Jensen FF Press Car 119/117 | Then & Now
Jensen FF, chassis 119/117, was acquired for the Museum collection in 2007. This famous Jensen FF press car had languished in a garage since the 1970s, and had never been restored.
As such it is one of the most original Jensen FF cars surviving today. Now fifty years old, the Museum has assembled a photographic Then & Now of Jensen FF 119/117.
Jensen FF Press Car 119/117 | Then & Now | Car Details
Chassis number: 119/117
Engine number: 1529/19E
Registration number original: UEA 999G
Registration changes: From UEA 999G to private registration not known. Then WYF 258G, then to AAB 9, and then back to UEA 999G
Registration number now: UEA 999G
The 119/117 chassis was scheduled as a factory demonstrator / press car. The car’s specification was agreed on Stratosphere blue paint with red leather trim. The car would have sundym glass, and a Voxson ‘8’ track /radio as options.
119/117 was first registered on 21st April 1969 as a demonstrator / press car for Jensen Motors Ltd. The car was assigned the West Bromwich registration ‘UEA 999G’.
Jensen FF Press Car 119/117 | Then & Now | Edwards & Healey Loan
By June 1969 119/117 appeared on the back cover of the magazine Horseworld, how Good Relations arranged this isn’t known, suffice to say the publicity for the FF appeared on the magazine free of charge. To date, the Museum hasn’t found a copy of this magazine.
Additionally, Donald Healey, had asked Jensen Motors about a loan of a Jensen FF. Motoring journalist, Courtenay Edwards, was keen to drive a Jensen FF over in France, and write an article for the Sunday Telegraph motoring section.
Edwards had asked Healey if he could arrange such a loan, and if Healey would join him. The loan took place in June 1969.
Courtenay Edwards and Donald Healey standing by 119/117 in June 1969. The two men had loan of the Jensen for an excursion to France. An article about the drive would later appear in the Sunday Telegraph.
119/117 positioned just as it was when Edwards and Healey were standing against it back in 1969.
Jensen FF Press Car 119/117 | Then & Now | Dvoretsky Loan
Harold Dvoretsky, the European Editor for Modern Motor magazine, was one of the first to have loan of 119/117 in July 1969. Various images were taken during loan by Dvoretsky, and the Museum has had photographs taken from similar angles to provide a tantalising Then & Now fifty years on.
Harold Dvoretsky and his wife, Angela, check out 119/117’s interior, before setting off for the continent.
The same interior view taken fifty years on. The optional Voxson ‘8’ track radio still in place.
Photograph showing the interior of 119/117 taken in 1969.
The same view showing the interior to 119/117. Slight trim anomalies confirm the seats remain exactly as they were fifty years ago. In particular one of the pleats to the driver-seat base (left-hand side) is slightly smaller than the others. This trim anomaly can be seen in the 1969 photograph.
Close-up photograph of 119/117 taken in 1969. The car has had the yellow continental headlight covers attached for the journey.
The same close-up photograph taken fifty years on in 2019. The yellow removable light covers obviously long gone.
Dvoretsky does some traction testing with 119/117 in 1969.
Replicating the same angle of Dvoretsky’s traction test in 2019.
119/117 being pushed to its limits by Dvoretsky in 1969.
119/117 looking much more docile than in the 1969 image.
Overhead view of the engine-bay to 119/117 taken in 1969.
Almost the same view taken in 2019. The engine-bay remains in remarkably original condition. Even the white painted ‘FRONT’ designation remains on the black crinkle finished air-can. In fact the only discernible difference is the lack of washer jet reservoir, which would have been mounted to the battery cage. The wing mirrors went onto the car in 1972.
View of the engine-bay from the passenger-side taken in 1969.
The same view of the engine-bay taken in 2019.
Jensen FF Press Car 119/117 | Then & Now | Maxey Ownership
Having completed its duty as a demonstrator, 119/117 was sold to the Jensen distributors, Freckleton Services. They in turn sold the car to Keith E.G.Maxey in 1970. He owned DAC Air Services Ltd, based at London Airport (later re-named Heathrow Airport). Maxey kept 119/117 until 1972.
This photograph was taken in 1972, while under the ownership of Maxey. Wing mirrors had been added to the car, along with white coach lines.
119/117 photographed at a similar angle in 2019.
Maxey kept 119/117 until 1972, putting a private registration on the car during his ownership. Maxey traded or sold the car with R.D.Pocock, a secondhand car dealers in Reading.
In October 1972, 119/117 was purchased from R.D.Pocock for £2,800 by Douglas Smith. He ran the local garage and petrol station in Fyfield village. In fact Smith’s Fyfield garage sticker remains in place to the base of the rear tailgate glass.
119/117 was kept within Smith’s garage during his ownership. By the later 1970s, and due to ill health, Smith no longer used the Jensen. The car remained stored in his garage until he died in 2003.
After Smith’s death, the car remained exactly where it was until his wife died in 2006. The car was acquired in 2007 for the Jensen Museum.
Jensen FF Press Car 119/117 | Then & Now
COPYRIGHTS: The Jensen Museum
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: If you have any additional information about this car, please contact us at archive@jensenmuseum.org or telephone on: +1694-781354
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