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Jensen’s work did not go
unnoticed as they received a commission from actor Clark Gable to
produced a car on a US Ford V8 chassis. This stylish car led to an
arrangement with Edsel Ford for the production of a range of
sports cars using a Jensen designed chassis and powered by Ford V8
engines equipped with three speed Ford transmissions. Next came a
series of sporting cars powered by the twin-ignition straight
eight Nash engine or the Lincoln V12 unit. On the commercial side
of the business Jensen’s were the leaders in the field of
high-strength light alloys in commercial vehicles and besides
buses also produced a range of alloy bodied trucks powered by
either Ford V8s, fours or Perkins diesels.
World War Two saw sports car
production put aside with attentions turned to more appropriate
activities such as revolving tank gun turrets, explosives and
converting the Sherman Tank for amphibious use in the D-Day
invasion of Europe.
Post-War and Austin
August 1946 saw Jensen launch
their entirely new ‘PW’ model powered by a Meadows straight eight
of 3,860cc and was shown with some success in the London Motor
Show of the same year. Unfortunately the Meadows engine suffered
from excessive vibration and Jensen had to fall back on a stock
pile of pre-war Nash engines. Not long after Richard Jensen saw
what looked like another ‘PW’ on the streets of London, however it
turned out to be a new four litre Austin Sheerline. What happen
was that Leonard Lord of Austin (soon to feature largely in the
decision to produce the Austin-Healey) had also seen the ‘PW’ at
the show and set into production the similar looking Sheerline. A
meeting was held between Lord and the somewhat aggrieved Richard
Jensen. In an effort to placate Jensen, Lord offered the use of
the Austin four litre six cylinder. Jensen really couldn’t refuse,
as the ‘PW’ was a car looking for an engine. This arrangement was
to lead to an association between the companies that was to last
for over twenty years.
The Austin 4 litre is of
interest to Austin-Healey owners. Its capacity is 3,993cc from a
bore and stroke of 87.3mm by 111.1mm and if that sounds familiar,
it is also the dimensions as the Austin-Healey 100 engine. What
that means of course is that the engine is the six cylinder
version of the four.
With the availability of an
engine assured, the Jensen brothers once again turned their minds
towards the production of another sporting car. Designer Eric
Neale suggested using a propriety chassis, so a further approach
was made to Leonard Lord for Austin to supply their A70 chassis.
Lord readily agreed with the proviso that Jensen also produce a
special sports body for the Austin A40. The resulting two vehicles
ended up looking quite similar in style. The name Interceptor was
chosen for the Jensen model, a name that was to be used again some
years later. The smaller vehicle was titled the Austin A40 Sports
and some 3,200 were produced with 643 exported to the US.
The production of the A40
Sports provided Jensen’s with a steady stream of income allowing
the company to design and produce their own vehicles such as the
Interceptor. It also allowed the company to bid for other projects
such as the production of the new Austin-Healey 100. In the
April/May 1998 issue of the Austin-Healey Magazine I told the
story how at the 1952 London Motor Show at Earl’s Court, Leonard
Lord did not quite come across the new Healey 100 by accident.
Lord had set up an unofficial competition between Jensen, Healey
and Fraser-Nash. The Jensen vehicle was a very pretty two door
open sports car that had been commissioned by Lord to be built on
the A40 chassis. Unfortunately the Jensen wasn’t finished in time
for the Motor Show so it wasn’t available for Lord to see.
You would have thought that
the deal between Leonard Lord and Donald Healey would have meant
that Austin would manufacture the new Austin-Healey 100. No, not
quite as Austin, like the DHMC did not have the capacity to
produce the car from scratch in the volume desired. However DMH
had close contact with Tickford (now owned by Ford) and
preliminary discussions had revealed that production of around 40
cars per week could be achieved. On hearing of the new
Austin-Healey a meeting was also arranged between Lord and Richard
Jensen, where Lord was advised that Jensen could produce 150 cars
per week. Lord was interested but wanted to see the Jensen
prototype A40 based sports car as an example of their work.
History tells us that Lord was impressed with the vehicle and the
contract to build the bodies of the New Austin-Healey was awarded
to the Jensen Motor Company. From that point all subsequent
styling and body engineering on the big Healey including
competition vehicles was undertaken by Jensen in conjunction with
the DHMC.
Again with a steady stream of
income assured, Jensen could develop an all new GT car as a
successor to the Interceptor. This vehicle turned out to be the
Jensen 541, so named as it was released for sale in 1954. A Jensen
designed chassis was used for the 541 but still with the Austin
drivetrain and A70 suspension. In my opinion the 541 was the most
attractive coupes of the 1950s and I suspect that it was also a
favourite of DMH as he took delivery of one example but without an
engine. A small block Chevrolet V8 was fitted at the DHMC and it
became a very fast and safe transport for him. Safe? Yes the 541
was the first British production saloon car to be fitted with four
wheel disc brakes.While Jensen continued to construct the
Austin-Healey they drifted away from using Austin components for
their own vehicles. The next Jensen launched was in 1962 and
titled the CV8, which as the name implies was powered by a V8
engine supplied by Chrysler complete with their excellent
Torqueflite automatic transmission. The same powertrain was also
fitted to the Italian styled Jensen Interceptor range introduced
in 1966 and stayed in production until 1975.
