Jensen P66 Prototype

[nem]

Well, John I do have a warmed garage but the space is taken up by my J-H and the GT project, so I am definately a lucky guy
.... but I cannot unfortunately raise the money for the P66 - irrespective of potentially being a financial lucrative option.
Cheers,

[johnw]

Well, John I do have a warmed garage but the space is taken up by my J-H and the GT project, so I am definately a lucky guy
.... but I cannot unfortunately raise the money for the P66 - irrespective of potentially being a financial lucrative option.
Cheers,

My suggestion was really that buying a garage is a lucrative financial option, not the car! Jensens are an enjoyable, educational, fulfilling pastime. If your baseline for your financial input to a car investment is your working overtime rate, rental for garage space, parts, fuel, interest on purchase cost, tax, insurance. Does anyone make money on a car? If you remove the storage charge and replace that with an appreciating asset. You are forced to have the appreciating asset to own the Jensen. I recently between lockdowns gave back the lockup council rented garage that FF no 255 was stored in. I sold that car for £8500, it sold at auction 17 years later for £40,000. My storage cost would have been £8500. Finance purchase cost/investment capital, assume average UK investment return, inflation, should double the monetary number every 10 years. It is spot on for that car, either renting space, storing and holding, or selling, a 10 to 15% difference. Instead, using the car purchase capital to buy with a mortgage any rental property with a garage, or perhaps 3 or 4 garages, leave one garage empty or put a random car in it, rent the living space or other garages, the value of the property would have doubled or trebled. Typical £160k profit if it was a house/flat and garage. I was on the phone to my garage neighbour, and he at this late stage of his life was thinking of getting a rental property to get the garage space to replace the council lockup which we both had to give back for housing redevelopment. Key point to any young Jensen owner, think about garage space. Getting that right, decent storage, can transform the cost of ownership.

[MikeWilliams]

Coming back to the car(!), I think the sales blurb does it no favours describing minor surface defects as though they were important. It is also wrong in places, describing the vinyl as leather.

Don't be out off by the fact that its a prototype. Having owned this car for longer than anyone else and probably driven it further than anyone else, in my opinion it is a well sorted, lovely car to drive and entirely practical. There is nothing about it that should be difficult to maintain or repair. For the age it is VERY low mileage and (thanks to Derek) all the major lumps have been mechanically overhauled by reputable people, so compared to a "normal" Interceptor, or relatively "common" FF, I think it is cheap.

Snap it up now as you probably won't get another chance.

Mike

[johnw]

Yes, coming back to the car it is a very practical classic, here it is a 15 minute drive, never misses a beat. https://youtu.be/U9Q6GDgVfWA
I agree with your points Mike about condition. There are FFs advertised, some were for more than that as you say. Plus it is a manual gearbox car. almost 20% lighter than a CV8. 180KG less than a Gordon Keeble, Gordon Keebel was a lot lighter than a Facel Vega. Surely there was an FF version, how could there not be, maybe the FF version so obviously existed in the Jensen Brother's eyes they just never saw the need to have it drawn up. There could not have been no FF version if that went into production as the Interceptor. Would the FF have been done in manual as well if the Jensen brothers have had their way on this new Interceptor, with that power, low weight and very low cross sectional front area, All Wheel Drive with ABS 330BHP 1964, would we be looking at the birth of the most mental Group B rally car ever? Technically Jensens best performing car up to that point and since? Did David Millard service manager not say it was the most amazing car he has ever driven? I don't wonder. The 4WD Automatic gearbox version would have been the same weight as the Gordon Keeble, the 4WD manual a touch lighter, and for that you would have got the totally stunning Jensen double wishbone double coilover front suspension that many RWD fans thought was the reason for the FF being so good. The front driveshaft and suspension layout FF developments and Ford copied in their RS200 Group B car.

Great front aspect, the CV8 style headlights, recognisable Jensen styling continuity from the previous models. It is an improvement over previous models. Lighter, faster, better looking than any previous Jensen. An SP version would have been an absolute monster, and that would have happened. Bristol cars never produced anything so cool looking. Would they have survived, would Bristol cars have survived? Jensen would have sold fewer cars than the Interceptor we know, probably, but they most likely would have been able to evolve it, carry the styling on, and have electric versions in the 70s fuel crisis as the basic car was light enough and Jensen had made 100s of successful commercial EVs. Would there ever have been a later, perhaps updated version with GKN alloys and a Six Pack? Evolving like the production interceptor model line did? There was already a convertible. How could the Jensen brothers NOT have done an EV during the fuel crisis? Come on now. There would have been a Coventry Climax Godiva Generator, yes they existed then, in the boot as backup power. With Hivo chains and an electric clutch it could even have jump started its self when battery voltage fell below a certain level. Perhaps the Jensen brothers, with their experience of fibreglass, would have done a smaller P66, all fibreglass, with the Coventry Climax motor as a Jensen Superlight, a super economical town and country car. Can we blame the EEA/EU for the rise of the Vignale/Touring idea and pin the ultimate demise of Jensen on the decision not to use this design?