Jensen C-V8

The most beautiful, ornate, Jensen. Incredible.

When snapping away, this big burly bloke walked towards me. A real Chelsea hardman. He then burst into a big grin, motioned to the car and then couldn't stop talking about it. He ran his hands over the paintwork (I wasn't going to tell him off), and pored over the detail. Frustratingly he talked of "Austin Martins", but I just smiled. Then a postwoman walked up. She could also see that it was something special.....

Ok, now this is the amazing thing. I swear to God, I said to the Postie and the Hardman, "I've never seen a car like this, and I probably won't again...."

And you know what? About 15 minutes later when driving off, after leaving the best find of the day, I saw another one!

It was green. So I gave chase. But as hard as I pushed the Mercedes, at every turn I just snatched a glimpse of it's rear end. This went on for about eight or nine turnings. Then traffic called a halt. That's how life works, sometimes.

The C-V8 and the 541S were the very last hand-built cars made by the Jensen Brothers, and when the C-V8 was released in 1962 it could lay suitable claim to being one of, if not, the fastest four seater around. In many ways a pioneering car, the brothers utilised wind tunnel research to hone the body design and was also the first to provide disc brakes all round.

The MkII and III versions were 6.8 second cars - thanks to the Chrysler-sourced 6.3 V8 - but are burly to handle. 314 were made of the MK I/II models and 182 of the MK III.