Ex Factory 13th July 1973
First Registered 13th August 1973
Current Ownership since 16th / 20th September 1978
Jim purchased the car in September 1978 after looking for a car for almost a year
The car was 5 years old and had 4 previous owners
The current Reg No of RJF 17 was on the car at the time of purchase
As bought in 1978
At a car show earlier this year
Jim ran the car for 2 years and then decided to take it off the road for some minor works
In 1980 Jim purchased a house and got married and then had 2 children
In 1990 they moved house again and undertook significant work on their home over a number of years
During this time the car was stored largely outside and was not moved to a barn until circa 2004
Fortunately, Jim had removed most of the chrome and interior of the car and this was stored in his loft
In 2014, Jim decided to revisit the car and decided that he must either sell the car or restore it
He decided that as he had got the car into its present condition, he felt that he had an obligation to bring the car back to a useable car
The intention was for the car to be a nice useable example and not a concours car
Fortunately Jim’s now late Uncle and Nephew were TR Specialists – Robsport International and agreed to strip the car to a bare shell and the car was collected in January 2015
The car was then media blasted and zinc primed to understand the extent of work required
The shell was remarkable sound but a decision was made to replace the inner and outer cills, door skins, front and rear half wings and front and rear valences together with a number of other smaller repairs
The car was then repainted in the original Jensen White that the car left the factory in, but a decision was made not to replace the Vinyl Roof finish, instead deciding to paint it white
For the year the car also had a very rare steel sliding roof, which appeared to have been installed from new but was not recorded on the original build sheets
A number of components of this had failed and not being able to find replacement parts, a decision was made to replace a large section of the roof
During the over 30 year period that the car had been off the road, Jim continued to remove, clean and prepare parts to re-install to the car
At one stage Jim had more than 1,400 parts stored in his roof space
The engine was completely rebuilt with new aluminium heads, an Edelbrock carb and other minor modifications but all the original parts have been retained
The engine was Dyno-tested before it was installed back in the car and was producing 441bhp and 510 lbs of torque
The car was completed in September 2016 and was used for Jim’s son Mark wedding to Nicola on 1st October 2016
The car was then accepted by Lancaster Insurance and displayed on the Pride of Ownership stand at the NEC in November 2016
In August this year the car was 50 years old and in September Jim’s ownership had increased to 45 years
The car continues to be taken to and displayed at many local shows and has received a number of awards but more importantly receives a great deal of interest
