George has owned this car for many years, and says:
The car is largely standard, with 56,000 miles on the clock. The car was restored 12 years ago and has been well used since. It handles extremely well.
I have Avon tyres on it, not the best footwear perhaps, as it is a bit too compliant, note Avon were original specification tyres to Rolls-Royce. I have a number of R-R cars, so I know what a Royce handles & rides, sorry, glides, like.
This was the second Jensen FF (# 152) owned by Peter Hall from new - he was the chap driving a DB5 Aston Martin when it locked-up & skidded into a ditch. He rang Newport Pagnell to take it away on a lorry, saying he does not want to see it again and told the service manager that "It handled like a tractor!" David Brown, who owned Aston Martin at the time was a tractor magnate making David Brown tractors in W Yorks., so I imagine Brown would not have been too impressed by Peter Hall's comments. Halls next call was to Jensen and went along the lines of "I hear you have a new Jensen with four-wheel drive and anti-lock brakes?" He bought one within a few months (Vignale built # 006) and then took delivery of his second new FF car some two years later.
Whilst Hall was constructive with his dealings with Jensen, he was quite vociferous and a bit of a pain in the backside when Jensen tried to fob him off with delays on deliveries, quality issues with the (both) cars, etc.
There is a lot of correspondence & documentation on file which makes fascinating reading. Peter Hall is adamant that could tell Jensen how to develop & build better motor cars and the FF Series II largely has many of the upgrades which Peter Hall was recommending / instigating.
Hall, RAF Flying Officer during WWII, was a Prisoner of War at Stalag Luft 3 (shot down over The Netherlands with the rest of his crew) which is where "The Great Escape" (remember the film with Steve McQueen?) emanated from - he was The Forger, drawing maps, forging passes & documents for the escapees. His work was exhibited at the Imperial War Museum in London.
I drove this FF to Poland and I also visited the site of Stalag Luft III where Peter Hall was interned - this was just a few days after the BBC2 TV crew ended filming a programme about The Great Escape.
The Museum Director welcomed us with open arms and showed us around what is now the museum in Zagan, Poland (note - whilst Stalag Luft III, was close to Sagan in Germany during the war, after the end of WWII the borders were moved to the west and Zagan, as it is now called, is in Poland.)
Well worth a visit. I paid homage to all who took part in the war, a poignant moment it was, too.
Some more photos
