The Jensen Interceptor is back after 50 years, with a supercharged V8 and a clever plan
One of Britain's great lost names returns
Few badges carry as much cult appeal as Jensen, the British maker whose Interceptor became a 1960s icon. Now, sixty years after that car's debut, the name is properly back. The new Interceptor GTX is Jensen's first all-new car in decades, and it arrives with a supercharged V8, a manual gearbox and a rather clever route to production.
Who is behind the revival
The company doing the reviving is Oxfordshire-based Jensen International Automotive, which owns the Jensen brand and earned its stripes building acclaimed restomods of the original Interceptor and FF. There is proper heritage in the boardroom too: Jeff Qvale, son of Kjell Qvale, who owned Jensen between 1970 and 1976, is a key partner in the project. Crucially, the GTX is not another restomod but a clean-sheet, all-new design, developed, engineered and hand-built in the UK.
Aluminium, supercharged and analogue
The recipe reads like enthusiast catnip. The GTX pairs an aluminium chassis with a hand-built aluminium body, and power comes from a supercharged V8, reportedly the 6.2-litre LT4 unit with around 650 hp and 880 Nm, though Jensen may tweak the configuration. The company promises a fully analogue driving experience, strongly hinting at a manual gearbox and physical controls throughout. Original Interceptors used big American V8s too, so the formula is period-correct in spirit.
Why track-only first
The GTX launches as a track-only, pre-production special, and there is candid logic behind it: skipping road-car regulations on safety and emissions gets a real, drivable car into customers' hands far sooner, as several observers have noted. Jensen is open about the plan, saying the GTX will establish the foundations for several future Interceptor variants, including road-going models. Pricing, production numbers and the exact timeline are still to be announced, with the car due in the near future.
AutoNext Take
We are thoroughly enjoying this wave of revivals. Between Wiesmann's screen-free comeback and now Jensen returning with a supercharged, manual, aluminium-bodied V8 special, the message is clear: there is a real market for characterful, analogue machines built by small teams who care. The Interceptor is a name worth resurrecting properly, and doing it with a clean-sheet car rather than another restomod shows genuine ambition.
The track-only start is a pragmatic shortcut, and we see it for what it is, but as long as the promised road-going Interceptors follow, we have no complaints. A reborn British grand tourer with an American V8 heart is exactly the kind of story the original Interceptor wrote sixty years ago. Here is hoping the sequel lives up to it.
