For years, the US has had the Mustang. Britain, meanwhile, has had rather more trouble keeping its great sports-car names alive. It took time, but Britain has finally looked across the Atlantic, seen what Ford has done with the Mustang, and apparently decided: yeah, we can do that too. Only with a little more leather, a little more hand-beaten aluminum, and considerably more British eccentricity.
Enter the Jensen Interceptor GTX. Long bonnet, V8 up front, rear-wheel drive, enormous power, and enough aero to make a regular Mustang look positively sensible.
The difference is that while Ford turned the Mustang into a Nürburgring-hunting GT3-ish monster with the GTD, Jensen has taken the rather more British route of resurrecting an iconic 1960s grand-tourer nameplate and bolting an outrageous track car underneath it. And this isn’t a restomod, either. The GTX is an entirely new, ground-up development car – currently a track-only prototype – that serves as the opening act for a planned family of road-going Interceptors.
Jensen
David Duerden, Managing Director of Jensen International Automotive, describes the project as a functional expression of the marque’s future. The GTX preserves the sweeping fastback proportions and wrap-around glass rear profile of the original 1966 Interceptor while incorporating modern motorsport aerodynamics. Meanwhile, the front end looks completely new, owing to thin LED headlights, a slim upper grille, and massive carbon fiber cooling vents.
The car’s body is designed by Avant Design, with carbon-fiber aerodynamic components produced by Artiglio Automotive Studio in Northamptonshire and the aluminum body handcrafted by Coventry Metalcraft in the UK.
The decision to use an aluminum chassis and bodywork over carbon fiber came down to flexibility and cost. Duerden claims aluminum chassis structures are easier to modify and significantly less expensive to produce in small batches without requiring costly tooling equipment, making low-volume production viable.
Jensen
That strategy opens the door for Jensen’s roadmap: if the GTX project succeeds, the company plans to follow it up with the Interceptor GTR (a high-performance, road-legal version) and the Interceptor GT (a luxury-focused grand tourer).
Peeking under the hood, the GTX packs a 6.8-liter supercharged V8 engine developed by Houston-based Late Model Engines (LME). In track trim, the motor produces 960 horsepower, with capacity to tune up to 1,200 hp and over 1,000 lb-ft (1,355 Nm) of torque depending on application.
Jensen pairs the supercharged V8 with a rear-mounted Samsonas Motorsport 6-speed sequential transaxle featuring straight-cut dog gears. Drivers can shift via a traditional floor lever or column-mounted paddle shifters. Power hits the rear wheels through a Wavetrac torque-biasing differential, which maintains power delivery even if one driven wheel loses contact with the asphalt.
Jensen
The chassis rides on multi-link aluminum suspension with three-way adjustable dampers. Steering is managed by a hydraulic power-assisted rack-and-pinion rack. Brakes are supplied by BG Developments, featuring AP Racing calipers clamping floating steel discs inside 20-inch forged wheels, complemented by a race-spec adjustable ABS system.
Inside, the Interceptor GTX is pure race car: polycarbonate windows, Tillett carbon-fiber bucket seats with FIA-compliant six-point harnesses, a MoTeC digital dash display, and a full safety roll cage. Outside, a vast carbon fiber rear wing, front splitter, side skirts, and rear diffuser generate 771 lb (350 kg) of downforce.
Jensen
While the GTX is currently a track-only development car, it serves as the opening act for a planned family of road-going Interceptors. Should those road-legal plans materialize, the Interceptor could easily become Britain’s answer to the Mustang GTD.
Not because the two cars are direct rivals in the conventional sense, but because they represent the exact same philosophy: take a familiar national automotive icon, throw conventional restraint out the window, and build the sort of performance car that makes you question whether sanity was ever part of the brief.
Source: Jensen
