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
Austin A70
The Austin A70 Hampshire and later Austin A70 Hereford are cars that were produced by Austin of Britain from 1948 until 1954. They were conventional body-on-frame cars with similar styling to the smaller A40 Devon and A40 Somerset models respe ...
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
Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to:
* Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct
Automobiles
* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
hydramatic
Hydramatic (also known as Hydra-Matic) is an automatic transmission developed by both General Motors' Cadillac and Oldsmobile divisions. Introduced in 1939 for the 1940 model year vehicles, the ''Hydramatic'' was the first mass-produced fully-a ...
gearbox, and only 127 cars were built before the model was discontinued to be replaced by the
CV8.
Performance
![Jensen541R](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Jensen541R.jpg)
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 –.
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jensen 541r
541R
Grand tourers
Rear-wheel-drive vehicles
Coupés
Cars introduced in 1957