Thinking about Jensen Interceptors

So a car I have looked at off an on for year is the Jensen Interceptor. It seemingly offers all the attributes of a Aston or a Bristol while being more sporting than the Bristol with much cheaper running costs than the Aston, except for fuel.

I have a line on wto good cars, one is green and almost great and teh other is white and a nice example with no current needs.

Both are completely rust free and both are under 20K.

Anyone have any experience with the Jensen Interceptor?

I went looking for one some years ago. I did a lot of research and I looked at 3 or 4 cars and didn't pull the trigger.

I found, with the possible exception of the convertibles, that they are not like other "classic" cars. People don't generally restore them because the expense and difficulty would far, far exceed what they would be worth when finished. I mean, most cars won't return their restoration costs, but JI's in particular are a black hole. They are very expensive to restore and do not command much dollars as restored.

All the cars I saw were largely original, almost all with original interiors or maybe the front seats redone at most. They typically had some sort of modification (the MOPAR guys are attracted to them for obvious reasons) that didn't usually complement the car. Think shag rugs, vinyl or ugly covered seats, crappy hot rod paint jobs, etc. I was operating under the philosophy "buy the best you can afford" and couldn't find one that was very nice, though none exceeded my budget.

There aren't a lot to choose from. I found myself flying to a couple of different cities to look at them and always regretted spending the money on the plane ticket.

There are some parts that are very difficult to source and any bodywork is a nightmare because all the fenders are welded on the car. That back glass piece, for example, is tough to find.

When I was looking there was one guy in the NW somewhere that was a specialist and did supply things like the interior wood, etc. After watching one "restored" on Wheeler Dealers, it looks like Martin Robey might be making some parts for them in the UK, as well.

I drove a couple of them and they are beasts. Not particularly refined, but you get all the muscle with some British handling and interior work.

I gave up after a while and bought a Jaguar XJS instead. While they have their issues, I never had a problem with parts, support, etc., and it was a much more refined car for about the same money at the time. Very similar in concept to the JI.

I still think the JI's are cool, and might still want to own one some day, if I could find that elusive car that someone had restored and was willing to sell at a big loss.

Again, the convertibles are a different story. There are some restored ones available, but, of course, you pay up for those.

I've looked at a few coupes in the UK - despite the cost of fuel over there I really liked the idea of one.

The first issue - which you seem to have covered already - is that they like to rust. That immediately ruled out a couple, but I've also noticed that they tend to let in water (unsurprisingly, around the rear window, but IIRC there are several other potential areas for leaks). A lot of people at least in the UK don't want to or couldn't fix the various rubber seals to that can be an issue.

The big issue as Basil already mentioned is the interior and the costly upkeep thereof - the acres of Connolly leather and the craftsmanship that went into it. A neglected one is going to look like that and will end up costing a small fortune to fix. That's what basically stopped me from pulling the trigger in the end. Well, that and that I didn't find them overly inspiring to drive unless you're crossing continents before breakfast.

Also gonna go with Basil here. I wanted one about 10 years or so ago, and drove a few examples. It was difficult to find really good ones at the time, and the interiors seemed to fare the worst. After researching parts costs, values, etc., etc., I decided to go a different path. I did really like them though.

Every time I see one I wonder if I should have bought one. I haven't priced them lately, but they were generally in the 5k for sort of decent examples, and 10k for pretty good ones then. Never got to see a mint one, so don't know about those.

So what did I do instead? Built a new race car...yeah, that's a better place to put your money...

The Interceptor is a high class car - they cost double what a V12 XKE did at the time. All of the interior is full leather and the wood panels are excellent.

They were built by the same guys (Jensen) that welded up the big Austin Healeys though, and that means a main frame with the sheet metal welded to the frame. Water gets trapped and they cost more to repair than a normal car where you can unbolt the body from the frame.

Having said that, the big twin tube frame is incredibly durable and doesn't rust (except on the FF where the rails were moved out to accomodate the 4 wheel drive units), the suspension is largely Jaguar, the live axle is the big Salisbury unit that will take a real beating, and the Torqueflite automatic is one of the best period autos made.

I've owned 3 of them and currently run a 1972 with 383 engine built to around 350 BHP and can say that they are a hoot to drive. You can whuffle along at idle, or you can toss them around like a big MG (which I did, much to the surprise of the MGs that were on the run with me).

I've driven 1200 miles straight, stopping only for gas and to get the odd sandwich, and was fairly relaxed at the end - very comfortable, very well built cars - but buy one that someone else just went broke restoring rather than one YOU need to restore, even if you pay considerably more - it is worth it and will save you money on the long run.

For real fun, though, I prefer my Jensen CV-8, the previous model with fibreglass bodwork and (in my case) a built high compression 383 with sixpack. But very hard to find over here - they built only 500.