With the 541, Jensen threw down a gauntlet to Jaguar.
But can a 541R really trade punches with an XK150? Jon P. adjudicates
Golden years: how do you define them? For Jaguar you could
easily cite the 1960s, the decade that began with the launch of the E-type,
arguably the most sensational sports car of all time, and closed with the
bringing into production of that finest of saloons, the original XJ6. But the
1950s was the period when Jaguar achieved most. Its XKs conquered the United
States, its big saloons became a sub-Bentley reference, and its smaller 2.4 and
3.4 annihilated both mainstream and specialist opposition. All this, plus five
Le Mans victories: no wonder William Lyons picked up a knighthood in 1956.
Jaguar XK 150 -
the most sensational sports car of all time
Underpinning everything was a simple fact. Jaguar made cars
people wanted: good-looking, smartly trimmed and blessed with strong
performance – at a price that made the competition blanche. So the notion of
comparing an XK150 coupé with a Jensen 541 might seem laughable. In 1958, the
Jensen cost $4,709 in top-spec 541Rform, when the 3.4-litre Jaguar in its most
common Special Equipment guise – delicious 210bhp twin-cam engine and all –
clocked in at a mere $3,297 with optional overdrive. For the 43% more asked by
Jensen, you got a glass-fiber body and nothing more exotic than a 4-litre
pushrod straight-six normally found in Austin lorries or punting local
dignitaries around in their Vanden Plas limousines. Game over?
Let’s put price aside for a moment – price when new, that
is. The two cars are otherwise surprisingly comparable. They measure roughly
the same, they weigh roughly the same, and they offer a maximum speed a whisker
over 120mph. The similarities seem all the greater when you look at our two
black-finished featured cars, the 541R of Mark Bird and the uprated XK150 SE
kindly supplied by Racing Green Cars.
They measure
roughly the same, they weigh roughly the same, and they offer a maximum speed a
whisker over 120mph
There’s a school of thought that considers the last of the
XKs as the flabby also-ran of the series, relative in particular to the lithe
and tautly drawn XK120. These same people probably regard the 3000 Mk III as
the most degenerate of the Big Healeys. I beg to differ. For me, the XK150 has
a harmony and a broad-chested elegance to its lines – and that’s leaving aside
the fact that it’s the fastest of the breed. It should also be pointed out that
in size it’s only an inch longer than an XK140 and is the same width, despite
an extra 4in of shoulder room in the cockpit.
The Jensen lacks the easy fluidity of the Jaguar, but it is
a striking and not unattractive design, with its Mercedes-like wing blisters,
swiveling air-intake flap and aggressively wrap-around Plexiglas rear window.
It looks lean and low – and at 2in less tall than the Jaguar the eye does not
lie. Functionally, too, the 541 almost certainly has it over the XK: Jensen
stylist Eric Neale set out to produce an aerodynamically efficient design –
never a William Lyons preoccupation – and by skill or chance he succeeded.
Tested in the Austin wind-tunnel, the prototype apparently registered a highly
laudable 0.365 coefficient of drag with the air-intake flap closed a figure on
a par with that of a late Citroën DS, not to mention one trumping such later
exotica as the Ferrari Daytona.
Leather-clad dash
in place of predecessor’s veneer
In terms of their mechanicals, neither car holds any
surprises. Announced in May 1957 as a fixed-head and drop head (the roadster
came in March’58), the XK150 is essentially are bodying of the XK140 – dropping
the archaic split wind-screen along the way. It thus has the second generation
of the box-section XK chassis, with rack-and-pinion steering and telescopic
rear dampers, and with the engine moved forward to create more cockpit room and
promote more stable under steer-biased handling. The double-wishbone
torsion-bar front suspension (again with telescopics) also remains unchanged
from that of the XK140. Where the 150 differs is in having four-wheel
servo-assisted Dunlop discs although in theory a base 190bhp model was offered
with all-drum brakes.
The engine marks a modest step forward, too.
