(music) The Jensen Interceptor, quite possibly the
coolest name for a car, ever, is to me the epitome of 1970s high end driving. There’s nothing more 70s than playing the
latest tunes on your 8-track, and with Cliff Richard being a fan of the car it’s not
hard to imagine him blasting down the M1, music blaring out of the windows. And don’t you lust for a tiny ashtray like
this in your car? Well, at least I do anyway. It doesn’t matter if you don’t smoke,
put loose change in it or a chap stick. Jensen Motors was much more than the Interceptor. It’s a car that foreshadowed the Audi Quattro
by 15 years and set a world record that stood for over 30 years. This is the Jensen Interceptor Story. (music) The Jensen brothers – Alan and Richard had
been producing custom cars since the mid-1920s. Taking car chassis from other car makers and
fashioning their own bodies was always their first love, but they came to prominence in
1934 when they were commissioned by the famous film actor Clark Gable, him of “Gone with
the Wind” fame, to design and build a custom car based on a Ford V-8 chassis. Jensen Motors made various vehicles before
the war including commercial vehicles, and these designs were converted into ambulances
and fire engines for the war effort. After the war the company turned its attention
to luxury saloon cars with the Jensen PW in 1946. Before the Interceptor, we had… the Interceptor. Jensen’s factory was in West Bromwich, very
close to Austin in Birmingham, so it’s natural Jensen would look to this company to borrow
parts. In fact, the 1950 Interceptor would be a bit
of an Austin parts bin special. The chassis was a stretched Austin A70, and
the 4.0L straight-6 engine was lifted from the Austin Sheerline. Jensen weren’t high volume, so were always
looking to reuse parts rather than reinvent them. But like Jaguar and Aston Martin, they made
cars for the motorist with a chest full of Guinea’s to throw around. The Interceptor was pricey, at £2,645 in 1952, which is around £76,000
($94,000 USD,€84,000, $137,000 AUD) today. The Interceptor would be succeeded by the
541 in 1954. Although the show car used aluminium panels,
the production car used the then-uncommon material of fibreglass for the body, saving
150kg (330 lb) over the old car. This allowed its increasingly large engines
to burn up the miles on new unrestricted motorways. The 541R arrived in 1957, offering even more
power from that Austin 4.0L engine. The new car could get to 125mph (201 km/h),
making it one of the fastest four-seaters around. The 541S in 1960 provided more room and comfort,
with an extra 10cm (4”) of width and a Motorola radio. The drivetrain also got a major boost, with the car
receiving an automatic gearbox courtesy of Rolls-Royce. The car offered brisk acceleration and high
top speeds, but it’s clear Jensen was always worried about accidents, as they installed
safety belts as standard, plus a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher! Just before the 541S was launched, Jensen
Motors was bought by a company called Norcross. Alan Jensen retired but remained on the board, but
Richard Jensen stayed on as chairman of the company. The last grand tourer Jensen released before
the 1966 Interceptor was the 1962 C-V8. The Austin 4.0L had been swapped for powerful
Chrysler engines; first the 5.9L Golden Commando V8, then the 6.3L, and by now most customers
were choosing an automatic gearbox which fit this grand tourer well. The top speed had risen to 136 mph (219 km/h)
with a 6.7s 0-60 time. The new car also received a new distinctive
V-pattern headlight arrangement which split opinions. But they'd also promote the new car by getting
it featured in the TV show “The Baron”. For the next car, the Jensen brothers and
lead designer Eric Neale put their weight behind the P66, an evolution to the C-V8. They produced a design for the car and got
as far as promotional material. But the owners of Jensen Motors, Norcross
weren’t happy with this direction and wanted something more exotic, something more Italian,
that would put Jensen on the map and dramatically increase sales. This led to an impasse, and would lead to
both the Jensen brothers and Eric Neal – who’d penned every car since the 1950 Interceptor
– leaving the company in short order. Jensen Motors would seek design proposals
for their new car from several design houses. The starting point would be the existing C-V8,
so any design had to fit on this chassis. The winning design was from Milan styling
house Carrozzeria Touring. Their design wouldn’t use light fibreglass
like the C-V8 had. The new car would see a return to aluminium. It would also use a stiffer chassis, which
led to a car that was a little heavier than the outgoing C-V8. But with newer, more powerful Chrysler V8
engines this car was no slouch, with a 0-60 time approaching 7 seconds, and a
135mph (217km/h) top speed. This compared favourably to the Aston Martin
DB6 and Jaguar E-Type, plus foreign rivals like the Pontiac GTO and Porsche 911. The car would use either a 4-speed manual,
or a 3-speed automatic. Only three gears for an automatic might seem
low today, but at that time it was fairly typical. It did mean however that the car could get
up to 80mph (129 km/h) in 2nd gear! Ever since the Interceptor launched, there’s
been speculation the car’s design was influenced by the strikingly similar Brasinca 4200 from
Brazil. Launched in 1964 and designed by Rigoberto
