Jensen FF – the first production all-wheel drive car for good roads

Among automobile brands, there are often forgotten ones. Among them, you can find the British brand Jensen. It would seem, what is there to remember about it? But it was under this brand that the first all-wheel drive passenger car appeared car.


Not one of those, of course, that was intended for off-road use or had at least increased cross-country ability. No, the Jensen FF, the hero of today's article, received a 4x4 wheel arrangement solely for the sake of its sporty nature.

At the same time, we will look into the history of a manufacturer unknown to most Russian drivers. But it left the world arena quite recently - its first bankruptcy occurred only in 1976. Then the brand returned several times, but it produced completely different cars.


The last time a company called Jensen International Automotive reminded us of itself was in 2010. Then it was revived once again, but this time to buy and restore old Jensen cars. Not just like that, of course, but to make money.

Brand History

It all started back in 1926. That's when two Jensen brothers from the English town of West Bromwich bought one car for both of them. It was an Austin 7. "Little Austin", as it was called, was the most popular model on the British Isles in the 1920s.


Their brainchild received:

✅ Extended body
✅ Tapered front
✅ Almost all original external panels

The brothers did all the work together, furiously hammering out sheets of metal with mallets, giving them the necessary shapes. And after only six months, the men had a new car that attracted attention on the roads.


In the same 1926, a professional – an engineer of the Standard brand – saw the strange car. He immediately realized that such specialists would be useful to the company, and offered the brothers a job in the body shop. Especially since they were made there for the Avon division, and the latter were engaged in compact sports models.

After working for just a few years, the Jensen brothers "put together" a small start-up capital. They decided to take a risk and created their own body shop in 1929.


They collaborated with the Ford brand, installing their original bodies on their chassis. As a result, they got unique cars for rich, and most importantly, eccentric people.

First try

They installed all-wheel drive on a passenger car somehow spontaneously and by accident. In 1962, it was decided to make Jensen models more powerful and sporty. Then they developed the C-V8 with V8 engines and Chrysler automatic transmission.


The engine scared the thrifty Europeans who had only recently fully recovered from the consequences of the war. The power unit capacity was first 5,9 and then 6,3 liters, developing a power of 305 and 330 hp respectively. It even got its own name – Golden Commando. The engine’s fuel system had two carburetors.

The engine was paired with a three-speed automatic gearbox, which had no alternative. No manual transmission was originally planned, because it was a prestigious car for the elite. And it cost almost as much as an Aston Martin DB4 – £3, only a hundred cheaper.

It was the desire to somehow stand out among the famous competitors that prompted the introduction of the all-wheel drive system on the Jensen C-V8. The idea came to the engineers when they were studying Formula 1 cars. After all, all-wheel drive was used there in the early 1960s. And not for cross-country ability, but for better controllability and starting from a standstill.

In 1965, the first all-wheel drive prototype debuted – the Jensen C-V8 4x4. This car was not going to be launched into serial production, since the base model was already planned to be removed from the assembly line.

Jensen Interceptor

It was this car that became the basis for the all-wheel drive version. The 1966 Interceptor is a revived model whose production had ceased 9 years earlier, but this time the body was not made of fiberglass, but steel.


They decided to develop the design not independently, but in collaboration with Italian craftsmen from the well-known Touring studio at that time. Initially, it was even planned that the bodies would be delivered directly from this sunny country. But then they decided that this was not financially profitable, and all the equipment was transported to England, to the manufacturer's plant.

Initially, the Jensen Interceptor was equipped with engines with volumes of 5,9 and 6,3 liters - exactly the same as the C-V8 model. But then, in order to stand out, a Chrysler Magnum engine was installed under the hood. This power unit had a volume of 7,2 liters with a power of 290 hp.

Such an engine amazed the imagination of thrifty Europeans. It simply mocked the average person who understood that the Jensen Interceptor was intended only for the "powers that be". Moreover, even the average fuel consumption was more than 20 liters per 100 km.

But the heavy car accelerated to the first "hundred" in just 6,5 seconds. And this with an archaic three-speed gearbox, thanks to a torque of 515 Nm and a four-chamber carburetor.


For such an exclusive, the Jensen Interceptor became a commercially successful model. In total, more than 5,5 thousand cars were produced.

Jensen FF

At the same time as the Interceptor, the manufacturer finally released a four-wheel drive serial sports car. This is the FF model, which was almost indistinguishable from the Interceptor in appearance. The latter is not surprising - after all, the cars have the same chassis.

The only detail by which the 4x4 version could be distinguished externally was the double air intakes on the front wings. The mono-drive car had single ones. And the Jensen FF was produced exclusively in a coupe body. There were no sedans or convertibles in the model range.


The model name contains an abbreviation that refers to the all-wheel drive. FF is Ferguson Formula. This system was positioned similar to that installed on racing cars.


It is the Jensen FF all-wheel drive that is considered the world's first serial one for sports civilian cars. Even Subaru with its innovative Leone model was 5 years late.

Cons of FF

Unlike the Interceptor, the all-wheel drive car did not become popular. It cost on average 30% more. Nothing can be done - innovations of technical progress and a new system.

Therefore, only 320 or 330 cars were assembled. And it's not just that they were more expensive. The Jensen FF was simply designed in such a way that it could only be produced with right-hand drive. And the main sales markets in the second half of the 1960s were outside England.


The all-wheel drive was still unfinished - it broke down periodically, and no one really knew how to fix it. This also played a role.

The Jensen FF, like the single-platform Interceptor, was "finished off" by the fuel crisis of the 70s. Even brands from the USA were forced to abandon a number of powerful models. What can we say about the all-wheel drive "Brit", which cost more than GT class cars from more famous manufacturers.

But a small part of the Jensen FFs produced has survived to this day. This model is considered exclusive and is valued among collectors.