Surviving Interceptors

[Series3Jensen]

David

Fortunately the vast majority of this work is on Excel spreadsheets

As you are aware, i have been invited to show my car on the JOC stand at the NEC this year
I will be bringing up two lever arch files on Historical Adverts and Articles on circa 200 cars and will be happy to hand out these originals to current owners to retain with their cars and hopefully pass on as the custodianship changes - may save me some postage!!

Kind regards

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

[Nicholas Lightbown]

Hi all

Just an update on my records

I have now identify current and historical information on a total of 2,716 cars

Of these, 76 cars are confirmed as destroyed bringing the total down to 2,640 cars
Of these, 516 cars, the latest information that i have is Pre 2010
This leaves a total of 2,118 cars where the latest information that i have is post 2010, although some of these cars were in very poor or incomplete

As a breakdown of these 2,640 cars

446 cars are Mk 1's
377 cars are Mk 2's
829 cars are Mk 3's
400 cars are Mk 1V's
180 cars are Convertibles
110 cars are SP's
24 cars are COUPE's
225 cars are FF's
43 cars were originally Unspecified of which 31 of these are Hard Top and 12 are convertibles
6 cars are S4 cars

I am able to break these numbers down into all of the relevant Chassis No designations

Of these cars, i have been able to attribute 410 cars to latest JOC member owners (Post 2010) although a few may have subsequently changed hands
I have attributed a further 72 cars to JOC member owners (Pre 2010) and a number of these cars may well have changed hands

I am expecting the total number of surviving cars to exceed 3,000 cars - which is close to 50% of all cars (circa 6,800 cars in total) and this is significantly more than my expectations when i start my records and i was led to believe that only circa 350 cars survived on the road with a further 350 cars off the road

If anyone is interested in any information on a particular car, please message me and i would be pleased to share this as all of the information that i have collected has come from the public domain

Regards

Jim Smith
JOC Member No 1639
136/8791 RJF 17 Owned since September 1978

Hello Jim!

Wonderful insight, shared - and positive survival stats, too.

Just curious, but would it be onerous to calculate, of the 377 Mk 2's thought to be surviving how many are RHD?

Sincerely

Nicholas

[Series3Jensen]

Hi Nicholas

Of the 377 Mk 11 cars that i have as potentially surviving, 272 of these cars are RHD - with a further 105 cars being LHD
Of these 272 RHD cars, 71 cars the latest information that i have is Pre 2010, so there are likely to be some losses from these
201 of the cars the latest information that i have is Post 2010 and it is therefore likely that the vast majority of these cars still survive

Kind regards

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

[OzJensen]

Jim and others interested - Stewart Copeland of the Jensen Car Club of Australia keeps track of the over 600 Jensens in Australia - his work can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... 1TXKOA2FuY

Hope that helps adding to your survivors lists!

[Series3Jensen]

Hi All

It was interesting to note in excess of 30 people came to the JOC Stand at the NEC this year looking for information on a car

With the aid of the late Richard Calver book and the spreadsheet that i have produced, we were able to advise a large number of these people - and in some cases they were able to provide some further information on the cars - that i have added to my records with their agreement

At least two new surviving cars were identified, which i previously did not have information on
This has increased the number of all Interceptors that i have some information on to 2,725 cars - although of these 519 cars, the latest information i have is Pre 2010

I believe that as a result of the interest in this subject over the weekend, the JOC Club is going to look into how we make this information available to all members, in what format and how we maintain it

A very rewarding weekend and a lot of interest on our Stand and the Cars on display
A pleasure for me to meet a large number of JOC Members

Regards

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

[David Davies]

Top work, Jim. I’m sure you made many owners very happy! Glad also the club may at last take an interest in this. Your work is all the more important after the wretched GDPR (which the UK could probably back out of now if it repealed the relevant legislation) means the DVLA won’t release owner history information like they used to.

Sorry I couldn’t make the show, all car events have been out of the question for me for several years now although I hope to be able to make short visits to some suitably located UK events next year such as 541 70th and Ace Cafe, fingers crossed.

