Jensen Interceptor Returns as a 960bhp GTX Prototype

The Jensen Interceptor has always occupied a slightly different lane in British performance history.

It wasn’t a delicate sports car or a conventional luxury coupe, but a muscular grand tourer with Italian bodywork, American V8 power and a silhouette that still looks unlike almost anything else.

Now the Interceptor name is back, although not in the form many expected.

The new Interceptor GTX is a 960bhp prototype built as a hard-use development car for future Jensen road models, rather than a customer race car chasing trophies.

At a glance

A British GT name with real weight

The Interceptor’s reputation rests on more than nostalgia.

Jensen’s best-known GT, produced from 1966 to 1976, paired a distinctive Carrozzeria Touring shape with Chrysler-sourced V8 engines and the sort of long-legged performance that made it one of Britain’s most characterful grand tourers.

Its most recognisable feature was the sweeping rear glass, a broad wrap-around hatch treatment that gave the car a visual identity far removed from the usual coupe formula.

It was also genuinely usable, with four seats and enough presence to attract celebrity owners including Cher and Frank Sinatra.

The Interceptor followed a line of Jensen grand tourers that included the C-V8, while the related FF became notable for its early use of four-wheel drive in a high-performance road car.

Across FF and Interceptor variants, more than 6,400 examples were built, making the model central to Jensen’s identity even after the original company faded in the late 1970s.

The GTX is a test car, not a showroom special

The surprise is that the revived Interceptor hasn’t returned first as a polished road-going GT.

The Interceptor GTX has been conceived as a rolling development platform, built to be pushed hard enough to expose weak points in the hardware and thinking behind the next generation of Jensen road cars.

That distinction matters because it explains the car’s uncompromising specification.

It wears the visual language of a modern race machine, but it isn’t being positioned as a GT3 programme or a track-day vanity project.

Its job is to test powertrain behaviour, durability, aerodynamics and structure under severe conditions, with the lessons feeding into a planned family of high-performance British GTs.

Old-school muscle meets prototype engineering

At the centre of the GTX is a 6.9-litre supercharged V8 mounted up front.

In current form it produces 960 horsepower, with Jensen stating that the engine is capable of as much as 1,200bhp with further tuning.

Power is sent to the rear wheels through a carbon fibre driveshaft and a six-speed sequential gearbox, a layout that keeps faith with the Interceptor’s front-engined, rear-drive character while moving the hardware into far more serious territory.

The chassis is aluminium, while the bodywork is hand-formed aluminium supported by lightweight carbon aerodynamic elements.

Polycarbonate glazing and carbon ceramic brakes reinforce the GTX’s prototype purpose, trimming weight and adding the stopping power required for repeated high-load running.

The design deliberately keeps the Interceptor connection visible, but the stance, aero and exposed intent are very much contemporary.

Details & Specifications

The Interceptor GTX is an unusual comeback because it resists the easy route of sentimentality.

Rather than simply restyling an old icon for modern buyers, Jensen is using the name on a brutal development car that needs to earn its place through punishment.

If the eventual road car can carry even part of that attitude into a usable GT, the Interceptor’s return could become more than a revival of a badge.