The original 1966-1976 Jensen Interceptor was a British-built, Detroit-powered four-seat grand tourer. After a few on-again, off-again production blips in the 1980s, the Interceptor was dead for good—or so we thought. The owner of the Jensen brand rights has decided to make a run at resurrecting the half-century-old GT for 2014. Healey Sports Cars Switzerland Ltd. (HSCS), the owner of the Jensen brand, has released a few sketches of the new Interceptor along with a few details of its plan to remaster the car for this century.
HSCS has selected CPP Global Holdings to engineer and build the new Jensen Interceptor. CPP (Coventry Prototype Panels) is a Coventry, U.K.-based engineering and coachbuilding firm owned by none other than Vladimir Antonov—the Russian billioniare who bought Spyker sports cars back in February. CPP will supposedly develop and produce the new Interceptor at a “new production facility” on Browns Lane (yes, the same street on which Jaguar’s old HQ was located). Right now there are but two sketches of what the new Interceptor will look like—it’s basically a modern take on the old one—and HSCS’s claim that the car will we based upon an all-new aluminum chassis wrapped in an aluminum body.
Most everything else about the new Jensen is murky; the number of cars to be produced and their prices are still to-be-determined. “Ultra-exclusivity” is intended, and HSCS says the car will make its first public appearance in late 2012 before deliveries start in 2014. The original Jensen Interceptor was powered by a big Chrysler V-8, but neither HSCS nor CPP has revealed what will power the new iteration. Currently the companies are gauging consumer interest in the Interceptor on a new website, but CPP’s founder says work on the car is “at an advanced stage.” We’ll just have to wait and see if a Jensen redux happens in 2012, or 2014, or maybe never—but having the entity that now builds Spykers behind the push gives the new Interceptor at lease a sliver of possibility.
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