if the Jensen 541 was a bespoke but slightly chunky suede brogue, 
the succeeding CV8 had steel toe 
caps that glinted through the leather. When a CV8 filled your mirrors, you knew it wanted to hurt you.

This car was a belligerent, bespoke, slant-eyed bastard – and 
I mean all of that as a term of utmost respect. For whereas the 541 was powered by a rather rustic Austin 4-litre lump, the CV8 of 1962 harboured a 5.9-litre Chrysler V8. 
As such, it was one of the first of 
the V8 Anglo-American hybrids.

This Jensen is a car that both invites and defies comparison. It was a prodigious close-coupled four-seat grand tourer that could eat Aston Martins and Jaguars. With a capable tubular chassis and disc brakes, the CV8 could nudge 140mph in MkIII spec.

And there’s one other thing 
about this bruiser – its wild styling. Producing the body in glassfibre liberated design thinking. The Autocar decried: ‘A superb concept carefully disguised as the ugliest 
car in the world’, but I wouldn’t say that to its face. With fewer than 500 built from 1962 to ’66, a CV8 will 
always stand out.