Any trace of a LHD FF?

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Per
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by Per »

Front diff will still be in the way or are you thinking of some tweak to get around that problem?
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by cannonball »

Per wrote:Front diff will still be in the way or are you thinking of some tweak to get around that problem?

leave all the steering on the rhd side in the engine compartment,. just leave the bottom of the column sitting in to rhd foot well and graft the mustang 11 chain box across the firewall, and on the lh side a column that does not exit the firewall, same idea as what it looks like Jensen experimented with, but the mustang jobbie is already proven and has absolutely no slop in it, you can not tell its chain driven,,
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thomaslk
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by thomaslk »

Hi all - i am really impressed that my thread survived for more than 5 yrs and still inspires some creativity :shock: :D
rgds
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by AndrzejS »

So, I have asked challenger for posing Mr John Page (the Service Manager / Developement Engineer at Jensen Parts & Service) and Mr Peter Mayle (general repairs and resto work specialist) a question, if there may be a factory customised LHD FF from the 1987. From what I understand, the answer is "definitely no". I also contacted the Autoweld Motor Services LTD. (https://www.facebook.com/autoweldmotorservices/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), trying to reach Mr Ian Orford (the Managing Director of Jensen Parts & Service and, from 1987, Jensen Cars Ltd).
In my opinion, from now on we could consider two options concerning "The Linkslenker".
  • the story may be just a mistake
  • or the car may have been customised outside the factory (then it would be a part of Jensen history only if the modification was accepted by the factory).
I would like to ask challenger (and anyone who keeps contact with any of those gentlemen) for passing those questions on to Mr Orford, Mr Page and Mr Mayle to finally solve the mystery (I think that answering those questions won't harm anyone's privacy as, from what I know, both Mr Richter and the reported buyer died in 2014).:
  • What Jensen cars were ordered in 1987 by the Jensen representative in Germany, Mr Cornelius Richter?
  • How many Jensens were built that year in general? (The granddaughter of the reported buyer says, that he ordered some "fancy British car with a right hand drive" in 1987. However, no factory-built FF from that year is known. On the other hand, if Mr Bauer bought an Interceptor, why would it be a RHD car?)
  • If the car was customised outside factory, is it possible that Mr Richter got a factory acceptance for this customization, to keep the warranty? If so, who would give such acceptance?
Last edited by AndrzejS on Tue Mar 06, 2018 9:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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thomaslk
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by thomaslk »

Hi Andrzej,
i am really impressed how deep you dived into the Jensen world and specifically into this subject.
Meanwhile i GUESS that the statement of a LHD FF was just false (most probably not intentionally but caused by faded memory of the ex-dealer).
rgds
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Per
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by Per »

cannonball wrote:
Per wrote:Front diff will still be in the way or are you thinking of some tweak to get around that problem?

leave all the steering on the rhd side in the engine compartment,. just leave the bottom of the column sitting in to rhd foot well and graft the mustang 11 chain box across the firewall, and on the lh side a column that does not exit the firewall, same idea as what it looks like Jensen experimented with, but the mustang jobbie is already proven and has absolutely no slop in it, you can not tell its chain driven,,
Ah but the hot rod items are essentially the same (see earlier post) and it xan be ordered with exactly the offset you need. So no need to move anything else.
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by thomaslk »

so it looks like the headline of the thread has to be changed in "who dares to build the first LHD FF" 8)
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by AndrzejS »

Thomas, thank you very much.
There are still some things that make the story interesting- Mr Bauer's granddaughter confirms that he bought "a fancy British RHD car" in 1987. We know that the car didn't become a factory-customised LHD FF. But what was it in the beginning? A second-hand FF? An undocumented FF from 1987?
If there is any technical or historical reason to see this car as "even more exceptional than «an average» Jensen" (every Jensen is exceptional in itself), it's really worth investigating.
"Sold by an artist to a toy factory executive"- it's a perfect metaphor of what cars are- toys and works of art at the same time.
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by cannonball »

AndrzejS wrote:Thomas, thank you very much.
There are still some things that make the story interesting- Mr Bauer's granddaughter confirms that he bought "a fancy British RHD car" in 1987. We know that the car didn't become a factory-customised LHD FF. But what was it in the beginning? A second-hand FF? An undocumented FF from 1987?
If there is any technical or historical reason to see this car as "even more exceptional than «an average» Jensen" (every Jensen is exceptional in itself), it's really worth investigating.
"Sold by an artist to a toy factory executive"- it's a perfect metaphor of what cars are- toys and works of art at the same time.

