Jensen Motors Limited was a British manufacturer of sports cars and commercial vehicles in West Bromwich, England. Brothers Alan and Richard Jensen gave the new name, Jensen Motors Limited, to the commercial body and sports car body making business of W J Smith & Sons Limited in 1934. It ceased trading in 1976. Though trading resumed in 1998 Jensen Motors Limited was dissolved in 2011.

Jensen Motors built specialist car bodies for major manufacturers alongside cars of their own design using engines and mechanicals of major manufacturers Ford, Austin and Chrysler.

The rights to Jensen's trademarks were bought with the company and it briefly operated in Speke, Liverpool, from 1998 to 2002. Under subsequent owners, a new version of the Jensen Interceptor was announced in 2011. It was planned to bring manufacture of that new model back to the former Jaguar motor plant in Browns Lane, Coventry.

In 1926 young Alan Jensen (1906-1994) and his brother Richard Jensen (1909-1977) built a new boat-tailed sporting body on one of the first Chummy baby Austins. It was seen by Alfred Herbert Wilde, (1891-1930) chief engineer of Standard Motor Company. He persuaded Alan Jensen to join New Avon Body Co, a Standard Motor associate and under Wilde’s aegis Alan Jensen designed the first Standard Avon open two-seaters produced from 1929 to 1933. He went on to design two more cars for Avon then moved with his brother Richard to Austin dealers Edgbaston Garage Limited, Bournbrook, in a building still standing next to the University of Birmingham campus. Edgbaston Garage, a car servicing business, had been bought for his son in 1929 by J A M Patrick's father. Young Joe Patrick, involved in all fields of motor sport, was setting up a coachbuilding operation. For his Edgbaston Garage the Jensen brothers made handsome bodies for the new Wolseley Hornet and Hornet Special chassis. To the concern of the brothers their cars were widely advertised as The Patrick Special and so in 1931 the brothers moved again. Edgbaston Garage became Patrick Motors Limited.

The Jensen brothers had gone to work for lorry body maker W J Smith & Sons in Carters Green in West Bromwich again to build bodies for small sports cars including more Wolseley Hornet Specials. This was a quite separate development which Smith named on their account Jensen Motors. Their own name was on the product. In 1934 Smith died and the brothers managed to buy a controlling shareholding in Smith & Sons. They later changed the name of W J Smith & Sons to Jensen Motors Limited.

Smith's announced an open 4-seater and a lowered 2-seater in May 1931 both to be known as Jensen Wolseley Hornets. They later expanded to build exclusive customised bodies for standard cars produced by several manufacturers of the day including Morris, Singer, Standard, as well as Wolseley. In 1934 they were commissioned by American film actor Clark Gable to design and build a car for him based on a Ford V-8 chassis.^[6] The resultant car won them much acclaim and stimulated huge interest in their work, including a deal with Ford to produce a run of Jensen-Fords with Jensen bodywork with a Ford chassis and engine. In 1934 they also started to design their first true production car under the name White Lady. This evolved into the Jensen S-type which went into production in 1935.

interceptor

The Jensen Interceptor made its debut in 1950 as the second car made by Jensen Motors after World War II. The car was based on Austin components with a body built by Jensen and styled by Eric Neale. The 3,993 cc (4.0 L; 243.7 cu in) straight-six engine and transmission came from the Austin Sheerline and the chassis was a lengthened version of the one used on the Austin A70 with a modified version of the independent coil sprung suspension.

Production continued through 1957. Jensen later reused the name for a second-generation Jensen Interceptor which debuted in 1966 and was revived several times after that.

The two door Interceptor first appeared as a convertible bodied in a mix of aluminium and steel on a wood frame. The entire front section hinged forwards to give access to the engine. The wrap around rear window was made of rigid plastic (Perspex) and was arranged to drop down into a well for stowage when the top was lowered. In 1952 a hardtop version with fabric-covered roof was launched and a few sedanca versions were also made. Total production was 32 convertibles, 52 saloons and 4 sedancas.

541

The 541 used fibreglass bodywork mounted on a steel chassis and was fitted with a straight-six engine, three SU carburettor version of the 4-litre Austin engine and four speed transmission with optional Laycock de Normanville overdrive.

