The Jensen 541R is a closed four-seater GT-class car built in the United Kingdom by Jensen between 1957 and 1960. The original aluminium prototype appeared in 1953 as the 541 at the

London Motor Show London Motor Show, formerly the London Motorfair, is a motor show in England. It was held biannually at Earls Court Exhibition Centre, from 1977 to 1999. When the event won the support of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and P&O Ev ...

, although this changed to

glassfibre Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

for all production cars. Within a year, the new 541 had already earned rave reviews from magazines, notably '' Autocar'', whose testers drove the

grand tourer A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving, due to a combination of performance and luxury attributes. The most common format is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-door coupé with either ...

to a top speed of over . It was the fastest four-seater the magazine had ever tested at the time. The 541R employed a low-revving

straight-six engine The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine bala ...

from the

Austin Sheerline The Austin Sheerline is a large luxury car produced by Austin in the United Kingdom from 1947 until 1954. The Sheerline was designed by Austin during the Second World War, but volume production did not begin until 1947 because of the commitment ...

. The suspension system came from the

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with independent suspension by coil springs at the front and a live axle with semi-elliptic springs at the rear. The 541R, introduced in 1957, differed from the 541 by using rack & pinion steering instead of a cam-and-roller system, and large disc brakes were used on all four wheels. The car's styling was by Jensen's designer

Eric Neale Eric William Neale (26 September 1910 – 1997) was a British car designer. Biography Born in Halesowen, Worcestershire and educated at Halesowen Grammar School. He served as an apprentice designer at Mulliners in Birmingham. In 1929 he left ...

, and was not only considered attractive, but was aerodynamically efficient too; a Cd figure of only 0.39 was recorded, which became the lowest figure at Jensen. The body covered a chassis built by bracing 5-inch (12.7 cm) tubes with a mixture of steel pressings and cross-members to create a platform. The 1957 model carried the DS7 version of the Austin Sheerline's four-litre motor equipped with twin

carburetor A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meteri ...

s on its right side. The cylinder head was reworked for the lifted compression ratio of 7.6:1 and a "long dwell". The engine had a raised output to at 4100 rpm and . Only 53 cars were built with the engine. In total Jensen built 193 541Rs before it was succeeded in 1961 by the

Jensen 541S The Jensen 541S was Jensen Motors luxury GT model of the Jensen 541. Announced in mid-October 1960, the Jensen 541S was four inches wider than the 541R. The increase track allowed the new car's interior to be roomier and improved the roadholdi ...

. This was similar to the 541R, but with a larger body and a GM-licensed

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gearbox, and only 127 cars were built before the model was discontinued to be replaced by the CV8.

Performance

When the Jensen 541R was tested by '' Autocar'' magazine in January 1958 it achieved their highest maximum speed for a four-seater car at . It was conducted in below-freezing conditions with a "stiff diagonal breeze". 0–60 mph was recorded at 10.6 seconds with fuel consumption at overall with the normal range given as –.

Performance

Further reading