In the near future, this page will be available in Swedish, too.
Some background on our Jensen Motors-research project: With a solid background in cultural studies, work on cultural heritage, on communication and on comics narratives, I am co-ordinating a pilot-study into vintage cars as living cultural heritage based on the example of Jensen cars in Sweden. We want to find out more about the organisation and communication of enthusiasts around their veteran cars. As that is a huge field, a small first study looks into Jensen Motors and the culture, communications and activities around the marque: because even with the company gone, the culture around their cars remains very much alive. The results from our research will be turned into a documentary comic, later, to honour the visual qualities of the case! Just writing a report on our findings would be rather boring, instead the idea is to show and tell.
This project is divided into two parts: The first part focuses on Jensen culture and cars in Sweden - our pilot study. Around this first part, the more general narrative on the company, car production, the demise of Jensen Motors Ltd, and the continuing active culture around Jensen cars will be researched and told together with Berthold Kleta and Peter Bauersfeld, Hamburg.
For now the focus of this page is on Jensen cars in Sweden and the life and culture around them. This page presents the most important of the information, we get and work with. While the project continues, new content will be added.
To sum up what has happened so far: A questionaire has been sent out to all 156 owners of Jensens and Jensen-Healeys in Sweden at the end of January, 2020. So far, 60 answers have come in. While work on this project has been slowed by other obligations, I will ring those who asked to be rung up during the summer. Until we can put together a more complete picture, the basic statistics can be provided as below. Due to demand, a list of providers of services and spare parts is given first:
The main sources for spare parts that have been named / recommended are the following. At the moment, it is completely unclear how expensive or complicated the import of spare parts from GB will get from next year on. For the time being, for all aspects of body and chassis repairs, Martin Robey martinrobey.com is named most, while Richard Appleyard Parts Ltd. jensen.co.uk is recommended for Jensen-Healey quite often.
And Rejen Classic jensenparts.co.uk is recommended for the more complicated sourcing of specifically Jensen parts.
Here in Sweden, for spare parts, Anglo Car Spares AB in Getinge has been suggested, they have a facebook page but no homepage has been found so far (date: March 12, 2020)
Also mentioned are Chris-Con AB www.bildelar.me/Uppsala-lan/Osthammar/Chris-Con-AB
and Åbergs abergsvtc.se
For V8-engines and related matter, Norrlands Custom norrlandscustom.com is referred to a lot, while even Delta Motorsports in Phoenix, Arizona, gets mentioned.
For brakes and related matter, Nobtec i Norrköping nobtec.se have earned warm words of praise, while over in GB Classicar Automotive classicarautomotive.co.uk offers spare parts to brakes and brake-systems in vintage cars.
As with providers of spare parts, dedicated workshops in the UK are referred to: Cropredy cropredybridge.com and Rejen jensenparts.co.uk
while no dedicated Jensen-garages seem to exist in Sweden. But several dedicated vintage car-workshops are named that have looked after or into Jensens, e.g. Emil's Bil in Karlsham emilsbil.se, 1900-garaget in Trelleborg 1900garaget.com , English Car Care in Löddeköpinge englishcarcare.com
Of all the 18,976 Jensen cars made between 1935 and 1992, there were 176 cars registered in Sweden to 156 owners in January 2020, 15 people do own two cars, one owns three Jensens, one trader offered four vehicles at the time, of which two had already gone from his homepage two weeks later. Of these 176 cars, 102 were inactive (avställd) in January 2020 - no surprise with vintage cars during Winter, but many are off the roads for much longer, numbers for a few years or periods are given in the list below.
As not all series-numbers were recorded by Transportstyrelsen, the amount of Right and Left Hand Drive-cars is partially unclear, as these numbers indicate the placement of steering, and so on. The chassis numbers and this list will be completed with the help of Richad Calver's "Jensen Genome" in due course...
