Every year contains some notable anniversaries worth marking in one way or another. In our classic car world, some of those anniversaries relate to specific events, races, prominent lives and of course the launch and/or demise of some of our favourite cars.
We’ve written about a few here this year – the Triumph Stag, the Opel Manta A, Jowett Jupiter and the extraordinary Porsche 917 as well as it’s much smaller, slower and less expensive sibling, the 914.
This year marks 70 years since the Interceptor name – indisputably one of the coolest names for any car – was first used. The Interceptor has quite a few fans among the team here at ViaRETRO; indeed, our own Claus Ebberfeld actually bought one earlier this year – you can read about it here.
I was reminded of this anniversary a few weeks back while attending the most recent Historics auction – incidentally, their next scheduled event has been a (hopefully temporary) victim of the latest coronavirus inspired lockdown here in England, and has been rescheduled for December 12th – where a beautifully restored 1967 Jensen Interceptor Mk1 sold for £70,000.
On sale at the same auction was an Aston Martin DB6, a direct contemporary of the Interceptor. This was only an average example compared to the Jensen, yet it sold for £220,000, so I thought I’d cover the Interceptor’s 70th anniversary with a look at both it, and its close contemporary rival.
The first model to carry the Interceptor name was not the Touring-bodied GT that we are more familiar with but was launched in 1950 and was the second car built by Jensen. As would be the case throughout the company’s history, it was a mix of off-the-shelf parts and exclusive body design. In this case, the driveline and chassis came from Austin, with the 4-litre straight six engine lifted out of the Austin Sheerline, over which a somewhat ungainly – certainly from the front – in-house designed body was built.
Despite having such a relatively large engine, the Interceptor wasn’t particularly fast – top speed for the convertible was just 95mph (153km/h) and 0-60 took a leisurely 17.8 seconds, according to The Motor magazine in 1952
The body was a mixture of aluminium and steel over a wood frame, and buyers could choose from a convertible, saloon or sedanca. The saloon had a fabric hard top, and the entire front section could be hinged forward for easy access to the engine.
Although the Interceptor was produced over a seven-year period, only 88 were built – 32 convertible, 52 saloons and 4 sedancas. To be honest, it looks a little ungainly to my eyes, but it was different story when the name was used again three models later – the original Interceptor was followed by the 541 and then the CV8 – with the launch of the new Interceptor in 1966.
These Interceptors came with a Chrysler 6.3-litre V8 pushing out 325bhp, but in 1971 Jensen upgraded this to a 7.2-litre 330bhp unit, due to Chrysler detuning the original 6.3-litre that year, reducing its output to 250bhp. These big V8’s endowed the big GT with effortless performance on a par with the DB6 – a top speed of 140mph and the 0-60 sprint took less than seven seconds.
The stylish body was designed by Touring of Turin, and there’s no doubt that the Jensen looks good from any angle. The interior is a very comfortable place to be, with the large glasshouse giving an airy feel and the driver is confronted by an array of dials and switches.
In 1966, the West Bromwich built car retailed at £3,742 (interestingly, thanks to its immensely complicated four-wheel-drive system, the FF cost over £1,500 more).
Unfortunately, the company ran into difficulties in the mid-1970’s – the oil crisis hurt sales of their admittedly thirsty GT’s and the smaller, more affordable Jensen Healey suffered numerous quality issues and in 1976 the company was declared bankrupt.
The Aston Martin DB6 was the immediate successor to the “James Bond” Aston, the DB5, itself an evolution from the DB4, so when it was launched in 1965 it was already a fairly dated – if beautiful – design. The most obvious visual differences among other were the upturned boot spoiler and kamm tail, which were not universally well-received by Aston fans.
The DB6 was powered by a 3,995cc in-line 6-cylinder producing 282 bhp in standard form, rising to 325 for the Vantage, and could reach 145mph (148 in the Vantage’s case) with 0–60 mph being achieved in a little over eight seconds.
