As you can imagine, the cars of Monterey Car Week were stunning, and, yes, full of mysteries, just as all good cars should be. One of which had to do with this Jensen C-V8, a powerful and elegant GT car built from 1962 to 1968, and a car that may have one of the most complex hood opening systems ever crafted by human hands. Well, maybe it’s not exactly, terribly complex, but it is very confusing and odd. In fact, we were so puzzled by the outward appearance of it, we included it in this little reel of four questions, but not like the four Passover questions, four car questions:
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That little flap – it’s tricky to know what that is, exactly. It could be a strange oil or coolant or even washer fluid filler flap, or all three. It certainly looks more like a fuel filler flap than anything else, but it’s in very much the wrong place for that.
I did de-bone my arm and tentacle up under and behind there to snap this picture, which pretty much revealed what’s going on:
Looks like a locking mechanism. So, that’s how you open the hood? You unlock and lift a tiny hood to get access to the latch for the main hood? Seems like it! Look:
That’s it! The hood latch is in its own little lockbox, so the valet can’t get in there and caress your air cleaner or spit in your oil or do depraved things with the dipstick or whatever sorts of things valets like to do.
I’m not sure I know of another car that has a tiny hood for its hood release? And was engine molesting such an issue then? Fascinating!
Weren’t the notchback just built because they had too many roadster bodies, so they just put an ugly hard top on (also explains how) There, job done.
Makes you almost think the Karmann factory was in Great Britain… 😉
Like I didn’t have enough to worry about already. >:|
That reminds me of the “pony” small gasoline engines used as starter motors for big diesel engines, from back when people didn’t really know how to build powerful electric starter motors. Or the pilot light in a gas heater…
BTW have you ever tried the hood release on a Citroën DS? The aluminium (yes I’m from Europe) hood on those is so flimsy it has TWO releases, one in each side.
As the front fenders are quite easy to dismount, the cables are also. Which means that if you reassemble your DS front end and forget to attach the cables again (there is a LOT going on down there with the cooling duct and spare wheel and cross bar and horns) you are quite up “because french” creek, if you close the hood…
Luckily french panel gaps is measured in centimeters and not milimeters, so you CAN get a long stick in there – in both sides… – to push the latches, if they are well oiled. And after half an hour you can be back to square one.
The Jensen’s mini hood may be the inspiration for the Nissan Leaf’s charging port lid. Would it have killed them to use a cable operated latch like everyone else, including later Jensens?
Other answers, the 356 has what looks like Lloyd 400 rear quarter windows so it was a custom fabricated top. Iso made fridges, as did Crosley and Nash-Kelvinator. The Sunbeam Tiger used a Ford Windsor V8 like many Mustangs.
I’m pretty sure I saw a writeup on that notchback Porsche, maybe on the old site, and as I recall they cut up a convertible and grafted the roof in.
[spoiler title=”Answers?”]
Welded a hardtop onto a convertible tub.ISO made refrigerators.Sunbeam and Ford used the same Ford 260 and 289 V8 engines Locked cover for the bonnet (NOT hood) release.[/spoiler]
ISO makes standards, not cars, dummy.
Iso (not the acronym) was an Italian car company best known for the Grifo in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Before you call someone a dummy you should at least make sure you’re right.
Am I the only one that picked up on his sarcasm?
Before you correct someone on the internet, you should at least make sure they’re not being sarcastic.
British men who would have been most likely to purchase a Jensen in that era were so staid and repressed they actually needed some extra locks and doors to build excitement before they could achieve release. That’s what I heard anyway.
Jason is clearly not the youngest child in his family, or he’d be sufficiently traumatized to remember that The Four Questions are Passover, not Hanukkah…
Shit! Yes of course, I woke up late today and rushed and had a miserable brain flatus. Don’t tell my rabbi. And I was the youngest!
I think it’s fair to say that Jason is an Unorthodox Jew….
Ha, reminds me of the latest episode of Wheeler Dealers I watched last night where they fixed up an ’80s Rolls Silver Spirit and showed the mechanism to retract the Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament – there’s a friggin oil filled hydraulic damper mounted to the back of the grille to make sure it retracts smoothly. Count “bleeding your hood ornament damper” as an automotive repair that I didn’t know existed until yesterday.
Ok, I think that tops trying to purge the air bubbles out of my Mercedes 300SD’s fan clutch. Iirc (it’s been 20 years), that took an entire Saturday, 3 separate bake-at-150° sessions, and involved a magical fluid costing $20-something per ounce.
That Jensen looks seriously pissed off!
Everyone complains about how angry and aggressive car design has become, with the creased squinty frown face that has been the standard for almost every manufacturer over the last decade,.
That scowling Jensen is not happy about seeing his signature look slapped onto a 2019 Toyota Camry.
My dudes. Is it really that hard to find a suit that fits and flatters?
I know I’ve never managed to find one
I find it awfully hard to find one that merely fits. Flatters? I’m not so sure I have the cash for whatever dark magic would be necessary for a suit to do that for me.
In all seriousness, I hate wearing a suit.
It is hard to find one. You absolutely cannot just buy a suit off the rack and expect it to fit and flatter. You need to go to a competent tailor and get it fitted properly.
That tends to be a major reason so many people have ill-fitting suits. They get something in their size and figure that’s as good as it is going to fit.
How is it even possible to look frumpy when you have the impressive physiques of David and Jason?
Indoorsmen?
The most British design ever. “Nigel, we need a locking bonnet”.
Nigel the junior engineer proceeds to:
Meanwhile, a thief can just reach underneath and operate the entirely exposed mechanism by hand.
Meanwhile, a lock for the trunk was a dealer-installed option.
Man that Jensen is sweeeet! And it’s from a very good year 🙂
Mustang and Sunbeam have Carroll Shelby in common. I’m not sure what you’re asking about the Porsche – hydro-forming, maybe?
Hydro-forming would be really advanced for the time.
I was thinking maybe they welded in a VW back window?
I kinda thought that might be the case, so I looked it up after your comment and the Wikipedia machine says this:
Sheet hydroformingThis process is based on the 1950s patent for hydramolding by Fred Leuthesser, Jr. and John Fox of the Schaible Company of Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States.[2]
So, maybe? I mean Porsche is often quite innovative, so I wouldn’t be surprised, but your guess is probably more likely to be true.
They took a convertible version and welded a hardtop on. It was produced at Karmann in Osnabrück, Germany. Oscar, drück (German for Oscar, push!) small joke about the city’s name. https://www.cargold-collection.com/sold/porsche-356-notchback-schiebedach-neuwertig-1961-blue/index.html
I’m going to need a protective cover for the hood release cover. I don’t want anyone messing with that flap without my say-so.
If you think that’s wild, there’s a pretty complex (expensive) hood release setup on the XJ Cherokee. I don’t think I fully appreciated it until I had to repair it to reliably get into the engine bay.
Yeah, only fix I ever found was to smash on the corner that didn’t release until it did. Probably wasn’t the best option, but it made me feel better.
Yeah, that checks out. I was trying to generate some Torch+Tracy synergy here, but I figured at a minimum Torch would be in it, if only for the term “bellcrank.”
It is super annoying when one of those damn latches gets stuck. On our farm beater XJ, my brother and I just mounted some bolts that came up through the hood and held it down with wingnuts.
“I say, my dear sir, we heard you like bonnets. So we put a bonnet in your bonnet!”
The image of Xzibit with a top hat and monocle is now burnt into mind.
ISO made refrigerators..That’s all I have