The body consisted of three major mouldings and the entire front was rear hinged and could be raised for engine access. The doors were aluminium. Suspension was independent at the front using coil springs with a Panhard rod located rigid axle and leaf springs at the rear. A choice of wire spoked or steel disc wheels with centre lock fitting was offered. At first the car had servo assisted 279 mm drum brakes but from 1956, the newly introduced 541 Deluxe version featured Dunlop disc brakes both front and rear—the first British four seater thus equipped.

It was also a luxurious car with the well equipped interior featuring leather seats as standard. The individual seats in front separated by a high transmission tunnel and the rear seats had a small centre armrest and could also be tilted forwards to increase luggage space. Standard colours (1955) were black, ivory, imperial crimson, moonbeam grey, Boticelli blue, deep green and Tampico beige. The Jensen 541 was a fast car with a claimed 135 bhp  and top speed of 175 km/h (both subsequently increased) at launch.

In 1960 Jensen won a contract from Volvo to assemble and finish the bodies for their P1800 coupé. Pressed Steel manufactured the body-shells at their Linwood plant in Scotland and shipped them to Jensen in West Bromwich to be finished, painted and trimmed and made ready for distribution. The first batch for evaluation came off the production line in May 1961. The engine and gearbox were from Sweden, the back axle from USA and the electrical system from Germany, otherwise the car was all British. By March 1962 1,100 men were busy in Jensen's West Bromwich works making Austin-Healey bodies and Volvo and Jensen cars. By 1963 the contract was ended early due to quality concerns and P1800 production was moved to Gothenburg, Sweden.

c-v8

Launched in October 1962, the C-V8 series had fibreglass bodywork with aluminium door skins, as did the preceding 541 series.

All C-V8s used big-block engines sourced from Chrysler; first the 361 and then, from 1964, the 330 bhp. Most of the cars had three-speed Chrysler Torqueflite automatic transmission, but seven Mk2 C-V8s were produced with the 6-litre engine and four-speed manual gearbox, followed by two manual Mk3s. The engine is entirely setback behind the front axle line which made the C-V8 one of the first front-mid-engined cars. While the great majority of C-V8s were made in right-hand drive (RHD), ten were made in left-hand drive.

The car was one of the fastest production four-seaters of its era. The Mk II, capable of 219 km/h, ran 400 m in 14.6 seconds, and accelerated from 0–100 km/h in 6.7 seconds. It was also one of the quickest cars to 100km/h in the world being significantly faster than such performance cars of the period as the Lamborghini Miura, Aston Martin DB5 and Jaguar E Type. The factory made two convertibles: a cabriolet, and a Sedanca that opened only above the front seats. The 1963 Sedanca was featured in an article by Paul Walton in the June 2008 issue of Ruoteclassiche, Italy's leading classic car magazine.

The front of the C-V8 was styled with covered headlamps, similar to those on the Ferrari 275 GTB and Jaguar E-Type  as a key element of the design. But because of concerns that they might reduce the effectiveness of the headlamps, the covers were deleted for the production cars. As a consequence the C-V8's front-end appearance was compromised and proved controversial for decades. 

p66

Jensen P66 was a model range planned by Jensen Motors in the 1960s, which was aborted after two examples were made and one was exhibited at the 1965 London Motor Show.

It was planned as a replacement for the Austin-Healey 3000, which at that time Jensen were assembling at their factory in West Bromwich. BMC were planning to drop the Healey and Jensen asked Eric Neale, their house stylist, to design a replacement for the US market. In a break from their recent tradition of using glassfibre, he used an aluminium body on a steel platform and tube chassis. The optional engine continued to be a 6.2 litre Chrysler V8 similar to that used in the contemporary CV8, or a 4.5 litre in stock form. The car was priced at £2,200 in the UK against £3,500 for the CV8, and would possibly have been renamed as Interceptor if put into production.

After making some changes to the Touring design to make it suitable for tooling, Eric Neale felt that he had no role left in the company and resigned. He was followed by the Jensen brothers.

The convertible P66 was soon broken up, the parts and the other hardtop model being sold on. The second, hardtop, model has survived in original condition 

nova

The Jensen Nova is a concept car that was built in 1966 and shown at the 1967 Geneva Motor Show.

During 1966, Alfredo Vignale asked Jensen Motors if he could purchase a LHD chassis to build his own body on. It’s believed Vignale wanted to build one of his own designs, which he had submitted to Jensen Motors for the CV8 replacement body. Both Vignale and Touring had submitted designs to Jensen Motors in 1966, and Vignale’s designs had been turned down in favour of one by Touring.

