The Jensen Owners' Club

Had a heartbreaking day recently. For the first time, I tried an Interceptor on for size, and discovered I don't fit. I'm a big, tall guy. 6'4 and about 16 stone. I've learned from past experience that there are a lot of cars I don't fit into. Being a larger GT, rather then a small sports car, and having read about them since I was a kid, I was pretty confident that I would fit into one.

My first surprise was the size of the transmission tunnel. Wow, does that ever eat up a lot of interior room. While my concern was headroom, I was pleasantly surprised to have plenty of room that way. It took me a few tries to get the seat adjusted, and was disappointed that it didn't go back any further. The seat was short under my legs as my knees were up in the air. Not ideal.

Then I closed the door, and it pinned my arm. While I could lose 20 lbs around the waist, it won't do much to narrow my shoulders.

Damn damn damn. I looked at a lot of options while in the car, but I don't see how I could make it work. The driver's seat was back against the rear seat, so without removing that, I can't see adding legroom. And then being pinned against the door doesn't add to the comfort.

While I could drive it, I can't see it being particularly comfortable. Especially for the long highway drives I love to do.

Yes, I am heartbroken. I figured I'd be an Interceptor owner in the next month or so. Time to take a step back and rethink things.

Hi CF-105 (sound like someone from the new starwars movies )

I'm surprised youve come to the rather terminal conclusion as I'm 6ft 5" and I fit and <cough> 110Kg ish, and my interceptor is quite a nice and comfy place to be. Im long(er) in the torso so if anything the headroom for me is not as much as Id ideally like, but not a major issue I have to say.

Totally agree with trans tunnel being large, but the engine sits quite far back, and the trans is not the smallest (bellhousing/torque converter area is quite large).

You can adjust the steering wheel forward and back to sort out the legs/arms reaching out problem (the column is adjustable), and whilst the seat may be all the way back, you can change the padding in the seats (the inner pulls up and you can add/remove foam if you need to), plus I think someone on here may have also removed the two seat 'spacers' that sit between the floor and the seat frame to get a lower position in the cabin.

As you have noted however, forget the rear seats if you are tall.

A bit like you guys in Canada, nothing here is 'just round the corner' so Ive done quite a few K's in mine on longer 1.5hr+ journeys and its been fine.
The only suggestion Id have would be to maybe see if there is anyone either on here, or through your local car club(s) that has an interceptor that you can try as well. I wouldn't judge a whole car make/model on seeing just the one example (same goes for driving, 383 vs. 440 choices etc.). Sit in/drive as many as you can before you make the final decision if I were you.

Anyway, it may not change your mind, but perhaps have a beer/wine and re-assess if you really want to own an interceptor as its a cool car and very much worth it, plus once its yours you can make it more tailored to you (seat foams, even possibly different seats?). Its definitely 10000000x better than my DB7.....Its very snug in there and makes the interceptor look spacious inside!

Cheers
Andrew

Where there's a will, there's often a way!

Stu (6 foot 8 inches tall)

Thanks Andrew.
Please note, I didn’t actual say I wouldn’t get one. Just that I had to rethink things a bit.

You can actually drive a DB7? I tried one once, and thought it was pretty hopeless. Drop dead gorgeous car though.

I was wondering about putting spacers under the front of the seat, to add some tilt there. A bit more support under the thighs that way.

Finally, maybe removing the back seat would help too. No one would ever fit behind me anyway.

Hi CF-105,

Shame about your dilemma and hope you come to a good resolution. While I am nowhere near your size I have played with seating a bit and also took a few measurements today. I have always thought that sitting in the passenger side of my LHD car is more comfortable than the driver side, the tunnel taper on the throttle foot side of a LHD is annoying. I also measured from the tunnel leather surround to the door card and, on my car, is about an inch less on the LH side compared to the RH side. Whether this is due to gearbox/engine issues I don't know.
I have also played with seat positioning and modifying the seat rail spacers, you can do this a little both up/down and tilt, as long as you make sure the adjustment mechanism clears the floor (probably have to move the carpet to fully lower). I also have my outside spacer a little thicker than my inside one which tilts the seat inwards towards the centre and so a touch more door clearance!.

Good luck.

