Friday, September 23, 2011

Jensen Interceptor - New and Old

by Mike -

"An all-new Jensen Interceptor will be launched next year, after CPP Global Holdings was appointed to engineer, develop and build the new car by the brands’ owners, Healey Sports Cars Switzerland Ltd (HSCS)."

So begins a press release from Jensen Sports Cars.



They do not say what the engine will be but they say the chassis and body will be aluminum. Customer deliveries are planned for 2014 and oh, one more rather odd quote from the press release. "Annual production numbers and pricing are yet to be confirmed, but will be fixed to ensure ultra-exclusivity."

I take this to mean few cars that cost a lot.


The second, most popular and most well known Jensen model to be called the Interceptor was produced from 1966 to 1976 and was styled by Carrozzeria Touring of Italy. This Interceptor used steel for the body instead of aluminum or fiberglass as previous Jensen models.

Initially the 383 cid Chrysler V8 was used and later cars used the 440 cid V8.



The early bodies were made by Vignale in Italy and later body production was moved to Jensen’s in house facilities. The Interceptor was offered in fastback, convertible and a few coupes were made.

Most were made with the Torqueflite automatic transmission but 22 were made with a manual transmission.


There were more than 6,000 Interceptors produced between 1966 and 1976 including a few convertibles, fewer coupes; most were 2+2 models.

They still remain very popular collector cars and are highly sought after.

Let's hope that the new version is as good.

You can read more about Jensen cars in my book, European Style with American Muscleavailable on AmazonLuluSmashwords and Barnes & Noble.

Please share your comments with me and other readers.

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