If any of this ever happened then a fact Ulric woodhams would have found this out, he has delved deeper in to the FF community than anyone alive or dead, so contact him i really do not believe there is much he does not know, and the Daddy Richard Calver would have sniffed it out during his time studying at Jensen parts and service in the early 90.s or when it exactly was,,.

I am flabergasted that those two guys have spent so much time investigating and catalouging The Jensen vehicles and history etc etc amazing feat for sure, I take my hat off to them,,
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by Tim SP »

The BRIX-MIX thing.
If there was a FD Ventora that amazing news to me-
But there were VX Senators & Opel Senators, there is one on display at RAF Cosford- possibly the best Aircraft museum in UK (it is in my view, pisses Hendon & Duxford by a country mile) also this is the venue for the JOC open day- a great place, my very very dear jensen bro takes me there every visit- hopefully he still will.

That cold war period gets very little time these days, its easy to bury the past- unless its Hollywood bullshite like bridge of spies.
Its uber interesting talking to anyone that was involved, it was very,very serious at the time.
Is the Ventora a FF????
The senators all had FF running gear- my dear friend steve can tell you about that as he knows.
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by AndrzejS »

cannonball
I also take my hat off to Mr Calver and Mr Woodhams.

If Mr John Page says so, we can be sure that there were no factory-customised LHD FF.
Yet, for example, Mr Richter could have attempted to make such modification with cooperation of some German garage. Then, there would be hardly any evidence in Jensen's documents.
And, even this slight suggestion that some RHD FF may have been built in the Jensen Parts and Service and the Jensen Cars Ltd. era is worth further investigation. Both mentioned Authors write about 14 Series 4 Interceptors sold in the 80's:

http://www.richardcalver.com/jensenprodn.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.jensenmuseum.org/jensen-prod ... res-dates/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

And, while Mr Woodhams has documented the story of every of 320 FF's produced between 1966 and 1971 (http://www.jensenmuseum.org/museum-shop ... t-stories/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), we also know that the FF was offered in 80's
http://www.jcc.ch/fileadmin/user_upload ... _FF_87.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (article from the 1987)
and even in the 90's
http://jensencars.be/broch%20ff.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. In the French brochure published by the Belgian club the FF drive is mentioned as an option for an Interceptor. I would really like to ask Mr Woodhams and Mr Calver if the documents rule out the possibility that one of the cars produced in the 80's may be an FF. I will probably send the link to this thread to both gentlemen.
Last edited by AndrzejS on Thu Mar 08, 2018 12:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Richard Calver
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by Richard Calver »

The last FF was made in 1971. Since then, lots of people have played around with chassis and built strange things such as the FF/SP/Convertible. A LHD FF was never made by the factory as a car. A bulkhead engineering mockup was created to test the system, as is well known. I was around the factory a lot in the late 1980s to 1990. They didn't make any new cars except the Interceptor S4. The last of these, 2016, was sold to a German customer in 1992. It was offered for sale recently.
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by AndrzejS »

Richard Calver
Thank you very much. Could we find out how many Interceptors were built in the 1987 and if any of them was sent to Germany?
Another question: were there attempts to get the factory acceptance for some of the customizations you write about?
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by Richard Calver »

>Could we find out how many Interceptors were built in the 1987
It's not that simple. Get a book.

>and if any of them was sent to Germany?
None.

>were there attempts to get the factory acceptance for some of the customizations you write about?
Not to my knowledge, but the company built some of them.
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Re: Any trace of a LHD FF?

Post by Frankoid »

Richard Calver wrote:>Could we find out how many Interceptors were built in the 1987
It's not that simple. Get a book.

>and if any of them was sent to Germany?
None.

>were there attempts to get the factory acceptance for some of the customizations you write about?
Not to my knowledge, but the company built some of them.
Indeed.... The amount of information in Richards books has kept me enthralled for 25 years - everything an enthusiast could want and more!
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