Soler Gisbert, this car appeared a year before the Interceptor. But of course the Interceptor’s design had
started way before the Brascina was shown to the public. And talking about the Interceptor’s design,
Carrozzeria Touring were having problems translating their designs from paper to the jigs and tools
that could make real cars. Jensen cast around for some help and found
it with Turin-based Vignale. Early Interceptor bodies would be made at
Vignale’s factory before Jensen could ramp up production at their West Bromwich base. The Interceptor was luxurious, with leather
seats, electric windows and Wilton wool carpeting. Large steering wheels are usually a sign of
heavy, unassisted steering, but the Interceptor did include power steering. Its party trick would be the enormous rear
glass that hid a hatchback lid – quite a rarity for the time. This gave the driver access to a large cargo
area, much larger than that of the competition. The only downside with this large boot was
it left little room for rear passengers. This car was strictly a 2+2, with cramped
legroom. The starting price for a 1966 Interceptor
would be £2,394 – today that’s “only” £45,000 ($63,000 USD, €49,000, $80,000 AUD),
but a more reasonable proposition than some of Jensen’s previous cars. Jensen hoped the more reasonable price and
exotic looks would get wealthy 1960s shoppers flocking to their doors. The Interceptor wasn’t the only car that
Jensen would launch in 1965. The similar looking Jensen FF would also appear. But looks can be deceiving. The car was 12cm (5”) longer, and much of
the running gear was different. The changes were done all to add four-wheel drive
to the car – something really quite revolutionary. This was 5 years before the Range Rover would
burst on the scene, and a colossal 15 years before the Audi Quattro would define four-wheel
drive sports cars. Jensen would collaborate with Ferguson Research
to create this truly revolutionary car, named the “FF” for “Ferguson Formula”. About 2/3 of the power would be channelled to the
rear wheels, with the remaining 1/3 up front. The car would also include an early form of
traction control and anti-lock braking from Dunlop, developed in the 1950s, leading one
publication to call the FF the “Safest car in the world”. But you’d better have deep pockets for this
revolutionary car. Prices started at a steep £7,705 in 1970,
that’s £120,000 today ($149,000 USD, €132,000, $214,000 AUD); significantly higher than a
regular Interceptor. That extra 12cm in length wasn’t given over
to rear leg room either – it was just as cramped in the back as the regular Interceptor. Although air conditioning was offered as an
option, the really system wasn’t that powerful, and for a luxury car that cost this much,
this was inexcusable. But the FF had one major flaw that hindered
sales. Many of the mechanical parts for the 4WD system
had been located on the left-side of the car, just in front of the passenger. Making a car that could be sold in areas of
the world where they drove on the right was almost impossible, and this closed off lucrative
markets such as North America. There was some hope that sales could be improved
with an even more powerful SP FF, using a 7.2L engine with three two-barrel carburettors,
but these plans came to naught. With no North American sales, the FF’s prospects
were always going to be limited, and production ended in 1971 after just 320 cars. Soon the Interceptor and the FF would get
stiffer competition. Ford would launch the mighty GT40, Aston Martin
the DBS and Jaguar the XJ6, and the Interceptor was finding it hard to compete. Soon the Interceptor would fail US safety
compliance tests, leading Jensen to use precious money to rework the dashboard and steering
column. Safety compliance rules hit Jensen’s other
cars hard. They produced the Austin-Healey 3000 and the
Sunbeam Tiger, and altering these cars to pass safety compliance tests was much harder. Production of both cars ended which hit Jensen's
finances hard. Owners Norcross decided to sell the company in 1968
and the company was bought by a merchant bank. The Interceptor was updated to the Interceptor
II in 1969. Fit and finish had been improved, probably
helped by moving body production to Jensen’s factory. Power output had also been increased. But finances at Jensen continued to be a problem. By 1970 the company had a new majority owner,
Californian car distributor, and person that had a very hard name to say, Kjell Qvale – which
I’m sure I’ve got wrong! He then bought in Donald Healey, the man behind
the Healey Motor Company and the Austin-Healey, and together they worked on creating a new
car that would be called the Jensen-Healey that was launched in 1972. Jensen released an updated version of the
Interceptor in 1971. The grille and front bumper were revised,
plus new alloy wheels from engineering company GKN. Inside the car got air conditioning as standard,
plus updated seats. Also, by 1971 the engine had been updated
to the 7.2L High Deck Big Block V8, as Chrysler had by this time detuned the 6.3L engine from
270hp to 250 (201 kW to 186 kW). And Jensen would offer the three two-barrel
carburettors (or the “Six Pack” as they liked to call it) as the Jensen SP, producing
an incredible 0-60 time of just 5.3s. Along with the 1971 Interceptor III update,
the company tried another TV tie-in, this time being driven by Jason King on the popular
