Survivor stats

[Richard Calver]

For those who follow such things, the annual update of survivor stats is on the web site.

[Frankoid]

I have just visited your site, very interesting stuff. I still have my 3 and have just bought an airflow chamber to hermetically seal the cars in. So my cars now have their own "bubble!"

[MikeWilliams]

Very interesting Richard.

Any plans to project those figures backwards to cover earlier models?

Mike

[nrb993]

Excellent Richard, Thank you for keeping us in the picture.

I hope in a future days my brain will be able to process the figures and my eyes will be able to read again

https://www.richardcalver.com/survive.htm

for everyone

Ta
Neil

[Richard Calver]

>Any plans to project those figures backwards to cover earlier models?

You must have missed it.

[Series3Jensen]

Richard

Thank you for the updated figures

This subject has interested me more recently and i have been reviewing all of the Jensen Interceptor models over the last two years, using the data collected on a simple excel spreadsheet that does allow searches
Of the circa 6,400 cars produced, i have found:
Recent information (in the last 10 years) on a total of 1,190 cars
Historical information (over 10 years old) on a further 342 cars
Demised information on a further 44 cars
A total of 1,576 cars
In addition to this i have information on circa 400 + cars that i have not been able to relate to a specific Chassis Number

All of the information that i have collected so far has been available in the wider domain and do not therefore belief there to be any Data Protection issues - but it does take time
The two spreadsheets i have now extend to more than 60,000 lines and close to 1 million entries

My aim was to provide current owners with any information that i have on their own car in order that this may be preserved for future custodian
You may have seen my posts on Registration Numbers and Adverts and Articles
In the later i have captured historical adverts and articles on other Jensen models

You will have noted from my posts, that the changing Registration numbers on these cars has posed a number of challenges in identifying specific Chassis numbers, but Member responses and additional information allows me to continue to identify specific cars

I have purchased both of your Chassis Data Books and these have been helpful in me identifying cars
In fact i have subsequently learned through an excel search, that the original owner of my own car, purchased an SP Model some 6 months earlier, which carried his original private registration number - which subsequently changed prior to me purchasing the car to another private plate

KInd regards

Jim Smith
Mem No 1639
136/8791 RJF 17 owned since 1978

[Richard Calver]

Good work, Jim. Keep at it. The truth is out there, or what's left of it. All the best with the continuing search.

[Frankoid]

I inherited a cherished number plate when my father died, but I just cant put it on my Jensen which still carries the original number plate. It seems a shame to ruin the continuity, so I put it on my everyday run-around instead, a complete reversal of the original intension

[Chris_R]

As at the end of 2019 (the 2020 figures are not available yet) the UK DVLA had 1,322 Jensens registered for on the road use and a further 784 declared SORN (Statutory Off Road Notified) for a total of 2,106 known to the DVLA.
It's difficult from the DVLA records to determine the numbers of each model as almost a third are recorded as "Missing". Some determination can be made on these, for example 52 have engine size between 7000cc and 7499cc, fairly obviously most of these will be an Interceptor of some variant, but also possible would be a C-V8 with a 7.2litre (or other bored out size) engine, but which one we cannot tell. The public records do not include year of manufacture or chassis number details.
One of the "missing" has an engine size 9500cc - 9999cc and one has an engine over 10000cc, three have an engine size up to 499cc and one has an engine between 500cc and 749cc. Quite what these 6 are would be impossible to say without access to the chassis number details.

[felixkk]

Good work, Jim. Keep at it. The truth is out there, or what's left of it. All the best with the continuing search.

That goes for you too, Richard! I wonder how many are still out there. It seems like two or three cars show up per year over here, which we have not been aware of. Someone asked me recently if there is another C-V8 here in Zurich- he saw one on the road which was identical to ours It wasn't me, I was somewhere else that day in the C-V8, but maybe it was another marque...

How many cars have shown up on Facebook? I'm only there once in a while.

[RAP72]

On the Mk1 Interceptors Survivors website I show 386/1024 survivors, [ 37,70%] and, of those 386, I have updated 157/386 [ 40.67%] this year.

For greater detail see http://www.joc.org.uk/Interceptor_Mk_1/ ... tions.html

Admittedly some of the early ones that are showing as 'survivors' were taken from other peoples list and I have not heard of them since the lists were given to me, but taking a 10 year period, which is the time the website has been running, you could argue that 355 have been recorded - showing an alternative 34.67% survival rate.

Turning specifically to the 157 notified this year of those 75 [47.77%] are listed as being 'on the road'; 54 are shown as 'under restoration' [34.39%] and 28 shown as having been 'for sale' [17.83%] - some of which were also in an 'on the road' condition. Extrapolating from the condition of the 157 above it could be said that of the 386 recorded survivors 184 cars are roadworthy and 132 are undergoing restoration,

when digesting this remember statistics are like a lamp post to a drunk; not for illumination than support.

time for a nap.

