The Interceptor most of us know arrived in 1966: glass-hatch fastback, American V8, Italian lines on a British chassis. It ran for about a decade and roughly 6,400 left the works. The shape stuck. The company did not.
Jensen International has now put a new Interceptor on the table. Not a restomod of an old shell. A ground-up car that keeps one idea from the original and little else: a V8 driving the rear wheels.
The first version is the GTX, and it is deliberately a track car. Supercharged 6.8-litre V8, 960 horsepower, six-speed sequential, rear-wheel drive. Managing director David Duerden put the order of battle plainly: start with the GTX because it is the clearest first expression of the programme, prove the engineering and design, and give prospective customers something tangible to stand next to.
The engine work is serious rather than badge-deep. Texas specialist Late Model Engines has heavily reworked a GM LT-based 6.8; Jensen says fewer than 20 percent of the original GM parts remain. A 2.7-litre Roots-type supercharger with electronic boost control sits on top. The company quotes the ability to go higher still — up to 1,200 hp and over 1,000 lb-ft — but the launch figure is 960. Redline is given as 7,000 rpm.
Drive goes aft through a carbon-fibre propshaft in a steel torque tube to a Samsonas Motorsport six-speed sequential with straight-cut dog gears. Shifts are by column paddles or a lever on the tunnel. Road cars later may get an H-pattern manual or an automatic; the GTX does not pretend to be those cars.
Chassis and body are aluminium. Jensen describes an all-aluminium structure with unequal-length control-arm suspension and three-way manually adjustable dampers. Body panels are hand-formed aluminium by Coventry Metalcraft. Styling is by Avant Design: long bonnet, fastback glass recalling the old hatch, a black roof, full-width rear light bar, and the unavoidable adjustable wing. Claimed downforce is over 771 lb — a little over 350 kg — with a large diffuser and oval exhausts tucked above it.
Wheels are one-piece forged aluminium Vossen 20s on Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres. Brakes are steel rotors with cockpit-adjustable balance. Inside: FIA-approved roll cage, Tillett carbon seats, six-point harnesses, fire extinguisher, a driver display and no centre screen. Alcantara with orange stitching softens the cage without turning it into a lounge.
What comes next matters if you are wondering whether this is a brochure exercise. Jensen calls the GTX an enhanced prototype and says dynamic testing now begins, with customer-specific specification work. Behind it sit two road programmes: the GTR, road-legal and closer to the GTX in intent, and the GT, the grand tourer. Renders show the GT cleaned of the big aero kit and the GTR somewhere between the two.
No price. No customer delivery date. Ultra-limited numbers have been mentioned for the UK in earlier briefings; that has not been locked down in the reveal. For lodge purposes the useful test is simpler than the press language: is there a real aluminium car with a sequential gearbox and a Texas-built V8, or only a render farm? The photographs and the engineering list lean toward the former. Whether the GTR and GT follow with the same seriousness is the next chapter.
Sources: Jensen International reveal material via Car and Driver and SuperCarBlondie. Images: Jensen International.
But have you seen the Aston Martin Vulcan ? There were some at Wellesbourne and shown with the Vulcan bomber aircraft a few years ago. I have a photo or two somewhere !
Send them over. Put some words with them and I’ll post them up here!