The Jensen 541S was Jensen Motors

luxury Luxury may refer to: *Luxury goods, an economic good or service for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises *Luxury tax, a tax on products not considered essential, such as speedboats or diamonds. **Luxury tax (sports), a ...

GT model of the

Jensen 541 The Jensen 541 is an automobile which was produced by Jensen Motors from 1954 to 1959. It was first exhibited at the London Motor Show in October 1953, and production started in 1954. The 541 used fibreglass bodywork mounted on a steel chassis ...

. Announced in mid-October 1960, the Jensen 541S was four inches wider than the 541R. The increased track allowed the new car's interior to be roomier and improved the roadholding. The 541S had a conventional radiator grill (as opposed to the flap of the 541) to allow for the extra heat given by a proposed new V8 engine, and a Salisbury

limited slip differential A limited-slip differential (LSD) is a type of differential gear train that allows its two output shafts to rotate at different speeds but limits the maximum difference between the two shafts. Limited-slip differentials are often known by the ...

for the extra torque demanded. Jensen used their own powerful version of the

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

DS5 4-litre

straight-six engine A straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balanc ...

(featuring triple H4 type SU carburettors, a high compression

Weslake Weslake & Co also known as Weslake Research and Development was founded by Harry Weslake, described as England's greatest expert on cylinder head design, with premises in Rye, East Sussex, England. Weslake is most famous for its work with Bentley ...

head with custom-made twin

exhaust manifold In automotive engineering, an exhaust manifold collects the exhaust gases from multiple cylinders into one pipe. The word ''manifold'' comes from the Old English word ''manigfeald'' (from the Anglo-Saxon ''manig'' anyand ''feald'' old and ref ...

s and an alloy baffled sump/oil cooler) in the 541S. Initially the Jensen brothers tested Chrysler Hemi V8s in the 541S, also trialled in Alan Jensen's

delux, but none were used because of supply difficulties. One was fitted with a Chevrolet 327 V8 however, at

Donald Healey Donald Mitchell Healey CBE (3 July 1898 – 13 January 1988) was a noted English car designer, rally driver and speed record holder. Early life Born in Perranporth, Cornwall, the elder son of Frederick (John Frederick) and Emma Healey ...

's request. A total of 127 cars were hand-built between 1960 and 1962 at Jensen's

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factory, most having GM-licensed

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

hydramatic Hydramatic (also known as Hydra-Matic) is an automatic transmission developed by General Motors Corporation's Oldsmobile Division, the ''Hydramatic'' was the first mass-produced fully automatic transmission developed for passenger automobile u ...

gearboxes. This was innovative at the time as performance cars mainly had manual gearboxes. It also suited the criteria of effortless speed and luxurious long-distance driving Jensen set for their new car, although twenty-two were fitted with Moss manual gear boxes at the request of their prospective owners. The Jensen 541S is also notable for being the first British car to have

seat belts A seat belt, also known as a safety belt or spelled seatbelt, is a vehicle safety device designed to secure the driver or a passenger of a vehicle against harmful movement that may result during a collision or a sudden stop. A seat belt reduce ...

fitted as standard equipment. Another first for the 541 series was the use of Dunlop

disc brakes Disc or disk may refer to: * Disk (mathematics), a two dimensional shape, the interior of a circle * Disk storage * Optical disc * Floppy disk Music * Disc (band), an American experimental music band * ''Disk'' (album), a 1995 EP by Moby Other ...

on all four wheels. A

rack and pinion rack and pinion is a type of linear actuator that comprises a circular gear (the '' pinion'') engaging a linear gear (the ''rack''). Together, they convert between rotational motion and linear motion: rotating the pinion causes the rack to be d ...

steering system was employed, giving the car very positive steering. Other safety equipment included a padded windscreen surround, fire extinguisher and first-aid kit. Each car was also fitted with a

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

radio. The 541 S was superseded by the Chrysler Golden Commando V8 powered

Jensen C-V8 The Jensen C-V8 is a four-seater GT car produced by Jensen Motors between 1962 and 1966. Launched in October 1962, the C-V8 series had fibreglass bodywork with aluminium door skins, as did the preceding 541 series. All C-V8s used big-block en ...

model, which inherited from the 541 S the same wheelbase and track dimensions, as well as the Jensen ethos of safe, easy, comfortable and fast inter-continental travel while the groundbreaking 1966

Jensen FF The Jensen FF is a four-wheel drive grand tourer produced by British car manufacturer Jensen Motors between 1966 and 1971. It was the first non all-terrain production car equipped with four-wheel drive and an anti-lock braking system. The power ...

used a perimeter tube style chassis first tried on the 541 series of cars.

The Autocar ''Autocar'' (stylized in all caps) is a weekly British automobile magazine published by Haymarket Media Group. It was first published in 1895 and refers to itself as "the world's oldest car magazine". Mark Tisshaw is editor and other team member ...

Four wheel drive for Jensen October 15, 1965

Gallery

File:Jensen 541S front.jpg File:Jensen 541 S 1961.jpg File:Jensen 541S 1961.jpg

References

{{Jensen Motors timeline 541S Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Grand tourers Cars introduced in 1960

Gallery

Further reading

References