The Cars Time Forgot...

[Hugo a Gogo]

nicanary said:

Wow! I had never heard of that. It appears that Jensen assembled the Tempo over here - an established maker from Hamburg, Tempo used the VW Beetle engine in theirs, presumably mounted at the back. Why the heck did Jensen re-engineer the whole thing for the BMC motor, when they could just as easily have fitted the VW unit? Here's the German vehicle.

Tempo used the VW engine in the earlier model, but it wasn't at the back, it was mounted backwards under the driver's seat with the gearbox poking forwards

a mid-engined fwd air-cooled van and pickup!

they did all sorts of weird cars, 3 wheel trucks etc, licensed land rovers

I think this model was the Wiking, and they also used the B series for their own production
VW had stopped supplying, now that they had their own competitor

[uk66fastback]

threespires said:

Jensen Tempo
Front Wheel Drive.
BMC 'B' Series.

Jensen Tempo 1500

Do any of these survive in the flesh?

Bit of a Google search unearthed this joc thread ...

http://www.joc.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&amp...

Edited by uk66fastback on Wednesday 30th December 20:17

[Hamish Finn]

uk66fastback said:

Do any of these survive in the flesh?

I've never seen a survivor of the Jensen version. Jensen did a lot of engineering modifications for the UK market version including (as stated above), the 1489cc B-Series engine coupled to a 4-speed ZF gearbox. Although there was the minibus version, the Tempo's main claim to fame was the commercial load carrier's hydraulically operated platform, which permitted loading and offloading at different levels, from ground level to 4ft 3in.

Jensen also built the bodyshell for the Austin Gypsy, another vehicle largely forgotten.