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Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Jensen Interceptor can rightfully be described as an English drawing room on wheels with an American bouncer at the door. Let’s see what it might reasonably cost to enter this club.

There’s plenty of debate to be had over whether it’s better to buy a top-of-the-line cheap car or a bare-bones edition of an expensive one. We needn’t delve into that discussion as you all made your opinions well known in both comments and voting on yesterday’s $8,800 2004 VW Passat W8. That top-of-the-heap edition of VW’s family car couldn’t pass muster, not even with its rare six-speed stick. Ultimately, the 83 percent No Dice loss showed you all thought something cheaper would suffice.

The opening scene of the 1949 film Twelve O’Clock High has retired U.S. Army Air officer Harvey Stovall—ably played by Dean Jagger, who won a Best Actor Oscar for the role—thanking the staff of a London haberdashery for taking two hours to sell him the “perfect hat.” The British have long taken pride in such acts, producing and promoting many such accouterments of the preferred lifestyle. This fact is evidenced by today’s 1974 Jensen Interceptor, which, despite its American-sourced drivetrain, is both as thoroughly British and equally as elegant as a Savile Row suit.

The car’s builder, Jensen Motors, was founded by brothers Alan and Richard Jensen in 1934. Initially, the company focused on commissioned bodies for other auto manufacturers, and for individuals. One of the latter, a Ford-based special commissioned in 1934 by Clark Gable, garnered the company significant press. Jensen’s flexibility allowed it to successfully pivot to wartime production during WWII, producing military trucks and tank parts, and then again to building grand touring cars shortly after the war’s end.

The Interceptor was the last of these grand touring models. Jensen had long suffered financial issues, and by 1976 that insolvency finally caught up with the carmaker, ending production and shuttering the West Bromwich factory. Several attempts have been made in the intervening years to revive both Jensen and the Interceptor, but to date, none has proven sustainable.

This leaves cars like this 1974 Coupe to be enjoyed by historians and enthusiasts alike. This one sports elegant black paint over a biscuit interior swathed in Connolly Leather which is accompanied by a bit of burlwood along with rich deep-pile wool carpets.

The iconic Vignale-designed bodywork appears to be in top-notch condition and carries all its factory brightwork. The aftermarket additions of a cow catcher-style front air dam and Minilite alloy wheels add to the car’s uniqueness, but it would be nice to have the original and handsome five-spoke alloys under the car. At least those Minilites wear new Nexen blackwalls. The ad says the paint was redone over the original burgundy in 1977 by a prior owner who was apparently a candy bar tycoon. I think these cars look amazing in either color.

According to the ad, the Chrysler-sourced 440 CID V8 sports the “Six Pack” induction system. That was not a factory option from Jensen in ‘74 and so it is probably a later retrofit, but is still a pretty sweet setup to have. The original Mopar Six Pack was comprised of three two-barrel Holley 2300 carbs on a riser intake. The seller says this car has Mancini carbs in place of the expected Holleys. With the factory Six Pack, the 440 would make somewhere around 330 horsepower which, with only about 3,600 pounds to move around, made the Interceptor reasonably quick for its era.

Along with the trio of two barrels, this Mopar mill also has custom heat-wrapped headers and is serviced by an increased-capacity aluminum radiator with two electric fans. The rest of the drivetrain is comprised of a 727 Torqueflite 3-speed automatic and a Salisbury rear end.

Per the seller, the only issue is that the A/C system is still R12 and needs to be updated to R134. The drivetrain doesn’t sit particularly far back in the frame, but it does demand a fairly wide center tunnel which results in particularly narrow footwells and one of the narrowest brake pedals you’re likely to find.

As fun as all that might sound, the mechanicals are matched with an interior that coddles rather than constrains. There’s leather galore in here, as well as an era-appropriate AM/FM/8-track stereo. A fun fact is that, while the two back seats are mostly for show only, having almost zero legroom, the Interceptor was one of the earliest cars to offer shoulder belts for the rear seat passengers.

Another unique feature of the car is the amazing all-glass hatch in the back. It covers the boot, which has a hard cover under the glass so it’s otherwise inaccessible.

The mileage is a reasonable 52,500 barrel rolls and the car is being offered with a clean title and current tags. What should such a classic in this condition reasonably expect to draw in a sale?

