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The Jensen Interceptor story

30 May, 2019


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The cover car of New Zealand Classic Car issue 341 is a gorgeous NZ-new example of one of the most likeable of great English classics, the Jensen Interceptor III. Famous for its audacious glass hatch, the Interceptor’s long bonnet and outrageous (by UK standards) six or seven litre engines, it was undoubtedly for the well-heeled, but it avoided the snobbery attached to Aston-Martin, Bentley and their ilk.


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It retained the same shape throughout its life giving it a kind of purity, and its clean and distinctive lines appeal as much today as they ever did. It appeared in the top tier almost out of nowhere, and then it was gone. Ashley Webb’s story gives us the curiously not-well known background to a car that’s among the absolute best of British.


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Someone else agreed with us, before we even knew it. They had written a coffee table book on the history of the Jensen, and have sent us a copy for review. We’ll publish the review in an upcoming issue of NZ Classic Car.

You can buy a copy of New Zealand Classic Car issue 341 now by clicking the cover below.


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ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Tradie’s Choice

30 August, 2024

Clint Wheeler purchased this 1962 Holden FJ Panelvan as an unfinished project, or as he says “a complete basket case”. Collected as nothing more than a bare shell, the rotisserie-mounted and primed shell travelled the length of the country from the Rangiora garage where it had sat dormant for six years to Clint’s Ruakaka workshop. “Mike, the previous owner, was awesome. He stacked the van and parts nicely. I was pretty excited to get the van up north. We cut the locks and got her out to enjoy the northland sun,” says Clint. “The panelvan also came with boxes of assorted parts, some good, some not so good, but they all helped.”