This gentleman is at least 6' 5" tall, maybe 6' 6", I will not comment on his weight as I don't know but as you see he has an Interceptor and has driven it on very long continental European trips. This picture was taken at the end of the Turin 2016 run and since then he's also done the German International weekend in Saxony in 2017 and the Swiss International weekend at Morges in 2018 plus numerous other trips in the UK.

Hi CF! (You don't mind if I call you CF?)
I had the same thing being 2m tall.
I could get in but it was a bit of a squeeze and whilst there was some further adjustment which involved welding to make my legs comfortable (that's welding the seats, not my legs) I would then have an uncomfortable stretch for my arms. The killer for me was that no matter what I did my head would always be brushing the roof and bumps in the road could be painful!
The solution was in fact dead simple - I bought a CV-8!
Sufficient width for my 'child-bearing' hips, headroom, legs and reach.
I appreciate that this suggestion is no good if you've dead set on an Interceptor but I loved mine.
A faster car too being 400lbs lighter.
(Now that statement has the potential to take this thread off-piste!)

I think it would also be worth trying a mark 1 or 2, if you can find one in Canada. They don't have the stick out bit at the top of the door panel.

It's probably my imagination but does the seat go back further in a mark 1 / 2? The shape of the earlier rear seats does allow more room.

As Barrie says though, go for a C-V8 (I may be biased )

Chris_R wrote:This gentleman is at least 6' 5" tall, maybe 6' 6", I will not comment on his weight as I don't know but as you see he has an Interceptor and has driven it on very long continental European trips. This picture was taken at the end of the Turin 2016 run and since then he's also done the German International weekend in Saxony in 2017 and the Swiss International weekend at Morges in 2018 plus numerous other trips in the UK.

IMG_6931.JPG

That gent certainly seems sizeable. I wonder how he made it work. Must have been a few interesting mods involved.

Barrie wrote:Hi CF! (You don't mind if I call you CF?)
I had the same thing being 2m tall.
I could get in but it was a bit of a squeeze and whilst there was some further adjustment which involved welding to make my legs comfortable (that's welding the seats, not my legs) I would then have an uncomfortable stretch for my arms. The killer for me was that no matter what I did my head would always be brushing the roof and bumps in the road could be painful!
The solution was in fact dead simple - I bought a CV-8!
Sufficient width for my 'child-bearing' hips, headroom, legs and reach.
I appreciate that this suggestion is no good if you've dead set on an Interceptor but I loved mine.
A faster car too being 400lbs lighter.
(Now that statement has the potential to take this thread off-piste!)

If only I could love the CV8. A car who’s styling I could never find appreciation for. Funny that they would make its successor notably smaller inside.

zacmarshall wrote:I think it would also be worth trying a mark 1 or 2, if you can find one in Canada. They don't have the stick out bit at the top of the door panel.

It's probably my imagination but does the seat go back further in a mark 1 / 2? The shape of the earlier rear seats does allow more room.

As Barrie says though, go for a C-V8 (I may be biased )

They are few and far between over here, but I might journey to the US and see what I can find. That’s good information to have. Thanks!

CF-105 wrote:That gent certainly seems sizeable. I wonder how he made it work. Must have been a few interesting mods involved.

Absolutely no modifications at all. He opens the door, gets in and sits down! Seat fully back.

my mate big chris is 6ft 9 had a interceptor 3 fitted in it no problem his legs were either side the steering wheel but I never heard him complain about it,

It'd be worth trying a few different cars.
Some people have had replacement seat foam which may be thicker than standard, also, newly replaced webbing in the drivers seat might make you sit higher than usual.
I recently sat in an E-Type Jaguar (XKE in the USA) and my head was literally pushing into the headlining.
I sat in another, similar year and model, the second one had a comfortable 2" or 3" space above my head. This was likely to have been due to newly replaced seat foam and webbing.
I often find my head touching the roof lining in all sorts of cars and I'm only 5' 11" but, short legs and tall in the trunk.
Don't give up!!

cannonball wrote:my mate big chris is 6ft 9 had a interceptor 3 fitted in it no problem his legs were either side the steering wheel but I never heard him complain about it,

Not complaining, and actually being comfortable, are very different things. The Interceptor is NOT a big car inside. My daily driver Mustang Bullitt is, except for width, pretty well the same size, and is dramatically bigger inside. Absolutely no comparison. I must have 6 inches more legroom. And certainly a few more inches of headroom.

I admire him putting his enthusiasm before his comfort.