The seller is asking $29,900 for the car and claims it to be under-market in the hopes of a quick sale. Do you think that at that price it will sell lickety-split? Or, for that much is this Interceptor going to miss the target?

You decide!

Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to Don R. for the hookup!

Help me out with NPOND. Hit me up at rob@jalopnik.com and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle.

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The $65,975 2023 Transit Trail is Ford’s answer the #VanLife movement. It’s a mostly empty Transit van upgraded to meet the demands of a growing market of customers ranging from experienced vanning aficionados to the merely van-curious. The Transit Trail makes several small improvements to smooth out the journey (and destination) of turning an empty cargo van into a DIY RV, or even a full-time home.

To be clear, Ford isn’t selling you a ready-to-roll camper with the Transit Trail; you’ll still need to get yours upfitted with sleeping space, storage, toilets or even a kitchenette, either by yourself or via an aftermarket installer. Lucky for you, Ford has built a network of manufacturer-approved upfitters who specialize in turning your Transit Trail into anything you need it to be.

The upgrades over the standard Transit cargo van may seem minimal to those who aren’t steeped in the adventurous van lifestyle, but when your mode of transportation is also your workspace and bedroom, little changes can make a big difference. The Transit Trail has an additional 3.5 inches of ground clearance thanks to a 2.5-inch suspension lift and beefy 30.5-inch Goodyear Wrangler Workhorse tires, which should help make the Trail more capable in woodsy terrain. The vanlife van sits on new 16-inch alloy wheels that stick out further than your standard Transit van, widening the track by 2.75 inches for a more sure-footed stance, surrounded by black plastic splash guards and fender flares. Slider steps offer some rocker-panel protection and a place to hoist yourself inside.

The pre-production van Ford showed off to media had a pretty flimsy skid plate hung off the front bumper, but the automaker promised the production Transit Trail will come with tougher underside protection as well. Marker lamps and a black grille also grace the Trail, and set it apart from its workhorse sibling. All those extra tidbits, which would normally come from an aftermarket shop or the sweat of your own wrenching, come standard, approved to meet Ford’s durability and safety standards and covered by Ford’s three-year/36,000-mile warranty.

The interior is yours to imagine. The example Ford showed to journalists was outfitted by a company called VanDoIt near Ford’s assembly plant in Kansas City, Missouri. While you can’t buy a ready-to-sleep-in-it van directly from Ford, the Transit Trail will meet you halfway with the optional Upfitters Package, which provides easy electric power for interior and exterior accessories and includes high-capacity switches, an auxiliary fuse panel with interface connector, dual 12-volt AGM batteries, a 400-watt AC inverter, and a modification-friendly wiring harness. Optional dual alternators keep those batteries charged up, and standard built-in 4G/LTE WiFi can connect up to 10 devices. Drillable surfaces in the interior offer easy mounting points for things like cabinets, shelves or beds.

The entire point of the Trail is to make building a Class B motorhome accessible to newbies. For example, sawing into the roof of your brand-new, nearly $70,000 van (and let’s be real, the dealer markups on this limited-market vehicle will likely be nuts) can be more than a little off-putting to a first-timer, so Ford is happy to cut you an opening for an air vent or roof-mount A/C unit straight from the factory. The rest of the van is a blank canvas: Ford put in two swiveling captain’s chairs up front, but other than those, the space is completely customizable — and empty.

Under the hood, you’ll find the familiar 310-horsepower, 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 and 10-speed automatic transmission already powering Transits today. The Trail comes standard with all-wheel drive, and can tow up to 6,500 pounds worth of toys behind it, and will be available in medium-roof, high-roof, and high-roof extended-body configurations, the latter providing 467 cubic feet of space behind the seats.

Ford is already a powerhouse in the motorhome world: the automaker says 60 percent of big-beast Class A motorhomes sold in the U.S. sit on Ford’s Pro F-53 chassis. But it’s the smaller, more versatile Class B rigs, based on vehicles like the Transit Trail, that are selling like hotcakes right now. A Transit van that takes a little of the intimidating guesswork out of serious overlanding or vanlife conversions should sell even hotter. Transit Trail orders should open this week, with deliveries planned for sometime in spring of 2023.

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