The chassis was supplied with a Chrysler 383 engine, along with a Chrysler 4-speed manual gearbox. The completed chassis was then sent to Vignale in October 1966. The design exercise was going to be a striking two-seater fast-back styled body with lowered engine mounts, allowing a lower bonnet line. The front had an unusual design, featuring electrically operated retractable headlights. By February 1967, the completed car was ready, sporting a specification of dark metallic green. Directly after the Geneva Motor Show, the Nova was stripped down, resprayed in an off white cream, and re-trimmed in red leather.

interceptor

The Jensen Interceptor is a grand touring car which was hand-built at the Kelvin Way Factory in West Bromwich, near Birmingham in England, by Jensen Motors between 1966 and 1976. The Interceptor name had been used previously by Jensen for the Jensen Interceptor made between 1950 and 1957 at the Carters Green factory. Jensen had extensively used glass-reinforced plastic for the fabrication of body panels in the preceding two decades, but the new Interceptor saw a return to a steel body-shell. The body was designed by an outside firm, Carrozzeria Touring of Italy, rather than the in-house staff. The early bodies were built in Italy by Vignale, before Jensen took production in house, making some subtle body modifications.

Jensen Motors used Chrysler V8 engines for the Interceptor, starting with the 6276 cc  with optional manual (Mark I, only 22 built) or TorqueFlite automatic transmissions driving the rear wheels. In 1970, the it produced 335 hp. Since this engine was detuned by Chrysler for use with regular gasoline and only produced 250 hp SAE net in 1971, Jensen chose to use the 7,200 cc Chrysler engine for 1971.

The Mark III, introduced in 1971, revised the front grille, headlamp finishers and bumper treatment again. It had GKN alloy wheels and air conditioning as standard, and revised seats. It was divided into G-, H-, and J-series depending on the production year. The 6.3-litre engine was superseded by the 7.2-litre in 1971.

Jensen had fallen on hard times by 1975, owing to the then world-wide recession, and to problems with its Jensen-Healey sports car. The company was placed into receivership, and the receivers allowed production to continue until the available cache of parts was exhausted. Production of the Interceptor ended in 1976.

Later, a group of investors trading under the new Jensen Cars Limited brandname stepped in and relaunched production of the 1970s Interceptor, which was briefly re-introduced in the late 1980s as the Series 4 (S4) which was an updated version of the original Interceptor V8 series giving a new lifespan for the Jensen brand and its car production was resumed. The car came back as a low-volume hand-built and bespoke affair, marketed in a similar way to Bristol.  In the 1990s however the company was liquidated.

A convertible with powered soft top was introduced in 1974, mainly intended for the American market but also sold in Europe. 267 convertibles were made

Rarer still is the Coupé version introduced in 1975; just 60 were made in the one year before the company's demise. The Coupé was derived from the convertible and therefore lacked the distinctive rear window of the regular car.

ff

The Jensen FF is a four-wheel drive grand tourer produced by British car manufacturer Jensen Motors between 1966 and 1971. It was the first non all-terrain production car equipped with four-wheel drive and an anti-lock braking system.

The use of four-wheel drive in a passenger car preceded the successful AMC Eagle by thirteen years and the Audi Quattro by fourteen years, and the Subaru Leone by five years. The Dunlop Maxaret mechanical anti-lock braking system had previously been used only on aircraft, lorries, and racing cars. An experimental version was first fitted to the earlier Jensen C-V8, but this did not go into production. The letters FF stand for Ferguson Formula, after Ferguson Research Ltd., who invented the car's four-wheel drive system. The FF is related to the similar-looking, rear-wheel drive Jensen Interceptor, but is 127 mm longer, and mechanically very different. Standard FF features included front seat belts, a tachometer, and map pockets.

Although it was a highly innovative vehicle in a technical sense, the FF was not commercially successful. Its price was high — about 30% higher than the Jensen Interceptor, and more than that of luxury GTs from much more prestigious makers. In the UK a reputed 320 to 330 examples of the Jensen FF V8 model were made by Jensen Motors Limited according to The Jensen Owners Club.

