Any trace of a LHD FF?

[thomaslk]

last week i met an Ex-Jensen Dealer in Germany. He said he sold ONE car in total - so not really a success-story.
On the other hand this specific deal seemed to be extremely rare: it was a LHD FF per customer specification made in white body colour.
The guy sounded absolutely trustworthy - he could even recap name and position of the original buyer.
Any trace of that car?

rgds
Thomas

[ajm541s]

Sorry, not possible. No left hand drive Jensen FF's ever built. Maybe he is thinking about some other car with FF transmission, of which there were many.
I would be interested if you ever find out his name and where his business was. At the time we were trying to sell cars in Germany the market for such cars was extremely small, even for Rolls Royce. Big Mercedes definitely ruled!

[thomaslk]

Tony,
thx for the quick reply. I knew that you would be one of the most competent info source regarding specific builds. The guy told about the two inch narrower driver seat and the limited space for pedals/feet - so it sounded quite reasonable.
I will sent the name of the ex-dealer and the first owner he mentioned via PM.
rgds
Thomas

[CV8600hp]

we are looking to built a LHD ff with Toyota steering parts

regards
Paul

[thomaslk]

Meanwhile i have some more details which might justify to warm up this topic again - knowing that a LHD FF has never been produced (officially ). Thanks to Tony Marshall for his support so far.

The car in question is said to be sold in 1987 - so in one of the reconstruction phases of the company.
According to my contact it was a white Mark IV LHD FF with 5.0 Chrysler V8 multipoint fuel injection engine sold by Mr. Cornelius Richter from Regensburg to Mr. Hubert Bauer, located in Fürth-Zirndorf. At that time Mr. Richter was regarded as official Jensen importer for Germany.
So the car specs sounded really "exotic" but on the other hand he remembered the issues with the limited footwell space for the lhd seated driver due to the Ferguson drivetrain. All in all it sounded somehow authentic and there was no reason for strange storytelling. Maybe it was build to customer´s spec out of available spareparts? I guess the company was pretty flexible and informal at that time.
Any ideas if/where this car is existing?
rgds
Thomas

[Denis]

But is there any kind of the government site in the Germany and Switzerland? If you put to the search:

1987-1988
Jensen

It definitely should not be too much of them?

[MAD]

Talking for switzerland:

Tracking cars is not that easy. But another problem is, that such a rarity maybe is hidden in a private collection. (I remember a white FF in Glarus....) These cars never appear "officially".

Regards
Martin

[ajm541s]

In 1987 any such car would have had to be a conversion of an existing chassis, unless there was an unused FF chassis lying around, which is not very likely. I did discus this with Ulrich some time back, and he had no knowledge of any such car.
Best shot would appear to be the tracking down of Mr Bauer or his relatives.

[felixkk]

But another problem is, that such a rarity maybe is hidden in a private collection. (I remember a white FF in Glarus....) These cars never appear "officially".

come to think of it, you also have quite a private collection- aren't you missing a car in your list?

I don't know if it's possible to get this type of info from the swiss DVLA

[MAD]

come to think of it, you also have quite a private collection- aren't you missing a car in your list?

Corrected....

I don't know if it's possible to get this type of info from the swiss DVLA

I earlier days it was possible depending on the willing of the personel.... Now they're very restrictive, must have something to do with data privacy. (Altough I cannot follow this argument, looking to our financial industry...

Cheers
Martin

[ajm541s]

Anybody know the whereabouts of 127/308? Originally delivered to Edgar Schwyn in August 1971?
Also 127/282 sold in April 1971, via a London dealer, possibly Follett, to a gentleman in Frankfurt. This is known to have been very badly damaged in 1973, and possibly written off. Registration was F-CM-33.
Either of these two could be part of the LHD story.
One JOC member in Germany owned a white RHD FF, which he bought from a Mr Bauer, on the advice of Mr Richter!

[Denis]

What is the interesting, is that, Formula Ferguson succesfully converted small number of american cars and V8 Opels for USMLM and BRIXMIS (western military lialson mission in the DDR), so left hand drive conversion was not an problem, also for the american cars.

Was this tubular frame, why it wasnt convert FF to LHD?

[pjb155]

there's a white FF for sale at Graemehunt, 36k miles

[Joerg]

There is one (tatty) white RHD FF in Leizig but this was a Swiss car (imported by Edgar) - but has maybe made its way via Regensburg.
The owner is (was) member of the swiss club.

Joerg

[Chris_R]

Denis, Tony Marshall explains why no LHD FF here: http://www.joc.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... ang#p89143" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;