Monday, December 30, 2019

Clark Gable, with a Jensen Ford


But Gable never owned the car, and he probably never drove it. The truth, it turns out, is more complicated than that.


Hollywood entrepreneur Percy Morgan, who represented Jensen in the Southern California market, (according to Morgan's story published in Ford Life in 1971),  initially ordered two sporting tourers: one black with tan leather for himself, the other silver with red leather for his “good friend” Clark Gable, who put down a $1,000 deposit.

As shipping costs were less than import duties, Morgan ordered two bare chassis through a California Ford dealer and had them shipped to the United Kingdom from New Jersey.

Gable grudgingly accepted the car but returned it a few days later. The dealer refunded his deposit, and Gable bought himself another Duesenberg, an SJN roadster by Bohman and Schwartz.

According to Morgan, their friendship remained intact, and as an apology, Gable agreed to pose for promotional photos with Morgan's car.
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Jensen replaced the stock Houdaille shocks with André Telecontrol units, which can be adjusted from the cockpit. The steering column is raked back and extended, and a remote shift linkage moves the gear lever about a foot aft. Dual exhausts with Burgess mufflers amplify the Flathead's confident snort.

By riding lower than a stock Ford, with better front-to-rear balance, the Jensen corners more securely.

Jensen produced no more than 30 modified Fords in 1934-36, then debuted its own line of luxury performance cars for 1937—with Ford power at first, then Nash, Lincoln and, after the war, Austin and Chrysler.

Jensen simultaneously supplied bodies for the “big” Austin-Healey of 1953-67 and in 1965 pioneered viscous-clutch control for high-performance all-wheel drive. But another Healey collaboration—the star-crossed Jensen-Healey of 1972 —forced Jensen into bankruptcy in 1976.

https://autoweek.com/article/car-life/1936-jensen-ford-most-famous-car-clark-gable-never-owned
https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/AZ16/Arizona/lots/r138-1936-jensen-ford-tourer/175055

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