yep ventilated discs written and you put the gear vendor overdrive yeah you know that's the single biggest improvement you can make their most cars from this error because these engines were getting 8 to 9 miles per gallon but you put the overdrive in it it's got so much torque you can go yeah so it's like a 20 percent reduction in exactly well let's open the hood let's show motor boy it takes up the whole engine uh that's a big motor yep we're in a small small space and that air-conditioning unit looks like refrigeration unit for like a meat locker and a hotel I'm it's massive it's a v2 cylinder 2 cylinder oh yeah yeah yeah and that's probably that's probably 25 horsepower you know i'm a i-i-i used to have the old Chrysler's that had that and you get on the road you turn on the air conditioning the integral booze yeah because it's like 15 horsepower to run that thing you could put a vintage air unit in there the sander I think it's called Sandin yeah that would work that would work that's one thing I've got planned for this take some of the weight off the front end now what else you be done to the motor is wow this is I've done a few things I had it rebuilt and put in Edelbrock fuel injection oh okay oh okay yes all right so I can tune it with a laptop or a handheld and then I put in this error cold air supply okay used to have the traditional air okay snorkels coming out I also operated the cooling system because one of the weakest points I would say is if you have any problem with the fans you're basically stuck because it'll overheat very quickly and you know these cold air packages really make a difference when we built my Ford seven liter I just had an air cleaner on it and there was so much hot air into the hood I'd go down the road yeah the car was choked I you know I'd never experienced that so we did the same thing we routed the into the front to pull the air and it it's like different 20 horsepower amazing what else we have here this is oil filter yep alter accessible yeah that's really good nice thing is when you unscrew it all they all goes down this side you're absolutely right so the trick is you a hole into it yeah theory the oil will go down in practice it doesn't always know yeah yeah so my driveway has a few puddles it's so funny to have it that way you think would be mounted this way yeah is that where it was originally that's original Yannick sprouted up okay nice brass overflow right I like that and boy it looks like a Jag v12 under the hood here with all the cables and wires and man it's pretty complicated and you know you got to keep on top of it but it's pretty reliable to know though they are that's a great motor it's just funny you know we live in an era now everything's computer-controlled so the seat cables and wires going to the things is pretty interesting what do we have here is this in our know so there is a high pressure and a low pressure switch for the AC system okay and so if there if you don't have enough freon or 134a it'll turn off now is this free are no 134 134 I couldn't read it yeah I mean that's really old-school look isn't it that's kind of funny yeah and the thermostatic fans and all that yeah so I put a controller here it's a DC control controller that ramps up the fans yes it gets as it gets hotter yeah and because of the fact that cooling is so important I also put an auxilary fan on the front yeah which I can forget stuck I've mentioned in Massachusetts you're probably okay if this car is still in LA boiling over all in place yeah yeah very nice it does get hot driving the car it does get hot when I restored it you'll see I put in all the dynamite dinah Matt yes right here very nice cool I know the lube is functional yeah yeah and they're original no one's ever really improved on the stick yep okay let's bring this down you know something I use in my cars it works pretty good is this Evans cool I'd say yeah it's a life of the car coolant yeah you never have to replace a water pump or anything again it's so you fill up with just that you drain all the water out and then you flush it with this thing that really gets all the water out you need every drop of water out of the system so there's no more it's not each two anymore there's no more oxygen in it so I know when am i v12 packard over there yeah I've had it in there about 15 years and the water pump is leaking so I pulled the water pump and you know I have that screw that goes through the impeller to hold the impeller and I thought oh I'm never gonna get this out I just one little turn because there was no rust there's nothing bonding it you know so it worked pretty good let's go through the interior and of course classic English interior nice leather now what did you say your sister did the seats yep so my sister wanted a project as I was restoring the body in the outside and I said I got one for you so I'd like you to redo the interior so I took it all out put in my Jeep drove it down to her house in New Jersey Wow and she had it for about a year took a while so that she didn't have to do much stitching the leather was pretty much in good shape but a lot everything had to be sanded rejuvenated and then dyed how do you get your sister to do that she's unbelievable that must be like the greatest sister in the world oh I think halfway through it she fait she was like what did I got myself into this could you read through all my interior yeah sure no problem and and your mom did this my mom did a little sewing on the headrest you can go on the interior there's a little lining so your mom did the head whereas your sister did I assume you were nine when you got this yeah yeah oh that's great it's a family project it's very cool and that and that's the stock instrument panel all it is yeah oh it's a handsome unit there I always like gauges more than idiot lights and explain what these two buttons are here on the steering wheel so with the overdrive you need to basically turn it on and off so those switches I wanted my own little Powell shifter okay so I have a load I can turn it on and off the steering wheel is one button up and one button no they both did the same thing you clear can it go on are you clicking it goes on okay very cool and what I like is if you're on the highway and you want to pass you're just