TV show of the same name. It seemed to help, with higher sales than
the previous two generations of car. Although the amazing FF ended production in
1971, its swan song was the FFF100 in 1972. The car would get updated styling by William
Towns, who'd also go on to style the 1980 Aston Martin Bulldog. This car was financed by GKN, the company
who’d supplied the Interceptor III’s alloy wheels. GKN were keen to show they were more than
a company that made nuts and bolts and could do some pretty amazing engineering. Their managing director owned an Interceptor
and came up with the idea of creating a one-off special edition with GKN parts. The chassis was stiffened. Brakes were ventilated. The FF’s four-wheel drive, ABS and traction
control were retained. Everything was done to boost the already powerful
7.2L V8 engine. Anything not essential was jettisoned to save weight,
and that meant no more power assisted steering. The car was painted in GKN’s blue and white,
with a GKN badge stuck on the back for good measure. The press was called to a test track to see
this special car in action. The goal was to set a record time to get from
0 to 100mph (160 km/h) and back down to 0. Beating the record would be tough, just 19.2
seconds. And that was set on a dry track. The chosen day was a typically British rainy
day. Despite this, an attempt was made. The car was rolled out, and after a warm-up,
the car leapt off the mark, reached 100mph and slammed on the brakes. Despite such a wet day, the record was broken. And not just by a little. The car recorded a time of just 12.2 seconds
– a full 7 seconds faster than the previous record. When they tried later, on a dry track, the
car beat that with a time of just 11.5 seconds. It would take until 2004 until the record
was beaten, by the much lighter Caterham R500 Evo. Strangely no attempt was made to productise
this car, or to take this or the FF racing in any form to heighten its appeal to customers. Maybe Jensen felt the Interceptor III was
fast enough, thank you very much. Maybe it was its latest round of financial
difficulties. The Jensen-Healey hadn’t been the big seller
Jensen had hoped, and to cap it all 1973 was the year of the oil crisis. While customers paying Interceptor prices
wouldn’t be worried by a quadrupling in the price of petrol, in a worldwide recession
they might be concerned at buying the Interceptor in the first place. Jensen soldiered on, with a convertible in
1974, and a coupé in 1975. The company even introduced a new car in 1975
- the Jensen GT, a shooting brake version of the Jensen-Healey. But the company was in too much trouble, and
the receiver was called in later that year. 1975 was a dark time for British car companies. Jensen, Aston Martin and behemoth British
Leyland all fell to the global recession that had exposed the weaknesses in each of the
company’s portfolio of cars. The last Interceptor III rolled of the production
line in 1976, and the company’s assets were liquidated. Two new companies rose from the ashes of Jensen. One was called “Jensen Parts & Service Ltd”,
and initially they sold parts to existing customers. But soon it expanded to sell Subaru’s, Maserati’s
and Hyundai’s in the UK, and eventually got the rights to use the Jensen badge, renaming
themselves as “Jensen Motors Ltd” in 1984. Interceptor production restarted that same
year, on a very limited scale, with the new car being dubbed the “Interceptor Series
4”. It came with a smaller 5.9L engine to meet
newer emissions regulations, but still produced 250hp (186 kW). Somewhere between 15 and 36 were made, with
the last appearing in 1992. The company did have hopes for a mark 5 Interceptor,
but the company ended up in bankruptcy. The allure of the mighty Interceptor is hard
to shake for kids who’d grown up idolising it. By the 2000s those kids were adults who now
had the money to satisfy their nostalgia-fueled ambitions to bring the Interceptor back. In 2011 a company called CPP announced they
were planning on making a new Jensen. The chassis and body would both be aluminium
and would be built at Jaguar’s old home in Browns Lane, Coventry. Despite a proposed 2014 release date, this
all came to nothing. Another company also attempted to revive the
Jensen name in 2015. “The Jensen Group”, headed by former Aston
Martin boss Tim Hearley, planned to produce a new Jensen GT, followed by a new Interceptor
model. Prices for the new cars would start at an eye-watering
£350,000 ($437,000 USD, €389,000, $629,000)! Despite high hopes at the time, nothing more
has been heard of this effort. It’s a shame these efforts have petered
out. The Interceptor is a car of missed opportunities. If only the FF had been sold in left hand
drive markets. If only the FF had been cheaper and gone motor
racing. If only the company had been on a more solid
financial footing throughout the 60s and 70s. Being based on the 1950s 541, maybe the handling
was too compromised compared to more modern cars like the Jaguar XJ6, a car that couldn’t
compete on speed, but was a better all-round package. And with speed limits appearing on highways
around the world, where could you use the Interceptor’s speed? But the Interceptor and its sister FF was
a visionary car, and the world is all the better to have experienced it. This video is brought to you by... nobody! Nobody, when you’re looking to be on your
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