The FF also suffered from a design problem, and not one easily cured: the system was set up for a driver in the right-hand seat, and no considerations had been made to making it left-hand drive. In particular, the central transfer case and both propeller shafts protruded into the left-hand seat space. The steering gear and brake servo were fitted on the right-hand side, and there was no space for them on the left. By the early 1970s, Jensen's primary markets were in overseas markets where cars were driven on the right-hand side of the road. The FF could not be sold in the United States.

The FF may be distinguished from the Interceptor by a few styling cues, the most obvious being the twin (rather than single) diagonal air vents on the front wing, just rear of the wheel-arches. The frontal appearance was revised in September 1968. Only coupés were made; there were no convertibles.

The Norwegian-American West Coast car distributor Kjell Qvale became the majority shareholder in 1970 and brought in Donald Healey who was appointed chairman in April 1970 and they brought in a new chief executive in May. They were able to announce the new Jensen-Healey in March 1972. By the end of May the next year 3,356 of the new cars had been manufactured but the factory's performance disappointed the owner and sales volume was mediocre.

Production was cut back from 25 to 12 a week to match sales. A Jensen GT was announced in July 1975, a Jensen-Healey with a coupé/estate body then the business's future came under threat which meant redundancy for 700 workers – two thirds of its workforce.

jensen-healey

The Jensen-Healey (1972–76) is a British two-seater convertible sports car, the best-selling Jensen of all time. In total 10,503 (10 prototypes, 3,347 Mk.1 and 7,146 Mk.2) were produced by Jensen Motors Ltd. in West Bromwich, England. A related fastback, the Jensen GT, was introduced in 1975.

Launched in 1972 as a fast, luxurious and competent convertible sports car, it was positioned in the market between the Triumph TR6 and the Jaguar E-Type. The 50/50 weight balance achieved by the use of the all alloy Lotus 907 engine led to universal praise as having excellent handling.

Colin Chapman of Lotus offered a suitable engine and Jensen accepted  his company's new 1973 cc Lotus 907 dual overhead cam, 16-valve all-alloy engine. This multi-valve engine was the first modern dual overhead cam 4 valve per cylinder engine to be mass-produced on an assembly line. This setup put out approximately 144 bhp, topping out at 192 km/h and accelerating from zero to 100km/h in 7.8 seconds (8.1 seconds for the emission controlled U.S. version). The initial transmission was a four-speed Chrysler unit, which was also used in the Sunbeam Rapier. The Mk 2 cars from 1975 onwards used the same Getrag 235/5 five-speed gearbox that was offered as an optional but rare gearbox on some models of the BMW 2002, and the Chevette HS.

The oil crisis hit Jensen Motors hard, greatly damaging the sales of its very large V8 Interceptor model and thus degrading its financial condition as a whole. The Jensen GT was then hurriedly brought to market, requiring massive labour expense and taxing the firm's budget even further. By 1974 Lotus was able to supply the required number of engines and production reached 86 cars a week but despite this, the overall situation proved to be too much for the company, which, amid strike action, component shortages and inflation, proceeded to liquidate in 1975 and then close in May 1976.

g type

Jensen G-Type, 1974. An ‘entry-level’ gull-winged coupe designed by William Towns which was to have been powered by a Chrysler/Simca 2 litre engine. Jensen went out of business before the project was completed however the G-Type shell was sold at Jensen’s liquidation auction and made road going by Lynx cars, using a 2.2 litre Lotus engine.

gt

The Jensen GT is a British sports car. It was introduced by Jensen Motors in 1975 as the shooting-brake version of the Jensen-Healey. The new configuration was a 2+2 design with a very limited back seat. Aside from the body shape and seating, relatively little differed from the roadster. Acceleration and top speed were slightly reduced due to the increased weight and additional smog control components on the engine.

This long-roof, 2+2 body variant would prove more practical than the classic MGC/GT, reflecting a trend started in 1968 by Reliant's tough-looking Scimitar GTE and followed in 1972 by Volvo's lithe 1800ES. The Jensen GT's design was done in-house, following a sketch by Jensen chief engineer Kevin Beattie that combined the original Jensen Healey design (by Hugo Poole, refined by Williams Towns) with a low estate roofline. The roomy 17-cubic-foot luggage compartment was enabled by a split-folding rear seatback, and was accessed from outside through the chrome-framed rear window. A deluxe touch was a rear wiper, parked on the bodywork just below.

