Discussion thread for my Interceptor

Good luck mate, my dad sent his Jenson Interceptor Mk1 to a 'specialist' Jensen restorer after having it in his garage for 20 years.

He totally ruined it. It took my parents over a year and a few court battles to get all their money back from him.

I loved hearing that Jensen fire up in the garage though, sounds like a Spitfire is parked up next to you.

Boosted - looks lovely matey Like them alot.
Think I would rather be driving it in Oz though?!
How come you've returned?!? Nice Period Wheels and colour..... How many gallons to the mile does she do lol

....can tell you've been down under.....'arvo' indeed!
Not taking the michael - me sisters in Adelaide.....look forward to seeing progress...

Ouch! Sorry to hear your dad had a bad experience with his Interceptor restoration Hopefully we'll be OK. There is a pretty vibrant Jensen club over here and this mechanic comes very highly regarded. Does your old man still own his Jensen??

Cheers Nello To be honest I'd probably rather be driving her in Oz too lol, but circumstances have led to me living here these days (in fact most of my immediate family do for various reasons!). So this seemed like the right thing to do. Although it is a completely mad thing to be doing I suppose!



I Haven't actually returned mate - I was born and bred in Aus, I'm 100% true blue fair dinkum aussie - I just happen to live here these days!

Oh, and on a good day she'll do 10mpg lol

Nah he sold it once all the court stuff was sorted. He'd had nothing but bad luck with it, he bought it and it broke down about a week later, then 20 years on when he could afford to send it off to get it fully restored (rather than just fiddling about with it in his free time), it came back in a terrible shape, i cant remember the exact number but as part of our evidence we had an RAC man examine the car and his fault list was huge.

Once all the court shanaigans were finished with he'd lost all love for it and so it was sold on ebay.

Sounds like his Jensen was cursed

I suppose owning a Jensen is a bit like owning a coupe, although the paranoia is multiplied by 100 and there are even less specialists around!

Funny you should say that. My mum just pulled out a video my dad's friend made during and after the restoration and towards the end they take it to an independant bodyshop so he can analyse the work thats been done. Outside is an S Reg 20vt Fiat Coupe in RED!

So yeah. We gave all our restoration photos to the new owners as a sort of nice gift. But we have this video at right this second i'm copying it to DVD downstairs. The sound keps messing up though so it may take a few attempts, but once its sorted i'll use my PC to make a series of video for you on youtube including a video of the horrid paintjob in progress, the car blowing up on the A27 when a coolant hose popped off the radiator and boiling water sprayed all over the windscreen, and the inspection by the bodyshop (which is VERY damning).

Truffle, that would be very interesting to see. Nice one

Right the sound is a bit messed up for the first part (where we see the car mid respray) the people doing the restoration have just sprayed filler primer over the whole car rather than getting it back to bare metal and filling where necessary, you can even see drips of primer where they've put tonnes on.

But the sound is fine for the motorway blowup and the inspection. Right just gotta use my PC sofware to make this avi's.

I think your vids might just give me nightmares Truffle

Here's a vid of my old man firing up our Jensen when he was in Aus last April. In fact I think this was the day it was sent to Sydney for shipping.

clicky

Just noticed dads was a mark 2 i think. Just so you know, apparently this place was a garage based in Hampshire who regularly advertised in the Jensen Owners Club magazine.

My parents chose them because they were nearby and they we could keep track of their progress. However they originally said 6 months and it took more like 2 years, and their original estimate of £8000 turned into £20000.

looks great!! always liked these.
i used to go and assess at a site in mid-wales and there were two of these in the scrappies next door. not in the scrap yard itself but tucked away at one side of the carpark, i once asked the owner if he wanted to sell them but had a big "no-way"!!!

Superb cars these, I had the pleasure of a go in one many years ago at Castle Combe, it's no race car but I was impressed regardless, I'd love one but I'd love lots of cars! It was a deep burgundy colour and we swapped as he wanted a punt in my Lancia. Will watch this, great to see cars being brought back to where they should be.

Gareth

Oh I'd love an interceptor Look forward to seeing the pics and videos

Chris

There is - or at least was - one for sale on a forecourt near me recently for £5995. Rough as you like close-up though. No idea whether that's a good price or not?

These were the first cars I noticed as a kid!!!
The noise and size got me first then that massive rear window and huge exhausts!! Yes plesae!!Good luck matey,your gonny need it lol!

I'm friendly with a chap who knows just about everything there is to know about Jenson Interceptors, he's restored a black Mk2 which has won quite a few cups so if anyone needs info or help buying one let me know and I'll put you in touch.

Nice guy and he judged at the National last weekend, and yes they also suffer Paranoia!

http://www.joc.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6900

http://www.joc.org.uk/phpBB2/index.php?sid=fe1d3e387faf095371a6c703cb03d943

.

there were plenty of Jenson Interceptors at tatton park last weekend!!

Good to hear the Jensen boys had a strong turnout! Progress has been incredibly slow with ours since its arrival, hence i've not updated my restoration thread. Hopefully in the next week or two I'll have some news

Same here. Love em. Good luck.

Antony, looks good, but why take it out in all that "white stuff"?

We actually just drove the car out of the garage and onto the street for a few minutes to take a couple of photos

I wouldn't want to drive her properly on the roads here at the moment, 330hp through the rear wheels would be a bit scary on snow/ice!

By the way Graeme, did you spot the ACT rego sticker on the windscreen?

Looks very nice - good job!

And I noticed the ACT plates in the photos when it arrived back in UK.

Cracking car and well worth the effort!

Good luck, Tim