Jensen Interceptor Six Pack | Spotted

As car names go, there won’t be able to be a lot of greater than Interceptor. As Interceptors go, there won’t be able to be a lot of much better than the SP 6 Pack with its triple-carb 7.2-litre 440 V8 less than that big cheesegrater bonnet. And as Interceptor colours go, there won’t be able to be a lot of improved than Reef Blue with black leather and a matching vinyl roof. So, Interceptor lovers, nowadays is your fortunate working day, mainly because this is a 3-owner, entirely-historied Reef Blue Interceptor SP with 54,000 documented miles and a price tag that may look significant but actually just isn’t.

Swift tale. Back again in the 1980s someday I take a look at-drove 1 of the Series 4 relaunch cars from Jensen following they’d been reborn in the Midlands. As for every the original autos, it experienced a big Chrysler V8, a 5.9 I believe. I reckoned it would be exciting to impress the mothers and fathers with it, so I made the decision to travel it up the M6 to Lancashire for the working day.

That was a salutary knowledge. It was a beautifully comforting travel right until you produced the miscalculation of looking at the fuel gauge, when you would actually see the needle dropping as you went alongside. I was paying out for my very own juice on that gig, so in an endeavor to stave off individual bankruptcy I experienced to employ the throttle sensitivity of a ballerina with bunions. It felt like a large wasted opportunity but what could I do, I was a younger male of extremely minimal usually means. There was no way I could maintain refilling the 20 gallon tank at solitary-determine mpg prices, even at late 1980s prices.

It was an oddly psychological moment as the mother and father waved me off the next early morning. They were crying at my departure. This was out of character. Guaranteed ample, a afterwards telephone get in touch with revealed that their eyes experienced been streaming from standing also close to the Jensen when it fired up on whole choke.

I burbled thoroughly again to the Midlands with a Sinatra cartridge on the 8-keep track of and hefty merchandise cars flashing me impatiently from driving. Handing the keys about to the chap at the manufacturing facility felt like undoing my trouser belt after a Mr Creosote fashion slap-up meal. There was a actual physical sensation of fiscal relief. ‘Nice car,’ I said to the Jensen guy. ‘Shame I had to mollicoddle it almost everywhere, what with the gasoline use and everything, ha ha.’ ‘Oh,’ he laughed. ‘You needn’t have bothered, it would have utilized the similar amount of petrol even if you would thrashed it.’

Hmm. You can find a lesson in there somewhere, like why failed to you notify me that prior to. Anyway, the SP which is for sale right here appears to be somewhat charming. Pinning down an specific power figure for the twin-choke triple-carbed 7.2-litre 440ci – or any Chrysler-run Jensen for that make a difference – is about as quick as pinning down a politician, but we are heading to go for 385hp and 488lb ft. That compares to the 325hp claimed for the 6.2 and the 330hp claimed for the regular 7.2 – ‘claimed’ becoming very much the operative word for American V8s from this period.

Who appreciates what kind of gas consumption you would get from an SP. Let’s put it this way, with a shipping likely of 1,350 cubic feet for every minute (two 500cfm carbs on possibly aspect of a 350cfm startup/cruising carb) my parents would have demanded market-quality filtration masks prior to agreeing to stand at the rear of it. As an aside, this 6-pack engine was banned on emissions grounds from US-industry Chryslers just just after Jensen had purchased the models it required.

Ultimately the figures and the poisoning really don’t really issue. What does subject is the sounds and the sense of a stupidly substantial V8 chugging through a Torqueflite 3-speed auto, and that is a sensation this automobile will give you, quite pretty much, in bucketfuls. The completely superb Touring entire body hand-crafted by Vignale and the luxurious instrument-abundant cabin are thrown in for cost-free.

If you might be determined to get some Interception in your existence, and if this auto is even 50 percent as fantastic underneath as it appears on prime, then the asking value of underneath seventy grand for one particular of these uncommon 6 Packs, especially an RHD one particular like this, is really not that mad. They rotted horribly from the base up. Bringing a scabby specimen up to par would charge you a terrific deal additional than £70k as these autos are not quick or affordable to restore. Our car has just breezed through its MOT. There have been no advisories, but we’d add a single of our have: never bother hoping be watchful with your proper foot.

Engine: 7,210cc V8
Transmission: 3-speed auto, rear-wheel push
Electrical power (hp): 385@5,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 488@3,200rpm
MPG: believe of a compact number and halve it
CO2: N/A
1st registered: 1972
Recorded mileage: 54,600
Cost new: £80,000
Yours for: £69,950