The Jensen Interceptor was a long and low British touring car of the 1950s. But if you remember it, most of you will probably remember it with the funky shooting-brake design from the 60s and 70s. Earlier this year, the return of the Jensen Interceptor was announced. Today, it looks like it’s made some progress, and promises to offer its design as an analog (yay!), V8 (yay!), track-only (boo.) model.
Here are the main things called “Jensen Interceptor GTX” from the press release:
“Developed as an advanced prototype build, the Interceptor GTX will establish the foundation for multiple future Interceptor variants, including road-going models and track-focused cars.”
“While the car ushers in a new era and proudly bears the Jensen Interceptor name, the Interceptor GTX is not a ‘restomod’ nor a ‘continuation’ of any previous Jensen model. Completely new from the ground up, it features a sleek, contemporary, hand-built aluminum body, an aluminum chassis and a supercharged V8 engine, resulting in the ultimate analog driving experience.”
This GTX variant is reportedly designed, engineered and hand-built in the UK. How many of them there will be, and how much they will cost, is still TBA.
If you’re following this thread with some confusion, that’s okay, so am I. The original Interceptors were all GTs, not sports cars. The silhouette the brand is showing off definitely looks more “touring” than “raw performance.” It seems that the track model does not make much sense. That is, unless you factor in the regulatory aspects. Building a track car bypasses all the hard parts of car building – like bringing it up to safety, emissions and other compliance standards for road cars.
So, while I’m sure the people selling it would never spin it that way, I think the only reason a “track-only” Interceptor came into existence is so the company could put something, anything, out and into motion.
However, I don’t mean to sling mud at these guys—it would be awesome if Jensen could actually bring a small-batch V8, manual, touring car to life, even in small-scale production. And the teaser silhouette images shared so far look really great. And while an old Interceptor would be a pretty silly platform to build a track car on, Jensen’s new management is adamant that this is not a revival of the old Interceptor.
Let’s just say I’m officially wishing him all the best.
Did you spend a lot of time in the old Interceptor? I’d love to hear about it. Contact me at andrew.collins@thedrive.com.
