Managing Director – Bridge Classic Cars
The Jensen Owners Club recently shared an article about the very special car, The White Lady.
Everyone here at Bridge Classic Cars love Jensens so we are pleased that the JOC allowed us to share the article in its entirety below.
GENESIS
By Alex Lawrence
Three words that heralded quite a story. The original story of creation, of building something. Starting from nothing and creating something lasting is not a simple task, even for a deity let alone two brothers in West Bromwich. Hampton Court concours 2022 saw another reference from Genesis become relevant; let there be light. The light in question being that of an immaculate White Lady.
I admit, it is a stretch to go from biblical reference to the Jensen S1 but I think the analogy holds. After all, this car has had a magical transformation under the highly regarded German specialists Technische Restauration Werner Zinke GmbH. Jörg Hüsken is the early-car registrar for the club and has been smitten with the brand for more than a while. Already a serial Jensen owner, it has been a long four and a half year wait for this restoration to be completed. Especially seeing as he purchased the car, unseen, a full thirty minutes after the advert was posted.
Adding this car to his already rare Jensen stable seemed a natural thing to do as he freely admits, he loves a rare car. He already owns the only factory built 1955 Interceptor with a V8, the last 541R and the sole road going PW so becoming custodian of the White Lady, given her shrouded in mystery history, is a perfect match. Her mysterious history is sprinkled with a few facts and sightings from when she was completed in 1935 through to 1957 when she was exported to Canada. But little is known for sure. Perhaps she had an immaculate conception as according to David Davies, author of Jensen: The Surviving 3 1/2 and 29 month placement and although he had concerns over parts availability back home, he purchased the car and had it shipped across to Canada.
On the journey, the weather was so cold that the engine block cracked and he replaced it with a 1948 Ford V8. He drove it for 4,500 miles before putting the car in storage for winter in 1968. Huva decided that he would strip the car back to its bare aluminium for restoration, but it never went any further. It wasn’t until 2016 that the car was eventually sold to Rob Staruch who put the car back together and got the V8 running again but decided to sell it on. 4 1/4 Litre Cars, there are also no details from the factory on specifications or diagrams so the challenge of restoration was a considerable undertaking. “The guys have a five year waiting time for restorations but when they saw it, they said that it was so beautiful, that they found room straight away” he says. Almost as mysterious as the car is the restoration company and you will do well to find information on them. They are the go to team for Mercedes and Bugatti cars so the Jensen was new and as challenging as expected. “The chassis and engine held promise but the body was rotten” Jörg tells me and from the extensive images he’s sent across, you can see just exactly how bad it was. So what happened from her stepping in to a delayed 3 1/2 litre brochure demonstrator photoshoot and arriving in Canada to the car you see today? Best guesses are that in 1936, Ron Horton, friend of the Jensen’s, took over the cars ownership. The prototypes registration was now EA7000 and while unverified, would make sense that a friend owned the car rather than risk a competitor getting their hands on it. The car appeared in an advert for sale by Continental Cars Ltd in January 1945 and the geography ties in with the Horton family moving to the area in 1944. Davies believes that the next owner was John Goldschmidt and in 1951 his business, Performance Cars Ltd, London, used the car in an advert although it was not advertised for sale.
In 1957, John Huva, a supervisor for the Spacecraft Division of Telesat based in Ottawa, spotted the car for sale. He was in London for a six “He contacted the club chairman, I heard about it and bought it” says Jörg. While it may have taken nearly five years to restore, displaying the car at Hampton Court was the perfect venue. “It had to be shown in England. It completes the circle although getting it there was fun” he says, regaling me with the headache of paperwork, the distance he trailered the car from Germany to London and then the trial of unloading it, displaying it and then having the long walk back to his trailer. But just look at her. She’s amazing. It is fitting that his faith in the car and the restoration company means that this is the second coming of the White Lady. The pilgrimage to London has been the rolling away of the stone and the shining of the light that this car has given not only Jörg but many others who have seen it. It is truly a sight to behold. Best of all though, is what the future holds. “She will be driven” he says proudly, “and I intend to take her around Scotland in 2023. My wife and I toured there when we were married and we will be heading back there, twenty-five years later next year.” What a wonderful second coming this is going to be.
