ROUND UP
GRAN TURISMO ’70s This group of 1970s icons defined the term GT for a generation.
G
T is a seemingly innocuous term. Bolted to the back of Morris Marinas, MGBs and Ford Cortinas with gay abandon, it felt like every other car on the road was a GT of some sort. But to any schoolboy worth his pack of Top Trumps, a GT meant a big engine, two doors, and the sort of car that could whisk you down to the South of France in the same sort of time it would take for a Morris Marina to start in the depths of winter. The cars we’ve chosen here epitomised the breed – from British bulldogs to Continental chic, so here are our
46 July 2022
Words: Sam Skelton
favourite cars for the ultimate grand tour.
JENSEN INTERCEPTOR You can’t build a list of the greatest grand tourers of the 1970s without putting the Jensen Interceptor right at the top. Launched in 1966 and discontinued initially in 1976, the Interceptor is Britain’s Avanti – the grand tourer that simply refuses to die. It was launched as a replacement for the CV8, but also with one eye on the newly emerged Gordon-Keeble GK1 as a competitor. It followed a set formula for European GTs championed by Gordon Keeble,
Facel Vega and ISO among others – European chassis, pretty Italianate body, American V8 engine – in this case a 6.3 litre unit sourced from Chrysler, though in later cars this would jump to 7.2 litres. While available as a manual, most used the three speed Torqueflite automatic, and most were loaded to the gunwales with toys. Air conditioning, power steering and sheepskin trim were just some of the features fitted to many Interceptors. While the FF stole the show in the 1960s with anti-lock brakes and all wheel drive, few FFs were made after 1970 and even fewer of those were the
