2026 has been quite some year, for many reasons. As our regular readers will know, the car returned from it’s extended stay in California in March this year.
First stop was to get the rear differential changed. The UK simply isn’t big enough to run a solid differential. Just moving around a crowded pit area is so hard when you can only go straight.
Next adventure was a return to our very first test runs at Pendine Beach in South Wales. The conditions were really not on our side, but we did get the opportunity to run a second driver in the guise of Jessica, Ian’s youngest daughter.
After the required clean up we then began a rather hectic series of shows.
First stop was the Enfield Pageant of Motoring in North London. A really well organised and attended show. We were so pleased with the reception we received, loads of interest in the car and our adventures.
This was rapidly followed by the Mach 2 motorshow at Aerospace Bristol.
A new and upcoming event, another really well organised with a really energetic team behind it. Once again we were kept busy throughout the two day event answering questions and swapping stories with the many attendees.
The next event was the fabulous Classic Nostalgia event at Shelsley Walsh.
This event had been on the calendar for many years as the organisers are keen land speed racers themselves and they really wanted to showcase the spirit of ‘have-a-go’ engineering.
This was our chance to go back to our sprint background and run up this twisty race course. As the car had been modified for straight line racing the tight nature of this course provided quite a driving challenge.
As it turned out, the twisty course was not our downfall, rather the very limited run off area at the finish line. On our second run we failed to get the car stopped in time and was only halted by the gravel trap. Alas the damage this caused prevented us from running again that weekend.
Next on the calendar was our ‘Last Hurrah’.
Before leaving for America in 2023 we had carried out a lot of testing at Elvington airfield in Yorkshire, the bulk of our testing was on aerodynamic solutions and on getting our procedures, but we had not had the engine running at full power before.
This was our opportunity to show what we were capable of.
We were so grateful to be joined by a number of friends and supporters from social media, not least John Hughes one of our many photographers.
We managed only two runs, as despite favourable weather conditions the limitations of our design solutions became obvious.
Out at Bonneville we had never really had to worry about slowing down in any sort of prescribed area, with the five mile run up we had three miles to slow down with no obstacles if we over ran.
At Elvington we would have one and a quarter mile to accelerate with only three quarters of a mile to get things slowed down.
Having said that, after a first sighting run we ran again once the engine cooled and was able to improve on our previous best at Elvington by twenty miles per hour.
More importantly this was the final opportunity for the UK team to all get together and go racing.
Harry, Andy, Pete and Ian made the drive up to Yorkshire and once the racing was done we took the time to enjoy all of our trials and tribulations over the last nine years of our ‘one-year’ project.
The camaraderie within the team was a joy to behold and the chance to relive some of the highlights and stories from our time together was very welcome.
The above image does include Pete’s fluorescent green sun hat. We apologise for this inclusion, but he was specifically forbidden from wearing it in any previous photos.
Following on from the excitement in Yorkshire our final event of the year was the Capel village car show.
Capel is a typically bucolic village in Surrey about ten miles from our base. We had been invited by the David Wright local co-ordinator of the Jensen Owners Club. This is a wonderfully laid back village show with around seven hundred classic cars, a horticultural show, a dog show (which was understandably cancelled due to the extreme heat) a fair and a beer tent.
This did give us the opportunity to park next to David’s pristine C-V8 and show off quite how much of the original car design we have used. Other than extending the bonnet and adding a rear wing the strength of the original design has allowed us to reach amazing places.
So, what next?
This marks the end of the World’s Fastest Jensen project. Our beloved C-V8 has now retired from land speed racing.
It’s not the end of the car, far from it.
As soon as time allows we will be starting work on the car. The first phase will be to completely strip the car down and rebuild in a less performance focused manner. We plan to make the car road legal again, with a view to turning it back into a comfortable GT car that can travel at high speed for long distances.
We may continue with some of these newsletters when the rebuild reaches interesting points.
Finally we have one last request, we have used the car at many shows and events to draw attention to the very good works that BLESMA carry out with limbless ex-servicemen. With this charity behind him Ian (because he’s barking mad!) is going to run the Brighton marathon next year. He has set up a JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/page/ian-northeast-1
If anybody would like to help him raise some money for this incredibly valuable charity we would be very grateful.
We would very much like to thank each and every one of you that takes the time to read these messages.
We couldn’t have achieved anywhere near the level of success we did without your support.
