Jensen P66 was a model range planned by

Jensen Motors Jensen Motors Limited was a England, British manufacturer of sports cars and commercial vehicles in West Bromwich, England. Brothers Alan and Richard Jensen gave the new name, Jensen Motors Limited, to the commercial- and sports car body-making ...

in the 1960s, which was aborted after two examples were made and one was exhibited at the 1965

London Motor Show London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Thame ...

. It was planned as a replacement for the

Austin-Healey 3000 The Austin-Healey 3000 is a British sports car built from 1959 until 1967. It is the best known of the "big Healey" models. The car's bodywork was made by Jensen Motors and the vehicles were assembled at BMC's MG Works in Abingdon, alongsid ...

, which at that time Jensen were assembling at their factory in

West Bromwich West Bromwich ( ), commonly known as West Brom, is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is northwes ...

. BMC were planning to drop the Healey and Jensen asked Eric Neale, their house stylist, to design a replacement for the US market. In a break from their recent tradition of using glassfibre, he used an aluminium body on a steel platform and tube chassis. The optional engine continued to be a 6.2 litre Chrysler V8 similar to that used in the contemporary CV8, or a 4.5 litre in stock form. The car was priced at £2,200 in the UK against £3,500 for the CV8, and would possibly have been renamed as Interceptor if put into production. Reception to the convertible car was generally favourable, although the strakes over the wheel arch were criticised in the press as outdated. A hardtop version was also produced with plain wheel arches. The company founders, Richard and Alan Jensen, favoured putting the model into production. The Norcros group had been controlling the company for some years and preferred to adopt an Italian styled body, a view shared by Managing Director Brian Owen and Deputy Chief Engineer Kevin Beattie. They approached Touring of Milan who produced a rival design that was put into production by

Vignale Vignale is the luxury car sub-brand of Ford Motor Company used in automobiles sold in Europe.Interceptor Interceptor may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Interceptor'', a British drama series on BBC One * Interceptor (game show), ''Interceptor'' (game show), a British television game show that ran during 1989 * Interc ...

. After making some changes to the Touring design to make it suitable for tooling, Eric Neale felt that he had no role left in the company and resigned. He was followed by the Jensen brothers. The convertible P66 was soon broken up, the parts and the other hardtop model being sold on. The second, hardtop, model has survived in original condition and has been used regularly; following a thorough rebuild it won Car of the Show in the 'Classic & Sports Car' Club Awards at the 2015 Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show. File:P66 original UK Motor Show publicity picture 1965.jpg, P66 Jensen Original Brochure, 1965

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * "Jensen" by Keith Anderson ISBN 0-85429-682-4 Foulis Motoring / Haynes book 1989 * "Jensen & Jensen-Healey" by Keith Anderson ISBN 0-7509-1808-X Sutton

External links

Jensen Owners' Club

{{Jensen Motors timeline P66