The last of the straight six Interceptors
Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:46 pm
This is early Interceptor chassis number INT885347, number 88 of 88 built.
The car at Tim Clark's earlier today.
The car was first registered to Jensen Motors Ltd on the 13th August 1957 and retained by JML until May of 1958 when it was sold to Commander D S Crowther of Sussex. As well as being the last early Interceptor built the car differs from other Interceptors in having the Austin DS7 engine and 4-speed automatic transmission as fitted to the 541, it also has disc brakes all round and 15" wheels as fitted to 541s and C-V8s. Whether the car was used as a test bed for development of the 541 or simply finished using the components to hand in the factory in 1957 we can't say.
Richard Calver says it was used as a director's car whilst at JML and it may well have been driven by one of the Jensen brothers, but we don't know that for sure. The car passed through the hands of three further owners, one of which may have been a dealer, before being bought by C & R Briggs Ltd of Kirkcaldy in Fife, Scotland, in July of 1963. Colieson Briggs, the C of C & R Briggs, passed the car to his daughter, now Mrs Jean Robertson, who used the car for a number of years, including towing the family caravan on holidays, but eventually the car was laid up in a garage, possibly in the late '60s, and there it stayed until 1995 when it was recommissioned and MOT tested. In the next four years the car was driven all of 400 miles until a final MOT ran out in 2000 and it was put to bed again.
The car is very original and unrestored and though it has lost some minor trim items and a couple of interior light switches it is otherwise complete. Originally Court Grey (or Corfe, the chassis data book and the original log book differ on the spelling) the car is now black under the original green vinyl roof; the green leather interior is complete and just needs tidying (though the mouse nests need removing).
How long the car has been painted black is something I will have to try and establish and of course therein lies a dilemma, if the car has been black for almost all of its life should it remain black? But first the car will need recommissioning mechanically, it rolls, but doesn't stop, not even the handbrake works, and the engine won't turn. Bodily the car is in good condition bar a small crack in the aluminium near the bonnet catch (normal I'm told) and the chassis appears to be solid, though the open ends of the chassis tubes are brittle and there may well be some areas of localised rot waiting to be discovered.
What to do with the car next remains to be decided, the fact that it last passed an MOT 17 years ago, rather than standing unused for 50 years as the auction particulars suggested, may mean it can be put back on the road just as it is, a venerable old car, 'a survivor', before any decision needs to be taken on whether a full body restoration should be carried out.
Photo believed to be from the mid 90s.
Some discussion in the early cars thread
https://www.joc.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=26685
and when it was for sale.
https://www.joc.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=26473
Photo of the Morris Leslie stand at the NEC. Photo by Lawrence Vanhegan.
The car at Tim Clark's earlier today.
The car was first registered to Jensen Motors Ltd on the 13th August 1957 and retained by JML until May of 1958 when it was sold to Commander D S Crowther of Sussex. As well as being the last early Interceptor built the car differs from other Interceptors in having the Austin DS7 engine and 4-speed automatic transmission as fitted to the 541, it also has disc brakes all round and 15" wheels as fitted to 541s and C-V8s. Whether the car was used as a test bed for development of the 541 or simply finished using the components to hand in the factory in 1957 we can't say.
Richard Calver says it was used as a director's car whilst at JML and it may well have been driven by one of the Jensen brothers, but we don't know that for sure. The car passed through the hands of three further owners, one of which may have been a dealer, before being bought by C & R Briggs Ltd of Kirkcaldy in Fife, Scotland, in July of 1963. Colieson Briggs, the C of C & R Briggs, passed the car to his daughter, now Mrs Jean Robertson, who used the car for a number of years, including towing the family caravan on holidays, but eventually the car was laid up in a garage, possibly in the late '60s, and there it stayed until 1995 when it was recommissioned and MOT tested. In the next four years the car was driven all of 400 miles until a final MOT ran out in 2000 and it was put to bed again.
The car is very original and unrestored and though it has lost some minor trim items and a couple of interior light switches it is otherwise complete. Originally Court Grey (or Corfe, the chassis data book and the original log book differ on the spelling) the car is now black under the original green vinyl roof; the green leather interior is complete and just needs tidying (though the mouse nests need removing).
How long the car has been painted black is something I will have to try and establish and of course therein lies a dilemma, if the car has been black for almost all of its life should it remain black? But first the car will need recommissioning mechanically, it rolls, but doesn't stop, not even the handbrake works, and the engine won't turn. Bodily the car is in good condition bar a small crack in the aluminium near the bonnet catch (normal I'm told) and the chassis appears to be solid, though the open ends of the chassis tubes are brittle and there may well be some areas of localised rot waiting to be discovered.
What to do with the car next remains to be decided, the fact that it last passed an MOT 17 years ago, rather than standing unused for 50 years as the auction particulars suggested, may mean it can be put back on the road just as it is, a venerable old car, 'a survivor', before any decision needs to be taken on whether a full body restoration should be carried out.
Photo believed to be from the mid 90s.
Some discussion in the early cars thread
https://www.joc.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=26685
and when it was for sale.
https://www.joc.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=26473
Photo of the Morris Leslie stand at the NEC. Photo by Lawrence Vanhegan.