Background
‘I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars,’ said 1970s superstar footballer George Best. ‘The rest I just squandered’. Funnily enough George never got around to investing in a Jensen Interceptor, but his Manchester United boss Sir Matt Busby drove one, as did many famous faces from the era (including Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham).
The Interceptor was the handiwork of Alan and Richard Jensen, brothers who built limited-production cars of their own while manufacturing vehicles for other companies, including Austin and Volvo. Better at design and manufacturing than marketing, they never quite made the big leagues of the automotive world, but they left a very powerful impression.
Like William Lyons of Jaguar fame, the Jensens initially traded in custom styling for various British production chassis, but they also worked on American Ford V8, Lincoln V12, and even straight-eight Nash platforms.
Following World War II, the Jensens used six-cylinder Meadows engines and Moss gearboxes, then switched to a four-litre Austin six for a somewhat lumpy – though not unappealing – fastback coupé introduced in 1949. They called it the Interceptor. A better-looking replacement, the 541, arrived four years later.
Besides a more modern tubular-steel chassis, this new model was noteworthy as the world's first production four-seater with bodywork in that new postwar wonder material, glass-reinforced plastic or glassfibre.
The Jensens were soon earning most of their money as contract body suppliers for the new Austin-Healey 100 sports car, but they managed to evolve the 541 into improved, higher-power R and S models, significant as early users of all-disc brakes. By 1961, they'd picked up a commission from Volvo for assembling that firm's new P1800 sports coupé, whose early bodies had been initially supplied by England's Pressed Steel company.
They were also busy readying a new Jensen, which was launched in 1962 as the CV-8. This was basically a facelifted 541 powered by a 300bhp Chrysler V8, linked to the American maker's responsive three-speed Torque Flite automatic transmission.
With the future looking rosy and the CV-8 looking very dated, the firm began planning the new 1966 Jensen Interceptor in 1965. Even more ambitious, there would be a second model built with the Ferguson Formula, the full-time four-wheel-drive system that inventor Harry Ferguson had been evolving since the early 1950s, and with Jensen since 1962. As a preview, Jensen displayed a Ferguson-converted CV-8 at the 1965 Earls Court Motor Show.
While there was never a doubt that the new models would retain the basic CV-8 chassis, styling was hotly debated. The planned pattern was an experimental in-house convertible labelled P66, but its rather bland lines didn't suit chief engineer Kevin Beattie, who insisted that a new upmarket Jensen needed the Italian touch to compete with the likes of Aston Martin, Porsche and Ferrari.
Beattie carried the day with the Jensen board and, after a whirlwind tour of Ghia and Vignale, chose a proposal from Carrozzeria Touring: a shapely fastback coupé of largely squarish appearance, save for a rounded tail topped by a huge, compound-curve backlight hinged rear hatch.
Alas, Touring was in no position to finalize this design, let alone build it, so Beattie sent the drawings across Turin to Vignale and secured that firm to supply both prototype and initial production bodies, which would be rendered in steel, not glassfibre.
As planned, the new Jensens debuted with a flourish at the London Motor Show the following October, barely a year since the project had begun – an astonishing achievement. Even more remarkably, jigs and tools were transferred from Vignale to West Bromwich during 1967, when Jensen took over body construction themselves.
The handsome Interceptor would have been triumph enough for such a small firm, but its all-wheel-drive companion, the Jensen FF, was a sensation. Both offered great, loping performance with their 325bhp Chrysler V8s.
Also shared were the expected Chrysler Torque Flite (a manual transmission option was announced for the Interceptor but never offered), plus an improved tubular chassis, rack-and-pinion steering (assisted on the FF only), power all-disc brakes, and suspension comprising double wishbones and coil springs up front, and a heavy leaf-sprung live axle with Panhard rod location at the rear. Inside was the walnut-and-leather treatment traditional in British cars, sporting or not. In all, the new Jensens were quite something.
What they were not, is cheap. The Interceptor cost £3,743 then, equal to £70,000 today. Nevertheless it was received with great enthusiasm. If only they could be properly built and prove reliable, they would surely be a great success. Not that they had much of a sales record to beat, for the CV-8 had seen only 391 examples over four years.
The 1967 through 1973 Jensen Interceptor would sell, and in numbers far above those of most Italian rivals. All the same in the late 1960s Jensen seemed to be in continuous trouble of one sort or other – if not financial, it was strikes; if not strikes, it was quality problems.
By this time, the aging Jensen brothers had sold out to a conglomerate holding company called Norcros, which was quite capable of sustaining occasional losses. The trouble was, Jensen Motors was losing money with alarming regularity.
Although the basic Interceptor/FF design would not see any fundamental alteration for a decade, a good many detail changes were made, and were always applied to both models at the same time. Power steering became an option in October 1967, and was made standard equipment in 1968. Mark II versions arrived in October 1969 with larger fuel tanks; standard radial tires, and newly optional air conditioning, a belated concession to the important US market.
Exactly two years later came the Jensen Interceptor Mark IIIs boasting a revamped interior with safety instrument panel, plus vented disc brakes, cast-alloy wheels replacing five-spoke Rostyle steel rims, and an even larger Chrysler V8: the big-block 440ci (7.2-litre) with a single four-barrel carb and 300bhp.
In October 1975 Jensen added the Coupé, effectively the Convertible with a new fixed top conferring a notchback profile, reverse-slanted B-pillars and oddly shaped rear-quarter glass
The Interceptor’s last official reincarnation came in 1983: the S4, still equipped with a Chrysler engine and bodywork that was virtually indistinguishable from the Interceptor of the early 1970s. But problems arose, and only 14 were made.