cruising in order pass someone just click it it bumps up the RPMs 20% and you've got the torque and who put that in your grandfather most of the other stuff is me yeah did you any work on the car yourself I'm just curious easy yeah quite a bit no very cool okay and the standard brakes have you upgraded that or the standard no I felt that it was the for this ventilated disc brakes were adequate yeah so I didn't feel like I needed to and the nice thing is it's a true four seater car yeah you know your initial impression is it's a it's a two-seater car but it isn't and it's got those vents in the back so those are there's some seat belt receptacles in the middle now oh I see and the ashtray of course okay and then you have your own little little cubby holes Oh storage unit no that's for useful passenger in the back oh very cool yeah they put a lot of detail and how many times you travel with passengers that have to have a cubby hole you know there's no cubby hole for my snow we'll get you on and look at another ashtray here on the door yep so it's pretty safe to assume everybody's own worthies is dead now from cancer we have some all the ashtrays in it it is funny when you look at cars in this period and you get in that awful smoke smell you know it was just a different era and what has to be the largest piece of glass of any car ever this window it's pretty heavy it must be 200 pounds and it's electric right disgust it's got the heated what do you go D mister yeah yeah can we open that up yeah so the handle is here that's pretty good-sized drunk it is yeah yeah good enough for four passengers yeah that's great what's the cubby hole you have a big company hole at the space was that the original color of the interior it was the action yeah that was originally Brown and here's something you don't see anymore vinyl roof that was also original to this car yeah although I you know put any one same color in color yeah yeah you know they always charge more for this yeah you bought a car in the 70s and they made more money because if the roofs were not painted properly or there was some imperfection yeah if you just put a piece of vinyl on it and save yourself a fortune and then charge people more money yeah for that so it's kind of yeah that's one of those lost things you just don't see anymore I think it suits the body sound of this car yeah very much so where are most of the Jensen interceptor here in the States is this their biggest market what's the biggest market there a lot here England of course the rest of Europe but I think the US has got the largest are you in the club I am NOT in the club oh you down in the club there's a club in England the Jo see right but I'm on a mailing list so there's a mailing list of Jensen interceptor owners and we sort of keep in touch with you yeah I mean well the things I'm in the club and then I forget to pay the dues and then you call them up well you're not in the club I guess I am very cool and the wheels of the stock wheels stock wheels yeah I always like this when people use the stock wheels you know when you put modern mags and they look so small were they 14 to 15 these are 15 15 15 look small no and that was a big wheel back in the day of course the rubber is gonna be thicker than it was that it is now when you have those bigger rims yeah but with those tires do it gives you a nice soft cushiony ride coming across country and it leaf springs in the back nothing sophisticated about the chassis at all just basic stuff yeah it's it's oh it's fantastic can we uh can we take it for a ride let's do it yeah let's do it [Music] plenty of power yep adequate adequate as they say I mean this 440 is one of the big unsung heroes in the 60s it's all I got swept aside by the Hemi but in a real world performance it was probably faster than the Hemi we weren't you putting headers on the Hemi and let it breathe a little bit and did a little tuning obviously the Henry was more powerful because a good rep higher fare but for a day-to-day motor this thing was unbelievable it's indestructible all right this meets the legal definition of Road hugging weight I mean it but it you feel very secure in this car it's got a nice it just seems to flatten out bumps and you know the 15-inch wheel with look at how much meters on these tires these big rubber tire they really absorb a lot of shock you know modern cars with these stupid 22 inch big dubs on them you hit a bump and bang you know you bend your wheel and everything else huh ruff much rougher ride yeah this is the English version of crisis Boulevard ride in HUS a little more sophisticated I think yeah suspension is a little bit yeah fighter and to have one of these in England back of the 70s you had to be really rich because when we were paying 50 cents a gallon for gasoline the English will probably pay in three four bucks a gallon bank of the 70 I mean now they're probably one about six eight dollars a gallon of something like this in England man you bet yeah you better be living in Buckingham Palace oh well that's part of what put the company out of business yeah the fuel crisis in 70s did it did it man yeah yeah yeah people couldn't afford to run them it's amazing so there's one version of this car we haven't talked about which is the ffs right right innovative the Ferguson Ferguson formula four-wheel drive the first production four wheel drive yeah anti-lock brake production car yeah everybody thinks that Audi was the first sort of four-wheel drive but Jenson had it first and it really was almost a completely different car it was it's not considered to be an intercept even though it's called the ER Jensen interceptor FF Julie different car car it's actually longer in the front it's longer in the front it's heavier yeah and with the four-wheel drive I guess it's an advantage in the wet and whatnot but it would seem like you any performance increase you got from the from the four-wheel drive was sort of outweighed by the sheer weight of the way yeah yeah there can't be many of those they made 140 that's all yeah they're about hundred forty something yeah so yeah they it always the flagship model yeah from the six early 60s into the early 70s it was too expensive to produce yeah I've got to say how complicated is that to work and they only