Britain's Most Unjust Failure - The Jensen Interceptor

Hello everyone. Welcome to number 27. I'm Jack and I'm here today to talk to you about the Jensen Interceptor and this is a fascinating car because it's yet another example of a failed British car industry, but more importantly it was actually a really good car. car still bankrupt Jensen why is he so good on the surface? It makes absolutely no sense. This was Jensen's

most

successful car. 6,000 were sold between 1966 and 1976. It was a car that was extremely popular with Clark Gable celebrities. Princess Anne Roger Moore. whatever, they love this car, so it had a good image, it was a really good car.

Plus, to top it off, it really added the best of three countries: Britain, Italy and the USA, the Americans supplied the powerful engine, the Italians, the styling and the British, the technology and the interior are fantastic, so what? why did it fail? Visit the taina website. They are a great value and there is a discount code in the video description. A slight continuity error. Can you see it anyway? I come back to this wonderful car when I said it was a union of American power British type of mechanics and interior Comfort plus Italian style, what I mean is Italian style, this was Carol Terrier on tour, the British obviously Jensen did the design of the chassis, all those parts, but the engine was a Chrysler monster that the previous cars had. 6.3 liters I think V8 this is a Mark III it has a 7.2 liter Chrysler V8 it has the same engine that has been in cars like the Dodge Charger I think the Barracuda I'm not an expert on American things but it's absolutely an engine huge and the car that preceded this one, the cv8, had.

I think some people consider it a controversial style, they look absolutely fantastic, but I don't think they were universally loved, so when Jensen decided to make this car they wanted a sort of broader appeal. so they opted for the Italian touring design, they did the design. I think the initial cars were made by vignale, not with the best results and in fact the quality improved once Jensen brought the assembly home. The chassis has wishbones at the front and a solid rear axle that uses Chrysler's three-speed gearbox and it's a car that drives like a mini Rolls-Royce, it's fantastic stuff, so there are a couple of reasons. main reasons why it failed, but I will tell you one of them now and one of them later.

It was phenomenally expensive, it was much more than the equivalent E-Type and even more expensive than the Aston Martin, the V8 that ran at the same time, you can see where that money went because it's a car that, especially by British standards, on this late 60s type it is very well made, has quality touches throughout and although it used Luca switches everything was slightly different, slightly customized for this specific car meaning today it is a real nightmare buying parts, for now they were quite heavy things, um. 600 1600 kilograms for the late 60s is definitely a beast of an automobile.

I think a huge proportion of that is the Chrysler engine and I guess it was supposed to be a four seater, there's not a huge amount of space in the back but it's no joke for Sita as a 911. I guess they could squeeze in medium-sized children and is lovingly decorated. The interior looks very good. The ergonomics are not terrible. The driving position is pleasant. The steering wheel is a little lower than I would ideally like, but it's not bad now, the visibility is absolutely fantastic, to the point that it al

most

seems to bring the outside into the car with you and makes it a pretty special experience in itself same, you also have the precious materials of this leather. which I think feels almost like Rolls-Royce quality, Wilton sheet metal and carpet, even the little levers to adjust the seats fore and aft are covered in leather, lovely attention to detail, great place to seating and reasonably good noise insulation, plus you can hear. that lovely V8 bubbling away as you go, but only to the point where it's something nice rather than something that gets in the way, we'll just stop here and then do our usual kind of stopping on the road and seeing what it feels like . like, oh, when we give it a little bit of throttle, because these were also very fast cars for that time, but even today I think they're not exactly the lazy cars that the original cars came out with.

I mean, the numbers vary quite a bit, but really, let's go with it. It's lowered, so it still has a good pace and you can hear it all talking in strange, between 300 and 330 horsepower, depending on the carburetor setup you have. they had and of the engine, it was reduced to approximately 220 horsepower, although I. I've heard it's even lower than that once emissions regulations went into effect. This is a Mark III, it has the 7.2 liter engine and it also has the updated fuel injection system which was designed later once Jensen went bankrupt and the various parts were separated and I think there was a company that only made the spare parts, so the injection system makes it much more efficient.

