THE JENSEN BROTHERS


The history started back in 1934. The two brothers Richard and Alan Jensen started the making of the grand handmade cars after establishing the company Jensen Motors Limited in West Bromwich, England.

They were great innovators, constantly looking for new accievements in the making of automobiles. And they sure did accomplish a lot.

Jensen was innovators in material like glas fibre and aluminium.
Innovators in car safety and luxury.
And it was the Jensen Interceptor that held the record for the fastest 0 - 100 - 0 mph in the '70s, with 12 seconds.



They also had collaboration with other great carmakers,
like Austin, Sunbeam, Rolls Royce, Volvo, Wolseley and Lotus - as well as Italian stylists like Touring and Vignale.

Audi actually bought a Jensen FF for study when developing the Quattro in the eighties, and today's most 4WD cars still followed FF's mechanism. One can easily see how advanced the FF was.

The factory got into financial troubles during the oil-crises early in the seventies. But then the Norwegian carimporter living in San Francisco, Kjell Qvale took over the factory, and started the process of making the Jensen-Healey sportscar.

The factory finally closed down due to financial troubles in 1984.
It started up again, but collapsed once more in 1992.
Later, in the late nineties, the Jensen company was reestablished once more, and was moved to Liverpool, and i 1998 they announced the new S-V8 sportscar.
This factory went into troubles after starting the production in 2002.
This fabulous carhistory is now awaiting for the right investor to come along.

READ THE COMPLETE HISTORY AT MOTORSNIPPETS!


Theres been a lot of celebrities owning Jensens, among these, actor Clark Gable, Cher,  (Jensen Convertible), Frank Sinatra (FF), M.U.-footballer Sir Matt Busby, racing driver Gerry Marshall (541-R), Joe Bamford (FF), Jack Nicklaus, novelist Harold Robbins and comedians Mike and Bernie Winters, jazz musician Ginger Baker (Interceptors).
Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience drove a FF, which also Jimi Hendrix himself is to have driven shortly before he died in 1970.
Sir Cliff Richard, actor John Thaw and ex-heavyweight champ Henry Cooper, and nightclub-owner Peter Stringfellow have all owned Interceptors.
According to BBC, comedian Eric Morecambe reputedly had his first heart attack in an Interceptor (and convinced a passer-by to chauffeur him to hospital in it.)
Jack Straker of Beachbuggy also drives an Interceptor.
Singer Barry MaGuire drove (and smashed?) an FF (is rebuilt!).
Songwriter and vocalist Dave Walker of Fleetwood Mac also had an Interceptor, "which went like a rocket", as he says on their webpage.
A band even was named after the car, Jenson Interceptor.
Simon Dutton used the Interceptor as the Saints car in the TV-series in the 80'ies, and Roger Morre used the Jensenmade Volvo 1800 in the same role in the 60'ies.

 Hollywoodproducer Quinn Martin and his wife both owned Interceptor Convertibles, actress Lynda Carter, financier Winthrop P. Rockefeller owned several Jensens.
John Bonham, the Led Zeppelin-drummer, owned Interceptors and FFs as well as a rare late model Convertible with wooden dash (only a dozen were made in RHD).


    Roger Moore as James Bond in front of his P1800