The Jensen Interceptor is back after 60 years, and it swapped elegance for 1,200 hp
The original was a suave, Italian-styled grand tourer. Its reborn namesake is a caged, winged, 1,200 hp track weapon.
Sixty years after the original Jensen Interceptor made its debut, the name is back, and it has arrived in the most dramatic way imaginable. Jensen International has revealed the Interceptor GTX, a track-only prototype built around a supercharged V8 producing as much as 1,200 hp, a proper sequential manual gearbox and full motorsport hardware. It is a proof of concept for road-going Jensens to follow, and a statement of intent that could hardly be louder.
A very different Interceptor
The original Interceptor of 1966 was a smooth, Italian-styled British grand tourer, a car for crossing continents in comfort. The GTX shares almost nothing with that character beyond the badge. This is a stripped-out track car with an FIA-approved safety cage, polycarbonate windows, carbon-fibre seats and a full carbon aerodynamic package that generates more than 350 kg of downforce. The one thing it does honour is the original's recipe of British craftsmanship wrapped around American V8 muscle, and it does so with real substance: the aluminium bodywork is handcrafted by Coventry Metalcraft, with around 30 artisans putting some 600 hours into it, over a bonded aluminium chassis. Jensen has traded the Interceptor's manners for muscle, and made no apology for it.
1,200 hp of supercharged V8
The heart of the GTX is a 6.8-litre supercharged V8, fed by a Roots-type 2.65-litre blower and built by the Texas specialists at Late Model Engines. In standard tune it makes 960 hp, and turned up to its maximum it produces up to 1,200 hp and more than 1,491 Nm of torque. This is no lightly fettled crate motor either, with fewer than a fifth of its components carried over from standard and a fully forged rotating assembly underneath. It sits at the front and drives the rear wheels, which is exactly as it should be.
A proper sequential manual
The gearbox is the detail enthusiasts will love most. Jensen has fitted a Samsonas Motorsport six-speed sequential with straight-cut dog gears, and crucially it can be operated either by a tunnel-mounted lever or by paddles on the steering column, so you can choose to row it yourself. A carbon-fibre prop shaft sends the power back to a rear-mounted transaxle. In an era where even track weapons increasingly hide behind automated shifts, a car like this offering a real stick is a genuine treat, of a piece with the way Porsche keeps fighting for the manual and even hypercar makers still build three-pedal cars.
Track-only, for now
The rest of the specification reads like a race car, because that is essentially what it is. There are AP Racing brakes with floating steel discs, Nitron three-way adjustable dampers on double aluminium wishbones, a Wavetrac differential with configurable launch control, and Michelin Pilot Sport tyres on 20-inch wheels. Inside, the Tillett carbon seats and Alcantara trim with orange stitching are the only real concessions to plushness. For now the GTX is a track-only machine, and a lot of the important numbers, the price, the production run, the weight, remain unconfirmed. Jensen is clear that it is the opening act, with road-going variants intended to follow.
AutoNext Take
There is something wonderful about reviving a name like Jensen with this much conviction. It would have been easy, and safe, to bring the Interceptor back as a gentle retro-styled cruiser trading purely on nostalgia. Instead Jensen International has led with a 1,200 hp track monster, a sequential manual and a hand-formed aluminium body, and dared people to take it seriously. Whether or not the road cars arrive, this is a far more exciting way to reintroduce a dormant marque than another tasteful restomod.
The caveats are real, of course. A track-only prototype with no confirmed price, weight or production number is a promise rather than a product, and the history of revived British car brands is littered with ambition that outran the money. But the GTX gets the important thing right, which is character. British hands, American muscle and a gearbox you can actually work yourself is a gloriously old-fashioned combination, and if Jensen can turn this into a real road car with even half the drama intact, it will have been worth the wait. For now, simply seeing the Interceptor name back on something this unhinged is a pleasure.
