<VV> Interesting car for sale - NO CORVAIR
Bill Elliott
Corvair at fnader.com
Mon Oct 24 14:18:16 EDT 2005
No, same company but two completely different cars and two different concepts.
Jensen was always a high end basically hand built car, competing above Jaguar and just below Aston
Martin, Ferrari, Maserati. (They also had a pretty awesome manufacturing facility, building car bodies for
others...such as the Volvo P1800 sports car).
Through the 60's and 70's the Interceptor always maintained a price advantage (with a slight
performance/handling disadvantage) by using Chrsyler V8's (383 and 440 in the 70's cars). The
Intercept FF was jointly developed with Fergueson Formula (race team) and had full time all wheel drive
(the first performance fitting ever, over a decade before the quattro) and antilock brakes (another
automotive first). The interceptor was available as a hatchback with wraparound rear glass (most
common), notchback coupe (very rare), convertible (VERY desirable), and the FF hatchback (almost
unheard of in the US).
The Jensen Healey came about as a joint project with Jensen, Donald Healey, and Lotus (who was
looking for someone to use their first "in house" engine (DOHC 2.0 ) that was being developed for the
new higher end Lotuses (Elite, Eclat, Esprit). The big block Jensens were selling rather well, but got
killed by the fuel crunch. The car hit at the wrong time and at a premium price, had attractive but
uninspiring styling, front engine when the industry was going mid-engine, a solid rear axle when everyone
wanted IRS, convertible when everytone was going targa or FHC, serious teething problems with the
early engines (by the time Lotus used it in their own cars, most of the development had been done by J-
H customers!), brake issues, gearbox issues, early corrosion problems, etc, etc... to the point that
Donald Healey withdrew from the project making the last model (a 2 door sport wagon) simply the
Jensen GT.
The combination of the fuel cruch and the failure of the J-H killed Jensen...
Bill
>I remember the Jenson Interceptor, was it also known as the Jenson Healey?
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Rt66Vairs at aol.com
>Sent: Oct 24, 2005 9:35 AM
>To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
>Subject: <VV> Interesting car for sale - NO CORVAIR
>1974 Jensen Interceptor.
>Talk about FAST!
>Owned by a an old radio buddy... Roger Carroll of KMPC and AFRTS fame. He
>also was
>the announcer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (musta been a cool job)
>Says he's
>getting too old for it... Still flys... I think it's too slow for him.
>Haven't got a price yet but lemme tell ya....
>Cool car... Chrysler drive line.... Look it up on google
>Tim Abney
>IECC
>
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