- published: 29 Feb 2016
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Jensen Motors Ltd was a British manufacturer of sports cars and commercial vehicles, based in the Lyng – West Bromwich (in the West Midlands, west of Birmingham). The Jensen brothers (Alan and Richard, born in Moseley, Birmingham) were previously employed in the bodyshop of Patrick Motors, Selly Oak, Birmingham in a building which is still standing next to the University of Birmingham campus. A new version of the legendary Jensen Interceptor sports car will be bringing manufacturing back to the former Jaguar motor plant in Browns Lane, Coventry.
Jensen began as a small coachbuilding firm run by brothers Richard and Alan Jensen; they bought out the body works of W.J. Smiths & Sons where they worked after the owner's death and renamed it Jensen Motors in 1934. They built exclusive customised bodies for standard cars produced by several manufacturers of the day including Morris, Singer, Standard, and Wolseley. In 1934 they were commissioned by American film actor Clark Gable to design and build a car for him based on a Ford V-8 chassis. The resultant car won them much acclaim and stimulated huge interest in their work including a deal with Ford to produce a run of Jensen-Fords with Jensen bodywork with a Ford chassis and engine. In 1934 they also started to design their first true production car under the name White Lady. This evolved into the Jensen S-type which went into production in 1935.