Jensen Motors

Infobox_Defunct_Company
company_name = Jensen Motors, Ltd
company_
foundation = 1934
defunct = 1976
fate = bankrupt
closed =1970
location = West Bromwich, England
industry = Automotive
key_people = Richard and Alan Jensen, founders
products = Automobiles
parent =

Jensen Motors, Ltd was a British manufacturer of sports cars and commercial vehicles, based in West Bromwich (in the West Midlands west of Birmingham).

Foundation

Jensen began as a small coachbuilding firm run by brothers Richard and Alan Jensen; they bought out the body works of W.J. Smiths & Sons where they worked after the owner's death and renamed it Jensen Motors in 1934cite book |last=Georgano |first=N. |title=Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile |year=2000 |publisher=HMSO |location=London |id=ISBN 1-57958-293-1] . They built exclusive customised bodies for standard cars produced by several manufacturers of the day including Morris, Singer, Standard, and Wolseley. In 1934 they were commissioned by American film actor Clark Gable to design and build a car for him based on a Ford V-8 chassis. The resultant car won them much acclaim and stimulated huge interest in their work including a deal with Ford to produce a run of Jensen-Fords with Jensen bodywork on a Ford chassis. In 1934 they also started to design their first true production car under the name "White Lady". This evolved into the Jensen S-type which went into production in 1935.

Commercial vehicles

In the late 1930s Jensen diversified into the production of commercial vehicles under the marque "JNSN", including the manufacture of a series of innovotive lightweight trucks, built with aluminium alloys, for the Reynolds Tube Company and the prototype for the articulated "Jen-Tug" which went into production in the late 1940s.

During World War II Jensen concentrated on the war effort and produced components for military vehicles including the turrets for tanks, and on the production of specialised ambulances and fire-engines.

After the war production of the "Jen-Tug" thrived and Jensen also produced a new range of "JNSN" lightweight diesel trucks and chassis which were used for a variety of vehicles including pantechnicons and buses.

In the 1950s Jensen were chosen by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) to build the bodies for the four-wheel-drive Austin Gypsy and Austin A40 Sports.

ports cars

Production of cars ceased over the war years, but by 1946 a new vehicle was offered, the Jensen PW (a luxury saloon). Few were produced since raw materials were still in short supply. Also in 1946 body designer Eric Neale joined the company from Wolseley and his first project was the more modern coupe which followed in 1950, named the Interceptor, which was built until 1957. In 1955, Jensen started production of Neale's masterpiece, the 541, which used the then-revolutionary material of fiberglass for its bodywork. The 541 was replaced by another Neale design, the CV8 in 1962, which replaced the Austin-sourced straight-6 of the previous cars with a 6 litre American Chrysler V8. This large engine in such a lightweight car made the Jensen one of the fastest four-seaters of the time.

For its replacement (the Interceptor, launched in 1966) Jensen turned to the Italian coachbuilder, Touring, for the body design, and to steel for the material. The bodyshells themselves were built by Vignale of Italy and later by Jensen. The same Auto CID|383 Chrysler wedge-head powerplant was used in the earlier cars with the later cars moving to the Auto CID|440 in engine. The Interceptor was offered in saloon, convertible and coupe versions. The saloon was by far the most popular with its large, curving wrap-around rear window that doubled as a tailgate.

Related to the Interceptor was another car, the Jensen FF, the letters standing for "Ferguson Formula", Ferguson Research being the inventor of the full-time all wheel drive system adopted, the first on a production sports car. Also featured was the Dunlop Maxaret anti-lock braking system in one of the first uses of ABS in a production car. Outwardly, the only differences from the Interceptor were four extra inches of length (all ahead of the windscreen) and a second row of air vents behind the front wheels. The small number of 320 FFs were constructed, and production ceased in 1971.

Other projects

Although Jensen's design for a new Austin-based sports-car was rejected by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1952 in favour of a design provided by Donald Healey, Jensen did win the BMC contract to build the bodies for the resultant Austin-Healey 100 from 1952 until 1966.

In 1960 Jensen won a contract from Volvo to assemble and finish the bodies for their P1800 coupé. Pressed Steel manufactured the body-shells at their Linwood plant in Scotland and shipped them to Jensen in West Bromwich to be finished, painted and trimmed, before then being shipped to Sweden where Volvo completed the final build.

In the early 1960s Jensen were also involved in the development and production of the Sunbeam Tiger.

Changing ownership

The company had come under the control of the Norcros Group in 1959 cite book |last=Robson |first=Graham |title=A to Z British cars 1945-1980 |year=2006 |publisher=Herridge |location=Devon, UK |id=ISBN 0-9541063-9-3] and following disagreements Alan and Richard Jensen resigned in 1966. The American car distributor Kjell Qvale became the majority shareholder in 1970 and brought in Donald Healey as chairman.

Jensen Motors ceased trading in May 1976. Two new companies: Jensen Special Products (JSP) and Jensen Parts & Service Limited (JP&S) were created to pick up the pieces of Jensen Motors. JSP was created as a specialist engineering and design company from Jensen's development department. JP&S was created to provide parts and service to the existing Jensen customer base. Both JSP and JP&S were bought by a holding company, Britcar Holdings. In 1982 JP&S, with the rights to use the Jensen brand names, was sold to Ian Orford who put the Interceptor back into production as the Mk IV.

Jensen Parts and Service was renamed Jensen Cars Ltd and 11 cars were made before the company was sold to Unicorn Holdings of Stockport and a Mk V Interceptor was proposed but never materialised although a few more Mk IVs were built.

Revival hopes

A revival in 2001 was short lived. By the end of 2002 production on their only model - the £40,000 S-V8 - had ceased [cite news
title=The tragic tale of the Jensen S-V8
publisher=Daily Telegraph
date=2003-06-14
url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2003/06/13/emfjen14.xml] .

Jensen cars

* Jensen S-type (1936–1941)
* Jensen H-type (1938–1945)
* Jensen PW (1946–1952)
* Jensen Interceptor (1950–1957)
* Jensen 541 (1954–1959)
* Jensen 541R (1957–1960)
* Jensen 541S (1960 -1963)
* Jensen CV8 (1962-1966)
* Jensen Interceptor (1966–1976)
* Jensen FF (1966–1971)
* Jensen-Healey (1972–1975)
* Jensen GT (1975–1976)
* Jensen S-V8 (2001)

ee also

* Jensen-Healey
* Volvo P1800
* Sunbeam Tiger
* Austin A40 Sports
* Austin-Healey 100
* Austin-Healey 3000

References

Notes

* cite book
author=Keith Anderson
title=Jensen
id=ISBN 0-85429-682-4
year=1989
publisher=Haynes Publishing Group

* cite book
author=Richard Calver
title=A History of Jensen: The Chassis Data
id=ISBN 0-646-03563-0
year=1991
publisher=Richard Calver