[Richard Calver]

>It's difficult from the DVLA records to determine the numbers of each model as almost a third are recorded as "Missing".

This is a problem with government records, the usefulness of which cannot be verified outside their system.

For example, today I was looking up the record for a significant Interceptor II, the first to get the 440 engine, 3889. It was broken at Medway in the 1990s but the DVLA shows it as untaxed in 1988 with last logbook in 1989. Since a record of this car still exists on their system, it is being counted in their stats somewhere, despite having ceased to exist more than 25 years ago. I know from other DVLA searches that cars are still listed which are in other countries.

I first began checking the DVLA entries in 1999. In many cases I can compare what they said about cars back then with what they say about the same cars now. I don't make a habit of it, because life is short, but every original factory listed Jensen registration has been checked against the DVLA record at some time in the past 20 years. Where these are the only records of a fate, those fates stand in my system. Where I have a better source, the better source supravenes.

The better source would be a communication from an owner, an advertisement or an eye-witness sighting. If a government archive is the only source, so be it, but then it becomes a case of "garbage in, garbage out", as with any form of survey. In the case of 3889, the DVLA would suggest that it is a missing survivor, but I count it as demised.

Another way of looking at survivors in the UK would be the broad-brush estimate. I know from observation that about 5000 Jensens have survived worldwide during the past 15 years, a period which is a lot less than the 45 year range of the DVLA's computerized entries. Since about 42% of all Jensens ever made were sold in the UK, that suggests that about 2000 of the 5000 would have survived in the UK in the past 15 years (give or take, leaving aside migrations). This is broadly in line with the DVLA's current count, whatever that count may represent.

[Chris_R]

For clarification, the DVLA statistics are for taxed and SORN vehicles. The second category, SORN, is where the owner has positively informed the DVLA that the car is off the road. SORN became compulsory in 1998. Any car that is taken off the road since that date, or was off the road and has changed ownership since that date, and that stays off the road, must be declared as such to the DVLA as SORN otherwise the owner is liable for tax and insurance. The government is interested in these numbers because they are known vehicles. It is assumed that a vehicle that is declared SORN may appear again on the road. Some vehicles not known about since before 1998 may reappear, an example would be my Daimler which had been off the road since 1990 and was listed as untaxed but when I bought it and registered the change of keeper I had to declare SORN for the car and from then it would appear in the SORN statistics.
Cars that are listed as "UNTAXED" will have been off the road since before 1998 and have not changed ownership since before that date. There was no specific compulsion in those days to inform the DVLA of a cars destruction and so many (probably millions) are listed as UNTAXED. An example of that is BLA993S which was my own car but was written off in 1987 and broken up in a scrap yard (I last saw it at the bottom of a pile of 3 cars, wheels gone, roof caved in), the insurance company had the registration document but appears not to have informed the DVLA of its demise. It still appears on the DVLA records as "Untaxed since 1987". The government is not interested in these because 99.9% of them will never reappear. This will be the case with 3889. The numbers I gave will not include those listed as UNTAXED.

[Series3Jensen]

Chris

Your earlier comment on cars not on SORN affected me at one point
I had taken my car off the road in 1992 and subsequently moved house in 1990 and had not advised the DVLA
Into the 2000's i suddenly realised this was but concerned at losing the registration number on my Jensen
I checked my Registration No and it came up as on another car!!!!
I therefore wrote to the DVLA and sent them a copy (not the original) log book to try to recover the situation
Fortunately as my car had been taken off the road well before SORN, i was advised that the it was not an issue nor did i retrospectively have to apply for SORN on my vehicle - that may well now have changed
I finally undertook a Full Restoration on my car between January 2015 and September 2016

Unfortunately my investigation into Jensen's has only targeted the Interceptor and that has been a mammoth task with over 6,400 cars
I have however during my investigations turned up articles on our other models and have retained these if of interest to the Club or individual owners

As i have not relied on the information held by the Club, this has been a slow but very interesting investigation to date and will continue

I have to date found information on a total of 1,190 cars where this information is less than 10 years old
In addition to this i have been able to confirm the demise of a further 44 cars although i am sure that this is more likely 1,000's

In addition i have recorded information on a further 342 cars where the latest information is more than 10 years old - and in some cases up to 40 years old - do these cars still survive?

In addition i have information on alternative registration numbers of in excess of 400 cars that i have not yet been able to link to individual Chassis Numbers - and i remain hopeful that current JOC members will be able to advise me further on my separate article on Registration Numbers

i have been tempted to extend my information collection to 541's and CV8's as there are not to many of these
The Jensen Healey and GT is a further significant step for me to consider at this stage although i can see that a review of all cars would assist us all in understanding how many and which cars still exist

Kind regards

Jim Smith
Mem No 1639
136/8791 RJF 17 owned since September 1978