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This year's seasonal look at days gone by features a

20th December 2001
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

vehicle which defied convention to extract maximum productivity from the regulations of the day.

At the end of the Second World War there were many shortages and privations. Steel in particular was highly valued as a means of making exports to earn desperately needed foreign cun-ency, especially dollars. Alternatives were needed, and one solution is still commemorated by the continuing story of the aluminium-bodied Land Rover Defender. But Solihull was not the only West Midlands town to see non-ferrous metal used for vehicle manufacture. In 1947 in nearby West Bromwich Jensen Motors launched the JNSN six-tonner, although its unconventional construction was conceived as much to save weight as to save steel.

If you brought your unladen weight below three of His Majesty's imperial tons, all kinds of opportunities presented themselves. Principal among them were the ability to drive the truck on a car licence and to drive it at a dizzy 30mph while bigger trucks were limited to zomphthe 7.5-tonne rules of the day. The quest for these benefits created all sorts of devious practices before the truck's official weigh-in, and eventually led to our present regulations, which are based on gross weight.

nest winner

Jensen's product honestly and comfortably beat the weight our test

`2 truck's original logbook entry shows two tons, r7cwt, rolb (2,94okg). It achieved this thanks to a ladder-frame chassis formed on a pair of r6in -2deep 4-gauge light alloy rails with riveted upper and lower flanges of zin alloy angle. Five equally spaced cross-members of similar construc • tion hold it all together, helped by other assorted alloy brackets. al The Jensen's motive power was provided by the ubiquitous Perkins g P6 Aeroflow 4.7-litre diesel, developing 774. The original CM road test

E truck with Luton van bodywork was fitted with a Moss five-speed gear 0 box, but our test vehicle had the same number of ratios provided by David Brown. One unique feature of the Jensen's driveline is a patented quick-release facility, allowing the whole power unit to be removed on a custombuilt jack trolley in about half an hour and refitted almost as easily to four large spigots. Tecalemit central chassis lubrication was fitted, and activated by the clutch pedal.

Single skins

The cab is largely a single skin of aluminium over a frame of one-inch-square tubing, the steel parts of which are cadmium-plated. Although the cab measures only 48in from front to back, access is easy, helped by wellplaced grab rails, although the slippery step is ready to catch the unwary. Once inside there is plenty of space, but if you want to avoid bruises it's best to keep your ankles away from the exposed chassis rails which form the inner wall of the footwell. The driver's seat adjusts

for height and reach, allowing a decent position to be found. Visibility all round is excellent, although the diminutive mirrors are more ornamental than functional. The driving seat is surrounded by bright red fluid reservoirs, holding brake fluid, chassis lube oil and paraffin for the "Ki-gass" cold start device. The instrument panel is surprisingly comprehensive, with 6mph speedo, ammeter, coolant temperature, oil pressure and vacuum. By modem standards only the rev counter—and tachograph—are missing, while the two fuel tanks have their own external gauges. The windscreen gets a wiper only on the driver's side, backed up by a folding facility.

The Jensen's factory body is a work of art, with a floor and headboard consisting of square corrugated sheets infilled with inchwide softwood rubbing strips. The rear panel has fully integrated rear-light and number plate housings. But a lorry body is not for looking at, and the Jensen's aft by 7ft plat form has an unrivalled load space which, in conjunction with the strong but lightweight construction, gives the Jensen a fiill six-ton payload. To put this into perspective, the Jensen's payload of high bulk goods was 40-50% greater than that of its contemporary competitors.

Even with just 774, the three-ton unladen Jensen is remarkably lively through the gears, and top speed was attained in double-quick time. And although it was suffering from a defunct speedo cable, our photographer swears he was following us at just under omph. The dogleg first is only needed for the sort of mountain not seen in the New Forest, the remainder using a traditional "H". Once you've learned that the 2-3 plane has a considerably longer movement than the 4-5, it is soon possible to move through the nonsynchro David Brown box with surprising ease.

The throttle pedal is rather too sensitive, and bad roads caused some lurching, but on reasonable surfaces the ride is perfectly adequate. Even though the cab is singleskin with the road visible through the floor, the noise level permits fairly normal conversation even at cruising speeds.

Light steering?

CM'S 1947 road test praised the light steering. That must have been by a different set of standards from today's, as we found it ferociously heavy below romph or so. Above that, though, it became acceptably light and remarkably accurate. The only discordant note in the driving experience was the brake pedal, which was set rather too high for comfort, but as there was a suspicion of a leaking wheel cylinder we kept braking to a minimum.

There's no question that the Jensen offered a truly revolutionary advance in productivity in its day. Unfortunately, despite the benefits, it proved simply too expensive, and after a couple of years and an unknown number of sales the plug was pulled. Jensen went onto, er, enjoy a turbulent half century of alternately making sports cars and losing money. Probably the pinnacle of its history was the groundbreaking FF, whose anti-lock brakes and four-wheel-drive paved the way for many of today's more prosaic cars. Today production of a new range of Jensen sports cars is getting under way. Let's hope it has more long-term success than its ancestors did.

• by Colin Barnett

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