[Jenfan]

Jim, not sure if you are aware of the one that I’ve have just seen of Facebook (Jensen Interceptor Lovers). It’s a Mk3 128/4809. Currently in Spain but was in South Africa when it had an engine fire. Looks fairly complete apart from the engine. It has what looks like a UK registration number of KLX961T but that doesn’t make sense for the age of the chassis number…

[Series3Jensen]

Hi

Thank you for informing me - not on my list of survivors - so another one added

Chassis No 128/4809 was EX Factory 18.09.72 and carried Registration Number FKK 600 L
Originally Yellow with a Black Vinyl Roof and Black Interior
Factory Fitted options included Vinyl Roof, Drivers Door Mirror, Sundym Glass, Air Conditioning and Town & Country Horns

I would imagine that the car was Re-imported in circa 1978 - hence the current "T" registration number
There are a few Jensen's with "T" registration numbers

Regards

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

[Chris_R]

Jim, not sure if you are aware of the one that I’ve have just seen of Facebook (Jensen Interceptor Lovers). It’s a Mk3 128/4809. Currently in Spain but was in South Africa when it had an engine fire. Looks fairly complete apart from the engine. It has what looks like a UK registration number of KLX961T but that doesn’t make sense for the age of the chassis number…

KLX961T is a South Africa Transvaal registration number.

[ChrisL]

Hi Jim and all

I gave one of our local members here a hand last week getting the timing on his Interceptor II sorted (don't think I was much use, couldn't see the timing marks for love or money, but Graeme could!).

Anyway he also owns an early Interceptor I, which I think had the number plate HEA 2D when in the UK; one of the very early cars perhaps. Now silver:

IMG_3669[1].JPG (305.43 KiB) Viewed 545 times

I think it's chassis number 115/2516.

The current number plate is also unique in itself and from several generations ago.

He's had it resprayed and it's in good shape but is having a bit of trouble with the windscreen. You would think it would be a case of just refitting the same glass but it seems to be a bit of a task.

Hopefully it will be sorted in time for our local club AGM next month.

[Series3Jensen]

Hi Chris

Thanks for the advice on the Series 1 Interceptor

I can confirm that it is Chassis No 115/2516
Original Registration No HEA 2 D
Originally Regal Red with a Tan Interior
Ex Factory 18.11.1966 although it appears to have been registered on 04.11.1966 as a Demonstrator
An early Vignale Body Car
Was the 1966 Earls Court Motor Show Car
Subsequently Sold on 17.01.1968 for £2,950

Further information that i have recorded:
Mileage in 1968 was 25,903
Was Exported in the early 1970's to Australia
The car was in Thoroughbred & Classic Cars in 01.1995 with a Photo "as a Discovered Car"
The car was then carrying its current Registration No of XIM 555 and was Silver with a Tan Interior and Black Coachlines
Recorded in 02.2014 as still in Australia and requiring Restoration but good condition
Also recorded in 03.2021 as being in Western Australia

If the current owner would like to send me a Private Message, i can scan or send the 1995 article with a picture of the car

Regards

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

[ChrisL]

Thanks Jim

I can confirm that as of yesterday (24 November 2023) it is alive and well out here in dry ole Perth, albeit still needing some work to get it back on the road.

Graham doesn't have email but I will PM you and pass it on to him together with the terrific note from you above.

Greatly appreciated.

[Series3Jensen]

Hi all

Have been continuing to update my records on all Interceptors and have added another spreadsheet to track the number of cars that i have identified to date throughout the World

To date i have identified the following cars in 4 main geographical areas throughout the World

UK
Total number of cars recorded 1,567
Cars confirmed as Destroyed 45
Cars Latest Info Pre 2010 265
Cars Latest Info Post 2010 1,257

Europe (incl South Africa)
Total number of cars recorded 409
Cars confirmed as Destroyed 3
Cars Latest Info Pre 2010 60
Cars Latest Info Post 2010 346

America & Canada
Total number of cars recorded 313
Cars confirmed as Destroyed 2
Cars Latest Info Pre 2010 53
Cars Latest Info Post 2010 258

Australia & New Zealand & The Far East
Total number of cars recorded 503
Cars confirmed as Destroyed 32
Cars Latest Info Pre 2010 105
Cars Latest Info Post 2010 366

The total number of cars recorded 2,792
Cars confirmed as Destroyed 82
Cars Latest Info Pre 2010 483
Cars Latest Info Post 2010 2,227

I am also able to break this down into individual models for each of the 4 geographical locations
Survival rate (including some very poor cars) is close to 40% which is significantly higher than i anticipated when i first started this exercise

Further survivors continue to appear

I continue to welcome anyone providing information on cars in order to improve my records

I had records of Registration Numbers on 602 cars, of which i have now been able to record 365 of these against specific Chassis Nos but still have 237 registration numbers to identify against specific chassis numbers
Most of these registration numbers date to between 1980 and 2010

Regards

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

[pcourtney]

Hi Jim, another one has popped up in Kent, chassis 115/3125 - the owner will be selling it next year, was originally Regal Red, now painted Yellow

Jensen Int MKI 115 3125.jpg (59.89 KiB) Viewed 423 times

[Series3Jensen]

Peter

Thank you for the update on another survivor
It looks in reasonable condition - although i think i would have preferred the original Regal Red
They continue to appear

Regards

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