Jensen FF History

Launched alongside the Interceptor in 1966, the Jensen FF was a technological landmark: it is widely cited as the first production passenger car (outside all-terrain vehicles) to combine four-wheel drive with an anti-lock braking system. 'FF' stands for Ferguson Formula, after Ferguson Research, whose 4WD system it used; braking was handled by a Dunlop Maxaret anti-lock setup previously seen only on aircraft, lorries, and racing cars.

Mechanically it shared the Interceptor's 6.3-litre Chrysler 383 V8 and TorqueFlite automatic but was roughly five inches longer to package the four-wheel-drive hardware, with twin cooling vents on each front wing distinguishing it visually. The expensive, complex system could not easily be adapted to left-hand drive, which capped sales: only about 320 were built before production ended in 1971.

The FF preceded the Audi Quattro by some fourteen years and the AMC Eagle by thirteen, and is remembered as a brilliant but commercially premature piece of engineering — a halo car that proved the concept long before the wider industry adopted it.