One is a formal, elegant four-door German saloon with that giant engine: the original 'banker's hot rod', indistinguishable from half a dozen of its more pedestrian siblings in all but those magic numbers on the right-hand side of its bootlid. The other car is a svelte, boutique grand tourer: American-powered and Italian-styled, but from a bravely innovative British specialist manufacturer. Only the double wing vents and a stainless-steel roof-hint at its high-tech status as the world's first four-wheel-drive high-performance road car.
But do the Jensen FF and Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3 really compare? They would have appealed to similar people: buyers more sensitive to image than cost, who had grown out of sports cars but were still keen on driving; who didn't want another Jaguar and considered themselves too young for a Rolls-Royce. At £7273 for the import-duty-inflated Mercedes and £6857 for the Jensen, these cars were pitched into the Silver Shadow class and represented about the most you could pay for an owner/driver vehicle with four seats and high-performance overtones that was also a practical means of transportation.
Unlike certain Italian exotics that were making overtures at the four-seater market, the 6.3 and FF were neither toys nor fashion statements, but working vehicles designed to ease motoring anxieties and massage wealthy egos.
For the purposes of this essay, let's ignore the disparity in the size of the rear seats and the number of doors: they were probably less of a deal-breaker than you might imagine in period.
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Denne historien er fra September 2022-utgaven av Classic & Sports Car.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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A Breath of Fresh Air- Alfa Romeo's exotic, V8-powered Montreal was like nothing the marque had made before, but can it compare with a Porsche masterpiece, the 911S 2.4?
The stereotype of the ItaloGermanic automotive rivalry is that the Latin car will be brilliant to drive, but poorly built and ergonomically flawed, while the Teutonic will be the opposite. Yet these 2+2 sports coupés both ran against orthodoxy. In the Montreal, Alfa Romeo created an outlandish-looking two-door more comfortable, more powerful and more refined than anything it had produced for decades. Meanwhile, Porsche continued to refine its back-to-front, austere and increasingly aged 911. Neither took a traditional development path, but both created thrilling and individual cars that have echoed through the decades.
Daring to be diminutive
AMC's Gremlin and Pacer, and Ford's much-derided Pinto, led America's response to the threat of imported European compacts
THE LONG WAY ROUND
There is a great tradition of overland trips by Land-Rover, but the tale of this 70s Aussie epic and the car itself was discovered by chance
Handsome cab
The Phantom V limousine marked the beginning of the end for coachbuilder James Young, but this Rolls-Royce represents the craft at its very best
DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES
Racing for their own F1 teams brought some drivers success and an enduring legacy. For others, it turned into a nightmare
20 30 LITRES CYLINDERS, 400BHP......AND MORE THAN A CENTURY OLD
Thunderous torque, flame-spitting stub-exhausts, white-knuckle thrills - and hopefully no spills - aboard a trio of Edwardian racing titans
ICON.
The three top-selling vehicles in the USA in 2023 were pick-ups, topped by the Ford F-Series. This is the truck that started it all
Blurred Lines
lan 'Del' Lines blended the V8 burble of Triumph's open GT with real practicality in his Stag V8 saloons and estates
Home of the brave
The innovative Silverstone proved a hit with keen amateur drivers. To mark its 75th, Healey's club racer returns to the circuit for which it is named
PLAYING ALL THE ANGLES
Alfa Romeo's wild RZ eschewed the jellymould styling of the period to offer a striking, wedge-shaped take on open-topped performance motoring