<VV> Interesting car for sale - NO CORVAIR

[Tony Underwood]

At 11:03 hours 10/24/2005, Marc  Marcoulides wrote:
>I remember the Jenson Interceptor, was it also known as the Jenson Healey?



Nope.   The Interceptor was an entirely different creature with 
nothing of any sort of connection to Austin-Healey or the 
Jensen-Healey products.    It was kinda "loosely" associated with 
Chrysler for a B-engine driveline.   The Interceptors were never able 
to live up to their real potential, far as performance cars went, 
since they tended to be a bit nose-heavy and they had really tight 
engine bays making service a bit of a problem when you stuff a B or 
RB bigblock Mopar engine into a small car like the Interceptor, which 
ironically was still larger than most Brit cars of the day.    A 
friend of mine has one, nicely laid out inside and the lines are 
good, but I bet there aren't many people who would say it's a 
bitchin' handler.   It *is* good for burning tires off the 
back  end.    The Interceptor when fitted with Mopar muscle was more 
of what the Jensen Bros envisioned as a Brit high powered touring 
car.   By the way, Jensen had been in the car body contract  business 
for a long time before they decided to make something with their own 
name on it.   Before, they'd built some car bodies for Austin, Volvo, 
and Sunbeam I think...  however if memory serves, I think the 
Interceptor body was actually built in Italy, with Jensen doing the 
interiors and outfitting all the mechanicals and trim.

Incidentally, the Volvo P1800 body was built by Jensen.

Most Interceptors were fitted with Mopar 383 big block engines 
although a few of the early '70s vintage cars had 440 engines, such 
as the one my friend owns.    In nice shape, they're worth a serious 
buck or two.


Jensen went belly-up shortly after the OPEC oil thing hit home for 
real, and the Interceptor went with it.   Still, I think Jensen built 
the Mopar powered Interceptors for almost ten years even though I 
don't think they ever built more than a few hundred cars each model year.


tony..