During its short production run from September 1975 to May 1976, 511 Jensen GTs were built before Jensen Motors went into receivership.

Autocar reported that the Jensen marque's latest owners, The Jensen Group, were to begin production of a new, hand-built Jensen GT in 2016. As of 2018 this has not occurred

s-v8

2001-2002

The Jensen S-V8 is the most recent car carrying the name Jensen. After a £10 million investment, including Liverpool City Council and the Department of Trade and Industry, the two-seater convertible was launched at the 1998 British International Motor Show, with an initial production run of 300 deposit paid vehicles planned at a selling price of £40,000 each, but by October 1999 it was confirmed that 110 orders had been placed. The new Merseyside factory in Speke commenced production in August 2001 but troubles with manufacture meant production ceased with only 20 ever leaving the factory and another 18 cars left partially completed. The company went into administration in July 2002. The Jensen name and partially completed cars were later sold to SV Automotive of Carterton, Oxfordshire, in 2003 who decided to complete the build of 12 of the cars, retaining the others for spares, and finally selling them for £38,070.

The S-V8 is powered by a Ford Mustang sourced 4·6-litre, 32-valve, four-cam, V8 engine producing 325 bhp, with a top speed of 260 km/h and 0-100 km/h in less than five seconds.

interceptor again

With more comebacks than Dame Nellie Melba, the Jensen Interceptor must surely be the most revived name in automotive history. It was first used between 1950-57 for a 4.0 liter convertible based on Austin componentry, then rose to international awareness with its second coming as the dream car of the sixties when in 1966 it was released as a Grand Tourer designed by Italian design house Carrozzeria Touring.

The Jensen Interceptor of this period was a genuine supercar, running huge Chrysler V8s with first 6276 cc and later 7212 cc. In 1967, the FF variant had four-wheel drive, anti-lock brakes and traction control, technological forerunners of the active safety features which are still not yet commonplace.

The Interceptor III arrived in 1971 and enjoyed excellent sales before the marque was shelved in 1976.

In the Automotive business though, a great name never dies, and the Interceptor reappeared in 1984 as the Mk IV before production ceased once more in 1991.

Over the last few years the Jensen name has been revived once more, with Oxfordshire-based JIA rebuilding original Interceptors using a 429 bhp General Motors LS3 V8 engine and a range of other modern components to create the Interceptor R. There's even a 600 bhp supercharged version which will no doubt have already surprised a few people on the motorway. JIA has shown that there is a market for an expensive, hand-built Grand Tourer based on the iconic Interceptor and now the revival appears ready to finally move past the 45 year-old Interceptor design to full blown production of the next generation.

The next generation of Jensen Interceptor will be built in Great Britain and will cost in the vicinity of US$200,000 when it hits showrooms in 2014.

An all-new Jensen Interceptor will be engineered, developed and built by CPP Global Holdings, though ownership will remain with Healey Sports Cars Switzerland Ltd (HSCS) which owns all assets, intellectual property, designs, and brand rights for the Jensen and Interceptor brands.

The new Jensen Interceptor will be a four-seat grand tourer with an all-new aluminum chassis and handcrafted aluminum body. The public unveiling of the Interceptor is planned for late 2012, with deliveries to customers beginning in 2014.

Annual production numbers and pricing are yet to be confirmed, but will be fixed to ensure ultra-exclusivity.

jensen international automotive

The JIA Interceptor blends fully restored classic Italian styling, modern, reliable, American V8 power and sensitive re-engineering including Independent Rear Suspension for a fully bespoke classic supercar experience like no other. Thanks to advances in precision machining, casting, electronics, 3D printing, and digital design in general, retrofitting old vehicles with modern drivetrains has never been easier. Specializing in the maintenance and extensive restoration of Jensen Interceptors and FFs from the '60s and '70s, Jensen International Automotive's range-topping product is the FF R, a car that gave up its experimental four-wheel-drive system made by Ferguson Research and Chrysler big block for GM's reliable all-wheel-drive setup and modern 6.2-liter LSA supercharged V8 engine.

Options range from custom wheels up to 19 inches to an interior wrapped in the softest of leathers, with modern instrumentation, climate control, LED lighting, and a touch of infotainment. The FF R can also come with a six-speed manual gearbox paired with a limited-slip differential, with the tires kept at bay by an 11-stage traction control system.

https://jensen-sales.com