A convertible – or Volante – version was introduced in 1966, and as if the company’s association with James Bond wasn’t enough, it also got royal approval when Prince Charles was given a MkII version by his mother the Queen for his 21st birthday (something remarkably similar almost happened to me, nearly). Incidentally, he still owns that car 50 years later, though it now runs on bioethanol.
A standard DB6 came in at £5,084, £1,342 more than a regular Interceptor, but in percentage terms this price differential has widened considerably over the ensuing decades, something we’ll come back to.
Given that these are both handsome, powerful, fast (-ish), plush, bespoke, distance-swallowing 2+2 GT’s, how do they compare, and why does a DB6 now cost 3 to 4 times as much as an equivalent Interceptor?
Both were “handbuilt in Britain” and fulfil every requirement of the definition of a Grand Tourer. Both could reach top speeds of around the 140mph-plus mark, both are long-legged 2+2’s, able to transport you and your passengers across long distances in comfort (though perhaps not quite so much for their rear passengers) and at speed. Both also drink fuel like a man who has been stranded in the desert for a week without water, so frequent fuel stops en route are likely. Oh, and they both make a glorious sound.
The Jensen sports sharp Italian tailoring, the Aston a more traditional British Savile Row style, though the Jensen looks the more modern of the two. Inside, both are plush, comfortable places to spend time in, with the Interceptors bigger glasshouse and opening rear window giving it a slight advantage in the practicality stakes.
It’s true that in branding terms the Newport Pagnell cars are seen as the epitome of cool, mainly thanks to a combination of a superb motorsport pedigree – being able to claim multiple Le Mans victories certainly helps the marketing department – TV fame with the DBS driven by Roger Moore in The Persuaders and most famously the DB5 and its association with that little-known film franchise, James Bond. Indeed, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Aston Martin now has the status of a national treasure in the UK, not a claim anyone would make for Jensen, despite a few celebrity owners such as Jackie Stewart and Tony Curtis.
It’s also the case that Jensen has had a very disrupted history, with a series of on again/off again revivals, whereas Aston Martin – despite going into receivership for the first of seven times back in 1974 and whose financial struggles haven’t entirely gone away – has managed to maintain a continuous high-profile presence that goes beyond just the motoring world; in fact, the brand has on more than one occasion been listed as among the most desirable brands in the world, not something that can be said about Jensen, although their stock does seem to be rising. Nor does Jensen have anything resembling Aston Martin’s racing history to boast about.
However, by some accounts driving a classic Aston can be akin to driving a small truck, and in performance terms, neither of these cars would outrun any hot hatch from the mid-1980’s onwards, except perhaps in terms of top speed, and not even always then. But then, that’s not what owning any classic, not least ones as fine as these, is about – it’s more about the way you travel and how you arrive, rather than how long it might take.
1,788 DB6’s were produced in total, of which – thanks no doubt in large part to their high value as classics – just over 400 remain on UK roads, with another 100 SORN. By comparison, 6,408 Interceptors were built in a decade-long production run, of which 540 are currently licensed for road use in the UK, and a remarkable 341 are SORN – perhaps their owners are waiting for values to rise in line with those for the DB6; they’ll have a long wait…
Personally, I think the Interceptor is at least as good a car as the DB6. It’s combination of stylish Italian body, easy Chrysler V8 power and performance and superb interior make it just as desirable, yet that view is clearly not shared by the classic car market – as we’ve seen, a really good example today will cost you between £50,000 – £70,000, whereas the DB6 will set you back from £200,000 to £300,000. Back in the 1960s, you would have paid about 35% more for a DB6 than for an Interceptor, but when the differential now for equally good condition cars can be as much as 300%….the Jensen starts to look like a bargain.
Given a free choice, many would choose the Aston because of it’s brand and market value, but for me, it would be the Jensen every time , and when you throw value for money into the mix – hell, I could buy a near-perfect Interceptor and a long-hood 911 and still have change from the Aston….
So which one would you choose, dear Reader? Ignore if you can the monetary aspect – which would you prefer to own and drive for its own sake – Aston Martin DB6 or Jensen Interceptor? Let us know!