made a right hand drive version of that car ever produced as a left-hand drive but to me I still like the rear-wheel drive that's why I like the p1 McLaren as opposed to my favorite Lamborghinis are the rear wheel drive one's got a boning addition and some of those others you know the four-wheel drive just seems more complexity than I need especially here in California and plus there's a certain amount of fun to be had hanging the tail on yes thing you know so in really done that with this on purpose a couple times in the wet you don't want to hang it that's a big tail to hang out this cargo has Kardashian proportions at the back yeah and if when that tail starts swinging yep watch out yeah you better go with it [Music] and of course the engine is actually put set pretty far I acts so the weight balance is pretty neutral slight bias to the rear but it really the the entire transmission comes under here yeah and then the the overdrive is right here oh you've got it right wait you have to treat your drive shaft it's right here the drive shafts about 18 inches right it's just tough to balance and I like a non airbag steering wheel yeah but the great thing about these motors compared you know this is what an era when a hybrid meant European body yeah American motor it had nothing to do with fuel economy or anything of that nature and there's so many there was the e so Griffo there was the Monteverde there was the Jensen for all the Europeans making fun of and complaining about American cars they all love using these power plants or they were great because heating and air-conditioning were bulletproof I mean it took 20 years for a lot of the foreign man even Mercedes 600 in the 60s the air can you know Z compressor you can hear the whole thing going where's you got in the Cadillac don't know you didn't hear anything yeah so we just went into overdrive just won an overdrive dad dad dad dad Lana Lana Lana Lana little-little inland it's like the hot rod Lincoln is I mean this is the classic example of the very last days of body on chassis yeah you know they finally got it right they got it settled they got it smooth they got a quiet then all the monocoque stuff came in but these are fun cuz you can restore them you know if you if he hit the front end it doesn't warp the rear end like it does not modern cars you know and there's plenty of legroom I mean I'm yeah it's comfortable a little over six feet tall I got plenty of room in this thing but this is the classic definition of cruising it just sort of really made for those wide-open spaces it's such an uncarved in england yeah you know it's so different than what I mean driving us through the Cotswolds you get jammed between the cottages and everything it's meant for the open road like this yeah I just seem so American so if you want to hit the red button you can downshift when you're ready okay get the red button there you go or fly across continents in this thing yeah I like any car I can do this that's my biggest beef with the new Camaro your arm is up here you know all right let's cut in the freeway and we'll cross the continents yeah there you go boy that overdrive works great we're doing about 60 SL turn at 2400 RPM highway patrol notice the jensen pulled over so the one claim to fame for this car was on the assembly line right next to Frank Sinatra's oh is that right we have sequential serial numbers Wow so you and Frank are like this now yeah let's go through the dashboard let's see what I got here's wipers over here that's a hand brake switch tachometer right here with your speedometer temperature gauge oil pressure fuel voltmeter and of course your clock and then we've got parking lights and why go through those with you point also Park light yeah hi main lights fog lights hazards D missed horn only got two ones French horn or the American one and what's their fuel a few laughs laughs so I'm Sodor yeah yeah and then you have this thing here that you put in explain what this is yeah so I have a little cutout exhaust cutout okay we open it up humming can never be immature enough exactly and now you can be born in England and come to America and build an Ivy League school but when it comes to making noise I'm tellin ya it really changes the whole character car you feel the vibration you feel the vibrations of the floor I don't know if it actually frees up a couple of horsepower but it sounds like it does it sounds as well as counts yeah then when the cops come you show no off some sorry yes some of the lagoons went but I a minute ago and some loud automobile and I have no idea who they are [Music] well this is a bucket-list thing for me ours wanted to drive one of these cars you know just years to seeing them in English movies where either the really good guys all the really bad guys had one you know this one is cause you to love it or you hate it and it's it's just an amazingly big comfortable cruising car it's a car they should have built in America you know but all the American cars that had this engine what kind of really bode looking and they didn't have these kind of luxurious interiors and whatnot so this one is uh it's a lot of fun and in fact that mark drove it all the way from Massachusetts literally from one coast to the other it's just amazing to me and he made it all the way and then just turn around and go back so hey thanks for doing this it was a lot of fun and I have a safe journey back thank you go I'll see you see you guys next week [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 1,264,800

Rating: 4.9238548 out of 5

Keywords: Jensen, Interceptor, Jay, Leno, Garage, Mark, Halliday, Merry, Christmas, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: KGVcJrEJW7E

Length: 27min 24sec (1644 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 25 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/zillah1985]

Old 70s GT cruiser. Big displacement. Dark Green Metallic color. Beige leather interior. All it needed was a stick and this car would make my loins ache.

[u/soundawake]

sniff

sniff

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sniff

SNIFF

[u/olek2012]

Love this video. The car has captured my attention. Has anyone owned one or have any experience with them? Are they expensive in the USA?

[u/aiguarentacar]

great!!