Tim Clark's Interceptor III

Cars of the Month for 2010
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zacmarshall
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Tim Clark's Interceptor III

Post by zacmarshall »

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This is Tim Clarks? Interceptor III. The car hadn?t been used for several years when Tim bought it. Seeing the photos of when he bought it and after he spent lots of time cleaning and polishing you would never believe it was the same car.

The car was owned by Alex Park who amongst other things was the chief executive of British Leyland from 1975 to 1978. He was a personal friend of Kjell Qvale (they even holidayed together) and this no doubt led to the purchase of the Interceptor.

Alex was the driving force for what is now Gaydon heritage centre, whilst at BL several vintage/prototypes were saved, along with some of the first & last of the BL range.
This came about after a routine visit to the Longbridge plant when he discovered a 1910 Austin 7 locked away in a room, prompting him to seek out and restore other collectors? items which were locked away in the company?s plants.

He also took part in the London to Brighton run every year in a 1908 Morris.

He was friendly with Prince Michael who having driven the Jensen at great speed around Donninton thought it a great car with plenty of go, much to the horror of his close protection team apparently!

The car survives in totally original condition & is almost like what you would expect a 3 year old car to be like. Its condition is simply breathtaking. To date has covered 40,000 miles.


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The car oriignally had a Philips RN712 stereo/radio cassete with dictation facility inc a remote mike. Tim is trying to track one down.
C-V8 II 104/2146 CHJ 948B
ex FF II, Interceptor I, II and III, SP, GTs and Healeys. You might say I got the bug....
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Kieron
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Post by Kieron »

What a car... nice colours too...
1968 Interceptor Mk 1 115/3012
1971 FF MK 2 127/284
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Tim SP
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Post by Tim SP »

Thanks, now I have a (nice) problem,can't keep 3 museam exibits! What do I keep, what do we let go to pastures new?
I'm at a loss on this one, maybe S4 goes,can I part with precious SP.......
Wallace
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Post by Wallace »

No contest in my mind Tim, S4 goes! That is a wonderful looking car, silver & black is one of my favourite colour combinations.

Mike
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Post by facel »

Tim,

that's absolutely stunning, you must keep this one.

Martin
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Tim SP
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Post by Tim SP »

Yes its lovely, it runs like a new car. It even smells like new. It possibly should be in Gaydon,poss still might.
Something so original should be preserved for the future generations to see what quality these cars were/are.
I know things should be used & enjoyed,but there are plenty out there for that, there's very few worldwide like this.
I can't fund a small Jensen museam sadly!
cannonball
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Post by cannonball »

looks very nice tim

does it retain all its original panels or has it had work yrs ago, is it original paint with no touch in,s
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GaryBoyd
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Post by GaryBoyd »

I've been to a few transport/car museums in the UK and no mention of Jensen. Nothing in Coventry or Gaydon.

Have we been missed?

Gary
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Post by cannonball »

cannonball wrote:looks very nice tim

does it retain all its original panels or has it had work yrs ago, is it original paint with no touch in,s
you about tim
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Tim SP
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Post by Tim SP »

The Gaydon connection is nothing to do with Jensen, but the founder owned this car,so would be more of a tribute to him, & this car which he loved over all others & kept till his death.
They are aware & are happy to have it on display, as a permanant exibit.
As for the body, it has all its factory metalwork has never been bumped. Jensen freshened the paintwork (due to a bit of fade, on the bonnet I think) in the mid 1980's, they were asked to fit new door handles as they were not perfect (indeed they are amoung the best I've seen today,Alex was that fussy, these new door handles were not fitted due to time issue's so they were placed in the boot. They are still there in their greased bags along with new keys!!!
Amazing.
If this was an SP I would 'out' everything,job done!
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VFK44
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Post by VFK44 »

If you sell your SP you'll become "Tim ex-SP"...

You sound like a man who wants to use his cars - how much use will you practically get from a museum quality car? (Seriously, as you may actually get considerable use from it around the show circuit for all I know.) When you do use it, will the pride you get from displaying it be sufficient to make it worthwhile?
"Now that chassis number is particularly interesting ‘cos it’s the one after the one before, which is the one after mine, not many people know that"
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Post by Torquemada »

Hi Tim,

great looking car.

What are you wearing on your feet, Boots DMS or Boots Combat NI ?

Are you also wearing the plastic feet socks, the ones made of pure green nylon that you could wear for weeks without them smelling, I'm sure they were made just for sprogs/maggots just to make sure we got blisters after 5 minutes of wearing.

Regs

Richard
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Tim SP
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Post by Tim SP »

The footware is good old assualt boots & std issue socks,which as you say don't ware out or stink!
Indeen said boots are a sore point as there have been 1000's of them with problem sole ie they rot & fall off! (I've had at least 6 pairs)
The current issue Gortex assualt boot is a great peice of footware, anyone who like a ramble would be very happy with them.
I cant remember wearing anything other than the above, never had blisters even with out of box & straight out on a ten miler.
My 'smart' boots are US Jungle,another fantastic bit of kit.
I spose everyone favours the boot of their time, apart from the PBI who got stuck with ammo boots!!!
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Anton001
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Re: Tim Clark's Interceptor III

Post by Anton001 »

Hi Tim,

I discovered that the mk3 has the mount for the microphone for the Philips 22rn 712.
Are you willing to sell it?

Cheers
Anton
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