Think of some of the greatest four-wheel drive cars of all time. You might be thinking of the Audi Quattro, the Subaru WRX, the保时捷959or even the Lancia Delta Integrale, but what about the Jensen FF?
詹森combined the best technology at the time with luxury to create an absolute masterpiece of a car. The FF’s claim to fame was that it was the first production car to be fitted with an all-wheel-drive system, antilock brakes and traction control.
詹森Motors was a British car manufacturer that produced the FF from 1966 until 1971. The company was based out of West Bromwich, England and was originally called W J Smith & Sons Limited before Richard and Alan Jensen gave the company a new name, Jensen Motors Limited, in 1934.
FF于1966年推出，基于Jensen Interceptor（1966 - 1976），比已经昂贵的兄弟姐妹高30％。FF不仅比拦截器更昂贵，而且比竞争对手的竞争对手更为昂贵Carin 1967.
名称中的FF代表“ Ferguson公式”，这比您想象的重要。哈里·弗格森（Harry Ferguson）建造并飞行了自己的V8动力单飞机，成为爱尔兰第一个进行动力飞行的人。他还帮助爱尔兰政府在第一次世界大战期间建造了拖拉机，并说服了亨利·福特（Henry Ford）建造一个名为福特·弗格森（Ford Ferguson）的拖拉机。尽管这些令人难以置信的壮举以及他失去了100万美元的硬币折腾，但弗格森最大的名声是他参与了AWD系统。
弗格森（Ferguson）以及赛车手托尼·罗尔特（Tony Rolt）和弗雷迪·迪克森（Freddie Dixon）一起制作了许多AWD原型。他们的目的是创建一个用于赛车的系统，该系统在生产车上也是可行的。弗格森（Ferguson）去世了，他的P99 AWD F1汽车为Rob Walker赛车队制造，即将首次亮相。尽管弗格森（Ferguson）逝世，但斯特林·莫斯（Sterling Moss）还是在奥尔顿公园（Oulton Park）的潮湿国际金杯赛中赢得了P99胜利。
詹森汽车公司（Jensen Motors）和弗格森（Ferguson）幸运地在弗格森（Ferguson）去世之前达成了口头协议。直到1964年，Harry Ferguson Research Limited和Jensen将这一协议投入写作，为FF的发展铺平了道路。
Around the same time, Jensen was looking at replacing their C-V8 GT car. The new Jensen would be completely different compared to the C-V8, despite the Jensen brother’s wishes. This car would be crafted from Italian steel instead of fibreglass the design wouldn’t be styled in-house. The two wheel-drive variants would be named the Interceptor, while the AWD version would be called the FF.
The Jensen FF continued to use the 325hp 6.3-litre Chrysler V8 engine that was in the Interceptor, which was then mated to a 3-speed TorqueFlite A727 automatic transmission. While the FF produced an insane amount of power for the 1960’s, its two – ton curb weight limited the 0-100km/h time to 8 seconds. The car could also hit 225km/h (140mph).
Unlike the Interceptor’s front mounted engine, the big American power plant in the FF was shoved against the firewall to make room for all the AWD goodness. This had the effect of giving the Jensen FF almost 50/50 weight distribution, which when combined with the limited slip differential and the 37/63 front to rear torque split made for some exceptional handling.
这辆车在当时的牵引力和抓地力中受到赞扬Autocardescribed the über-GT as “the safest car in the world” after driving it up a snowy ski slope.
Autocar labelling the FF as the “safest car in the world” was a bit of a stretch in all honesty. The Dunlop Maxaret ABS system (originally developed for aeroplanes) could only pulse the brakes three times a second compared to a modern systems 20 times a second. This also adversely effected the traction control system (a function of the ABS system like most modern cars). Despite this, the Jensen FF was still miles ahead of almost everything else on the market. Another cool feature was the ability to adjust the shocks via a rocker switch inside the cabin.
一个缺点the way Ferguson’s “Teramala” transmission was squeezed into Chrysler’s TorqueFlite, was that the car could only come as right-hand drive. This was because the engine was mounted off-centre and the shaft driving the front wheels intruded into the passenger area, making it impossible for the car to be converted into left-hand drive. The lack of a left-hand drive model and the mega cost of the FF meant that Jensen could only sell one out of 320 FF’s built in its largest market, the USA.
While only a small amount of Jensen FF’s were created, it is one of the most influential cars ever produced. During the development of the Quattro, Audi purchased a Jensen FF to study how the car and its AWD system. The car is so influential that all modern AWD cars today use a variation of Ferguson’s Formula transmission.
衍生物
During 1968, a special experimental FF was produced with a 7-litre Hemi engine imported from Chrysler in the U.S. This engine was never fitted into production models as the suspension limited its use at extremely high speeds and the cost of importing the Hemi into Britain was prohibitive.
Jensen FFF 100
By the early 1970’s, Jensen was in real financial trouble. Jensen was in such a sorry state that only 15 Mk III FFs were produced, and they were built on leftover Mk II frames. Despite the troubles with the company and issues surrounding the FF, Jensen was still keen to build another high performance AWD car.
In 1972 Jensen unveiled the FFF 100 prototype (In reality, Britain’s GKN conglomerate was behind the FFF 100). The prototype was built off an FFF chassis and featured a 7.2-litre Hemi that would produce a face melting 600hp and 560 lb-ft of torque. GKN also ditched the rusty Italian body in favour of a lighter fiberglass one, which meant that the car weighed around 1,500kg. It was also styled by the Aston Martin V8’s designer, William Towns.
FFF 100的表现很野蛮。它可能会在仅12.2秒内从0-100-0 mph的速度上升，比谢尔比眼镜蛇快得多，那是潮湿的！在干燥的条件下，汽车甚至更快，可以达到100英里 /小时，然后在仅11.5秒内再次回到零，即使按照今天的标准，这也很快。不过，性能会比这更好。GKN在汽车的燃油喷射系统上工作，并计划在项目掉落之前改善制动器。
尽管FFF 100从未进入生产，但詹森·FF（Jensen FF）和詹森（Jensen）拦截器为我们今天拥有的传奇AWD汽车铺平了道路。
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