page_title: Jensen Motors
section_title: Other projects
hierarchical_section_title: Jensen Motors / Other projects
caption_attribution_description: English: Austin A40 Sports / Roadster at Knebworth Classic Car Show
context_page_description: Jensen Motors Limited was a 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 body and sports car body making business of W J Smith & Sons Limited in 1934. It ceased trading in 1976. Though trading resumed in 1998 Jensen Motors Limited was dissolved in 2011.
  Jensen Motors built specialist car bodies for major manufacturers alongside cars of their own design using engines and mechanicals of major manufacturers Ford, Austin and Chrysler.
  The rights to Jensen's trademarks were bought with the company and it briefly operated in Speke, Liverpool, from 1998 to 2002. Under subsequent owners, a new version of the Jensen Interceptor was announced in 2011. It was planned to bring manufacture of that new model back to the former Jaguar motor plant in Browns Lane, Coventry.
context_section_description: Austin A40 Sports: As one in a series of collaborations between Austin and Jensen, the Austin A40 Sports originated when Austin's chairman Leonard Lord, upon seeing the Interceptor, requested that Jensen, and their designer Eric Neale, develop a body that could use the A40 mechanicals.
  The resulting body-on-frame A40 Sports – which debuted at the 1949 London Motor Show – had been designed by Eric Neale, an ex-Wolseley stylist who had joined Jensen in 1946. During production, the A40 Sports' aluminium bodies were built by Jensen and transported to Austin's Longbridge plant for final assembly. The A40 Sports had been intended as more of a sporty touring car and not a sports car per se, and over 4000 examples were manufactured from 1951–1953.
  Austin-Healey 100: Although Jensen's design for a new Austin-based sports-car was rejected by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1952 in favour of a design provided by Donald Healey, Jensen did win the BMC contract to build the bodies for the resultant Austin-Healey 100 and the rest of the "big Healey" cars. At the end of 1960 Austin-Healey cars occupied about 350 of the 850 men in Jensen's factory.
  Volvo P1800: In 1960 Jensen won a contract from Volvo to assemble and finish the bodies for their P1800 coupé.  Pressed Steel manufactured the body-shells at their Linwood plant in Scotland and shipped them to Jensen in West Bromwich to be finished, painted and trimmed and made ready for distribution. The first batch for evaluation came off the production line in May 1961. The engine and gearbox were from Sweden, the back axle from USA and the electrical system from Germany, otherwise the car was all British. By March 1962 1,100 men were busy in Jensen's West Bromwich works making Austin-Healey bodies and Volvo and Jensen cars. By 1963 the contract was ended early due to quality concerns and P1800 production was moved to Gothenburg, Sweden.
  Sunbeam Tiger: In the early 1960s Jensen was also involved in the development and production of the Sunbeam Tiger.
caption: Austin A40 Sports, ca 1951
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