Other Contract and
Projects
The Jensen Motor Company was
not immune to the world of corporate takeovers and suffered that
fate at the hands of the Norcross Group in the late 1950s. A step
that would eventually lead to the premature retirement of Alan and
Richard Jensen. However this was not before Jensen’s won a
contract to assemble, paint and finish the new Volvo P1800 coupe
on bodies produced by Pressed Steel in Scotland. The completed
bodies were then shipped to Sweden for the addition of
mechanicals. The arrangement wasn’t wholly satisfying as the
Pressed Steel shells weren’t to a high standard plus the cars were
arriving in Sweden with a fair amount of damage. Some 130 bodies
were being completed per week until Volvo paid out the contract
and commenced to finish the vehicles themselves.
Also for 5 ½ years during the
1960s Jensen built 7,067 Sunbeam Tigers for the Roots Group until
such a time when Roots was taken over by Chrysler, who couldn’t
countenance a Ford V8 in one of their cars.
While they weren’t the first,
Jensen also during the late 1960s and 70s produced the highly
successful Jensen FF models. The letters stood for Ferguson
Formula and was in essence four wheel drive through a transfer
case. The same cars were also fitted with the Dunlop Maxaret
breaking system which prevented brake lock-up by the use of
mechanical sensors. Yes it was all many years before today’s 4WD
sedans and ABS breaking.
However it was the
Austin-Healey contract that was the main source of income for the
Jensen Motor Company. It was also common knowledge in 1965 that
Donald Healey was at loggerheads with George Harriman of BMC over
the DHMC financial cut from big Healey manufacturing. It was
Harriman’s intention to wind up Healey production and replace it
with a badge-engineered MG model. (This turned out to be the MGC
which was also to be sold as the Austin-Healey 3000 Mk IV) As a
result of all this the Jensen brothers decided to build a new
model to replace the Austin-Healey in the US market. Two
prototypes were built and called the P66. One car was tested by
Autocar magazine who found that it was powered a 4.5 litre
Chrysler V8 making it good for 140 mph. This new car was destined
for the US market, and was undoubtedly British plus it had the
familiarity of the home-grown V8. Unfortunately the P66 caused
insurmountable ructions within the company and the Norcross Group.
The Jensen Brothers saw the car as the natural successor to the
Austin-Healey 3000 which the other side wanted a replacement for
the CV8. The P66 was priced at 2,200 Pounds in the UK against
3,500 Pounds for the CV8. Understandably the Norcross Group won as
they controlled the purse strings and the P66 project was
abandoned for the well known Jensen Interceptor. Within weeks Eric
Neale, the chief designer had resigned and both Alan and Richard
Jensen retired. Jensen was no longer a family company.
The Jensen-Healey
The late 1960s saw the Jensen
Motor Company in a dire financial situation as the Austin-Healey
contract had come to an end and there were build problems with the
Interceptor. Norcross sold the company to merchant bankers William
Brandt. Sons & Company Ltd. And through careful management
Interceptor production increased in an effort to improve sales and
then decreased to improve construction standards. Jensen was a
company going nowhere. However all was not lost as DMH once again
entered the scene as he had been discussing the production of a
new sports car with Mr Kjell Qvale, a San Franciscan businessman.
Qvale operated a very successful business selling Jaguar,
Rolls-Royce and BMC vehicles. He too was dismayed at the
discontinuing of the Austin-Healey 3000 and like a lot of us many
years later, was surprised at the role played by Jensen in the
construction of the big Healey, and yes he was interested in the
ideas of DMH for a new sports car. Before long Qvale became
Jensen’s majority shareholder and assumed full control of the
company with DMH as Chairman and Geoff Healey one of the company
directors. Additionally with DMH as Chairman of Jensen meant that
the DHMC lost their valuable British Leyland Motor Corporation
franchise and US Forces concession as well. The DHMC quickly
negotiated a franchise with Fiat.
The story of the
Jensen-Healey is one of building a car that was almost right, but
problems with build quality and engine reliability were to thwart
it from the beginning. First a Vauxhall engine and then one from
BMW were considered before an untried and undeveloped Lotus unit
was used. Sure it satisfied the all important US emission
regulations and as it was designed to be fitted at an angle of 45
degrees it was not unduly tall but Qvale was insistent on early
delivery, way before it was ready. The vehicle made its debut at
the Geneva Motor Show in March 1972 with initial press approval.
It wasn’t long before the faults of the car rose to the surface
and to be fair to Lotus, Colin Chapman did warn Qvale that the
engine was underdeveloped. In the end it was the customers who
developed the engine and car by their own use and rectification
cost Jensen more money then it could afford.
The Mk2 when released in
August 1973 was a vastly improved car and was improved again with
the use of the German Getrag five-speed gearbox in November 1974.
However DMH became disgruntled with the whole arrangement and left
the Jensen Board in 1974 and refused to have his name associated
with the fixed-head, hatch-back GT version introduced in July
1975.
The connection with Austin
had long been severed and so had that with DMH. Jensen lurched
from crisis to crisis and the "energy crisis" of 1974 brought on
by the Yom Kippur War resulted in the company being at the brink
of collapse. A plea to the left wing British Government of the
time fell on deaf ears and Jensen Motors Ltd ceased trading in May
1976. Qvale purchased the Jensen assets from the Receiver and went
on to form a company that serviced and renovated Jensen vehicles,
but derived its main income from the importing and distribution of
Subaru and Hyundai cars.
For the sake of the record
there have been attempts to recreate the Jensen Interceptor and
the special place held by the cars of the marque. However each
have met with varying degrees of success and as there has been no
Austin or Healey involvement it is as they say, another story.
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