We had such a great time reading about Han K’s Jensen 541, that when he offered to share another one of his projects with us, we jumped at the chance to see what he has been working on. We knew he was a Jensen nut, but we had no idea how much he loves these rare sport cars until we saw his 1951 Jensen Interceptor. We could ramble on and on about all the hard work he puts into his Jensens, but we would rather let you guys enjoy the experience from Han himself. Read his story right after the break!

The guys at BarnFinds kindly offered me the opportunity to share with you my Jensen 541 barn find adventure. Here is another one that you may want to read about. Many people know the Chrysler 383 and later 440 powered Jensen Interceptor; easily recognizable by the large bulbous rear hatch. What you may not know is that the name Interceptor was used earlier by Jensen for a 4/5 seater alloy bodied tourer, available in both convertible and saloon form. This model, of which only 88 were hand built by the West Bromwich factory, was available from 1948 till 1957. It resembles the little A40 Sports that Jensen also built for Austin. Not surprisingly as Austin’s Leonard Lord liked the Interceptor’s styling so much that he contracted Jensen to design and build alloy bodies for their new sports model. A few thousand of these were shipped to the US, but only a few Interceptors made it to these shores. An interesting fact is that this Jensen already had a fiberglass roof and trunklid. (As an aside: Did you know that Jensen Motors Ltd. built the Austin Healey bodies, Sunbeam Tigers, and the first 6000 Volvo P 1800’s?)

Back to the Jensen, aficionados named these the ‘early’ Interceptor. When I was in the US for a Jensen club meeting I heard rumors about a left hand drive 1951 ‘early’ Interceptor Saloon sitting in a barn in McMinneville, Oregon among several Citroens and some more Jensens. Knowing that only 3 of these left hand drive cars were built triggered my interest. After some detective work, I located the owner –a then 85 year old gentleman – and had an hour long conversation with him on the phone. It became clear to him that I was a genuine Jensen enthusiast and this resulted in me becoming the new owner!  Amazingly the man was only the second owner and he had driven the car for several years till the engine was worn out and he put it in his barn awaiting an engine overhaul. He never got around to doing it and worse even, he said the title was missing and the engine was thrown away when moving after a divorce.  He told me he looked everywhere, but had been unable to find the paperwork for the car. Anyway, I do not scare easily -see my Jensen 541 story for proof – so I arranged for collection and shipping of this ultra-rare car to Rotterdam after having seen only one small photograph and hearing what the old man told me.

I was pleasantly surprised when the car arrived; it was rock solid with only minor surface rust on the chassis. The gearbox, dashboard, heater core, radiator and more were in the trunk and the car was complete, although it had a Ford (?) front bumper and the Austin 6 cylinder 4 liter engine and its ancillaries were missing. The reason for the latter is another story, so the man told me… it has to do with his divorce, the ex-wife claiming the car and the engine ending as a boat anchor in the San Francisco Bay! The leather interior, carpets, door panels and headliner were completely shot. Apparently the car had been exposed to the elements during the time when the ex-wife had custody of it. Anyhow, he got the car back some years after the divorce and stored it in a barn at his new home in Oregon. Interestingly when first seeing the car ‘in the flesh’ I noticed that a trailer hitch was fitted as well as an auxiliary gas tank with separate filler in the rear fender similar to Jaguars. Later I found documents under the seat for a boat and trailer, so that explained a lot. Also under the rear seat was the original California title which was believed to have gone lost, though half eaten by mice…

To me this was a relatively easy project compared to the Jensen 541 that I restored before. All it would need basically was a full overhaul of the suspension and steering, a new interior, a fresh paint job and of course an engine. So the hunt for an engine and all ancillaries was number 1 on the agenda. Lady Luck was on my side again, as I found a very, very rusty (even worse than the 541!) but mostly complete right hand drive 1954 Saloon that could be had for only 500 UK Pounds. Ideal for parts as it was way beyond restoration and ready to be scrapped. Just take a look at the photos. So I booked yet another ferry crossing to the UK, rented a trailer and hauled the rust bucket home. So now I had a complete engine as well as an original front bumper to replace the non-original one fitted.

A couple of months were spent carefully removing all useable parts and alloy body panels from the donor car. Everything that could possibly be saved was taken off and stored because, like I said above, this is an extremely rare model. Of the 88 cars built less than 20 are known to survive, so you don’t throw away anything that may be of use to one of the other owners, do you? Of course I kept the engine and some more small bits and pieces, but everything else including the chassis and alloy body panels was sold off to ‘early’ Interceptor owners in England, Germany and Belgium helping them to keep theirs on the road.

Then my life took a huge change and I no longer had the time or the space to finish the restoration and I had to sell the unfinished Jensen. I would have preferred to show you all the finished result of my latest project, but I am pleased to report that I managed to find a good home for this rare car in Denmark. The new owner’s name? Mr. C. Jensen!

We are sorry to hear that Han wasn’t able to finish this Jensen, as we have no doubt he would have done a spectacular job, but we are glad he found a new home for it. With any luck, life will permit him to take on many more projects like this one that he will share with us. We want to thank Han for sharing his story and we wish him the best!