Jensen Interceptor

[grober]

A little Christmas treat- Jay Leno drives a 1974 Jensen Interceptor.
[YOUTUBE HD]KGVcJrEJW7E[/YOUTUBE HD]

 

[Red C220]

I've always had a soft spot for these, my dad loved them but never owned one and they've always been on my want to own list. The reality is it's never going to happen, Mrs Red wouldn't be seen anywhere near it and I'm not sure I have the patience for a real old classic these days.

There is a company manufacturing "restomod" versions of these, the Interceptor R which are available normally aspirated or supercharged. I think they fit LS3 motors to them but could be wrong, plus upgrade all the important running gear and stopping gear. They are north of £100K, personally I think they are worth it for something really different.

Then of course there's the interceptor FF, which considering when it was built has an astonishing specification.

Bar the odd custom special (Jaguar Lynx Shooting Brakes, 456GT Venice and custom Bentley/Rolls) and the Scimitar GTE there really is nothing like it any more.

That was until 2010 when Ferrari decided to produce the FF which stands for Ferrari Four but I wonder if there was more of a nod to the Interceptor FF in that name.

 

[rockits]

Always liked the Jenson. My neighbour has one & lovely to hear it burble past often.

 

[french]

My dream car, in my teens a guy near us had a FF in Black, in those days it was different to see a car with a huge exhausts but this had them & what a sound.
The curve of the rear glass & the sun roof gave the interior a sunshine feeling through the sundym glass.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Pedant alert - it's the Jensen FF, not Interceptor FF.

I know the guys who do the conversions, they are done to a very high, but the underlying cars are really not in great condition and when you see them stripped before painting (D&M who did my W114 painted about 5 of them) you realise how poor the quality of the original bodywork was. Stunning looks though. One being prepared for a Gulf Royal had front and rear aircon put in plus a supercharged LS3 engine. The owner then insisted on having it painted a Fiat mustard yellow though...

I was recently on a panel at the Restoration show debating the merits of the Jensen Interceptor against the Citroen SM and the Mercedes W111/2 with Steve Berry, Dave Richards of Project Shop and the chairman of the Jensen owners club (who has two Interceptors) and delightfully the SM won the debate.

 

[gaz_l]

Actually Charles, strictly speaking it's a Jensen FF..

Cheers,

Gaz.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Pedant...

 

[Deleted member 65149]

Actually Charles the ellipsis should only comprise three dots following a space

 

[Charles Morgan]

Not in contemporary standard typesetting.

Failed Pedant...

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Always saddens me that no-one has revived Jensen with any success, maybe if Aston Martin had a bit more about it they could have used them as a crazy tuned wing of their business maybe.

One look at the S-V8 is enough to put you off your dinner as an example.

 

[grober]

An explanation of the 4wd system of the FF. Has quite a lot of similarities to the early mercedes 4matic layout.:wink:
Ferguson Four-Wheel-Drive System Explained - The Jensen Museum

 

[grober]

Here's a pic of a convertible-- don't know if this was a standard model?

correction 267 were made?#

 

[vijilants]

Mate of mine had one back in the day ....lovely car but it left us stranded several times as it would never start when restarted from hot.

It used to suffer from under bonnet heat issues.

 

[grober]

The car owner in the video had had evidently addressed this issue with the install of edelbrock fuel injection Electronic Fuel Injection - Introduction - Edelbrock, LLC. and a dual cold air intake from the front of the car. He had also installed an extra electric engine cooling fan. 8 mins onward in the video

Here's a pic of the standard carburetted setup with the big pan filter- vapour lock what vapour lock??

 

[grober]

AFAIK most of these Chrysler 440 cu in [ 7.2 litre] engines came with a large 4 barrel carburettor 375 bhp [ think flushing a toilet type fuel supply] although a few came with the rare 3x twin barrel "six pack" set up. [ 390 bhp] I am assuming Holley manufactured the carburettors but not sure? Its unclear if the edelbrock conversion in the JL video was the simpler multi-injector throttle body type or the more complex distributed fuel rail multi iinjector set up?
Here's a related video of an edelbrock EFI injection conversion from carburettor on another engine to let folks see what's involved.

https://youtu.be/FFM_3fYvmNg

[YOUTUBE]FFM_3fYvmNg[/YOUTUBE]

 

[WDB124066]

Somebody was doing a styling exercise on these a few years ago with the plan to bring it back into production. I quite liked the proportions of the new car so saved a picture of it....

 

[Red C220]

I also really liked the "Viperceptor" project that built a running version of the concept using Dodge Viper running gear.

I'm really drawn to this shooting brake design and I've become completely hooked on the idea of a Ferrari FF as a result.

 

[alabbasi]

I own a 73 and a 74 MK3, both with Chrysler 440 motors. They are waiting for me to get off my lazy butt and fix them. A buddy of mine is East Texas has a MK2 with a 383. I think that the 383 is a sweeter engine.

 

[grober]

A little background on the Chrysler B series engines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_B_engine

I would guess the 383 with its lower reciprocating mass would indeed be more free revving. It would appear that new emissions regulations in the states were effectively strangling these motors hence Jensen's move the larger bore engine?

 

[Giantvanman]

I've watched that (and most FF vids) several times as it's my second favourite car after the RR Classic. Had I the opportunity, I would have one of those restomods in a heartbeat.