In January 2020, the Transportstyrelsen registry lists:
one Interceptor, 6 Cylinder (de-activated)
two 541s
two C-V8 (one LHD Mk II, one RHD Mk III)
There are 77 V8-Interceptors registered in Sweden, but at least one of them is a mis-registered FF. How many other FFs are hidden behind Interceptor-registries is currently not known. Of all these Interceptors, 52 are de-activated and 25 active. While seven are hibernating through this mild winter only, two are off-duty since 2017, two more since 2016. All others were taken off the road earlier, with 26 de-registered before 2000 (with some parked already in the 1980s).
Anyway, of the individual model-runs of the Interceptor there are:
sixteen Interceptor I (RHD 14 / LHD 2)
sixteen Interceptor II (RHD 10 / LHD 6)
thirty eight Interceptor III (RHD 16 / LHD 18 / unknown: 4)
and seven Interceptor III Convertible (maybe: RHD 1 / LHD 6)
six SP (all RHD, and only one de-activated, in 2013)
Of the 13 officially registered FF-cars, eight are parked: one taken off the road in 2011, all the others before 1990.
Individual FFs in Sweden are registered as Interceptors as their chassis numbers had been switched around for their import, but were never returned to the right cars. IThis was done to play a trick on the rather high import taxes of the time, but has caused long term consequences for some cars and their owners: Some numbers continue to be mis-attributed, with the respective cars registered under other numbers and thus lacking their real histories.
Unrelated to this, there are individual FFs in the country that are not registered here. Duly, it can be assumed that the real numbers of FFs in Sweden are higher. According to the official registry, there are:
ten FF I
three FF II
Seventy one Jensen-Healeys (RHD 12 / 5 LHD / rest: series-number not registered by Transportstyrelsen).
40 of these are de-activated at the moment: Five are de-activated for the winter, but 17 cars were de-activated between 2018 and 2002. Another 18 Jensen-Healeys were already taken off the road between 1981 and 1999.
The model-run of most cars was not registered, currently the amount of Mk I against Mk II with Jensen-Healeys in Sweden is unknown, there might be:
Jensen-Healey I: maybe 10
Jensen-Healey II: all others
one GT (number of series not registered, therefore unknown if LHD or RHD). This car is off the road since 1998.
In comparison to the Swedish Jensen Club's data from 1994, numbers of Jensen-Healeys and GTs have changed the most: While the numbers of the other makes have remained mostly identical, in 2020 there are 10 Jensen-Healeys and two GTs less in the country.
Also, the lists contains cars that were most likely not built by Jensen Motors:
one Bojen Jensen Roadster from 2005
one Jensen Hi-Boy from 1985 (would it be possible that the registry got their date by phone and misunderstood "Healey"?)
one Dutton Jensen from 1984
Currently, there is no swedish Jensen Club, but some are organised in the British JOC - but without a national subsection there. Most Jensen owners in Sweden are organised in general veteran car-clubs and meetings. Some restrict themselves to contacts needed for the supply of spare parts etc. For Sweden, there seems to be no related forum on "social media". In how far this is a result of the sudden implosion of the previously well-organised and documented Swedish Jensen Drivers Club in the middle of the 1990s is unclear. The sudden disbanding of a club with 66 paying members (October 1994) is quite interesting. In how far the reasons can be found out so long after the events remains to be seen. Obviously, the cars and their marque remain to cause a stirr, owners and mechanics who deal with them are proud if them. But as more and more cars are not on the road, it remains open in how far the myths about Jensen cars become better known than their specific forms and technical peculiarities.
For very profound information on the company and it's cars, the homepage and books by Richard Calver are THE indispensable source. Every single Jensen produced is in his lists, but of some, he has not heard for a while. Here is the way to his homepage: "Jensen Data": www.richardcalver.com
While the private Jensen Museum and Archive started with their eyes firmly on the Jensen FF, they have by now widened their scope. They provide a lot of information on the factory and its work force, on individual cars and their fates, on selected customers, and offer all kinds of archival information and even merchandise. Their homepage is: www.jensenmuseum.org
The hub for most communication on Jensen-related activities is the homepage of the British Jensen Club as it links and informs about what is going on with its international branches and siblings. It is the place for discussion of all kinds of technical issues (plenty on restauration and getting the cars to run): encouragement and support of each other's endeavours is their crucial strength! Here is the link to the Jensen Owners Club GB: www.joc.org.uk