I said there were two reasons why it failed. The second reason was that they were absurdly thirsty. This particular car with fuel injection now, if driven carefully, can even fix it. of getting 90 miles per gallon but in the 60's and cars with carbs did anything from 8 to 12 MPG it was released in 1966 but in 1973 in the early 70's there was an oil crisis so cars as thirsty as this suffered tremendously and there was no other option, you could only have it with these engines, so at that moment Jensen decided well, we have to come up with an alternative.

It had already been sold to the former original owners. I think they sold it in the late '60s. The new owners decided that we were going to make a car that was a little more affordable to drive and buy, they hired Donald Healy and Jensen Healey was born. It is a car that I have never really liked. I can't go on with the look, but I know why they did it. It used the smaller twin overhead cam Lotus engine, which at the time was very unreliable, so I think that as much as this

failure

was actually due to the car that was launched being very unreliable, all the money spent on that and these were not sold. as well as they could have done now, it's heartbreaking because they are brilliant cars and let me tell you a little bit about how it drives, I think I mentioned before, very much like a Bentley Junior Rolls-Royce junior, it's a little bit more, it's a little bit. it's more drivable than a roll, it has a really lovely steering feel, it's electrically assisted, it's rack and pinion, it's quite slow but it gives you a lot of feel, the suspension just knocks down everything in front of you, it's a fantastic GT For the consumer, you can feel the weight.

The steering is also not assistant, so it works quite well with the weight of the other controls, if you put your foot on the bottom, it goes back down very quickly, raises the skirts and moves down the road in quite a majestic way, you can't It feels like the kind of car I'd like to throw around the body is pretty well controlled at normal driving speeds, but it does feel like you overuse it, braking too hard or turning too suddenly. I started to move quite a bit, but it's a fantastic car and of course it was relatively unknown, it wasn't a flashy car, so instead of buying a Ferrari or a big boring Merc, it was actually a genuine option, the only problem , as I mention.

It was that terrible fuel consumption, later cars got better and better in terms of quality, plus the Mark IIs had a much better interior and then there were detailed differences apart from the mainly detailed differences between the Mark 1, Mark II and Mark III. Imagine maybe doing a midnight drive from Monaco back to London in the 70s and this would absolutely handle it. Also, something else I think we should mention is that along with this, Jensen also released the FF, which I think is the only car that ever existed. It used Ferguson's four-wheel drive system. Ferguson made tractors at the time they developed this system.

They thought a lot of automakers would buy it. They were way ahead of their time and that car could have had extraordinary appeal outside the UK. However, due to the way it was designed, some of the components for the four-wheel drive system ran on the left side of the car, so converting it to left-hand drive was not possible, so that many sales were lost, including the crucial North American marker. and that's something else that could have really cheered Jensen up. It looked very similar to the

interceptor

, but was actually 12 inches longer. You can see there's also that extra kind of side attack.

I think it's very sad that I know that in the 70s the British car industry was abused and compared for things that just didn't work very well, the cars weren't very good, they weren't good quality and then they're going to make a car that really is. pretty good, yes they had some problems, I think also cooling problems on the Mark one, but overall a well made car is a great product and yet the company went under, you just couldn't forgive the company. British automotive industry in those days, so if Also, let me get another quick message, this is the first of my videos that will be sponsored, it is not sponsored in the sense of an integration, don't worry, I'm not going to do that kind of fragments of 30 seconds and one minute. trying to sell them things but Terina batteries, who I have used before and have been absolutely fantastic car battery suppliers, wanted to support the channel and were happy to do it in a non-intrusive way with a logo and a very quick message at the start of each video, so for the next videos there will be your sponsorship.

I want to thank you for that. I'll put a link to their website in the video description and include a discount code too, so go check it out. If you need a car battery in the future, please consider it. This is a fantastic InterContinental Cruiser, a car that I am privileged to have driven a real part of British history. There's a pang of sadness about it, but I think it's an incredible classic car today. You can get them for about 50 70 000 for a really good one, so it's still a lot less than the top E types, um, but it's a relative bargain.

Thank you all very much for looking if you have an interesting car. If you want me to do a review, please contact me. Instagram is the best way and I really hope to see you in the next video.