The Jensen Interceptor GTX is a new V8 track-only monster (for now)…

No arguments: ‘Interceptor’ is the coolest name a British car ever wore. Jensen built the original from 1966 to 1976, until it went the way of most British car companies. Bust.

A company in Oxfordshire has been diligently restoring old Interceptors since 2007 – we tested one of their fine £300,000 revamps here – but now Jensen International Automotive has decided the time is right for an all-new Interceptor. But it’s going about it in a deeply unusual way.

Normally, a company builds a spangly concept car, then a watered down production road car, and if it turns out to be any good, then strips it out and takes it to the track. Jensen International has decided to flip that around, and mash it all up. Welcome to the Jensen Interceptor GTX. A track only concept car you can’t race. Huh?

The idea is that this ultra-extreme prototype will test the design and components to destruction. Once they’re tough enough for track-spec abuse, Jensen will know its future road-going version won’t perform the British sports car party piece of expiring in a steamy cloud of embarrassment.

So, while the GTX’s all-new bodywork (which to us bears a striking resemblance to the Ford Mustang GTD) is British-designed and formed aluminium, the aerodynamic aids are all carbon fibre, and generate 350kg of downforce. That huge rear wing rather gets in the way of the Interceptor’s signature fastback rear window, but there are nods to the original in the quad-element front lights, that forward-slash side vent, and the badging on the rear pillar.

Beneath its vast bonnet, the Interceptor GTX inherits the family heirloom of ludicrous American muscle. The original swelled from a 6.3 to 7.2-litre V8 during its life. This new one gets an all-new 6.8-litre V8 which was General Motors at birth but has had a thorough rebuild by Late Model Engines in Houston Texas.

They’ve added a 2.65-litre supercharger, many forged components and even lined the front-mid engine bay in gold foil. For testing purposes the GTX makes do with 960bhp, but the powerplant is apparently rated for a mighty 1,200bhp and 1,100lb ft.

All that’s sent down a carbon fibre propshaft to the rear wheels, meeting a six-speed sequential transaxle gearbox on the way. This prototype allows shifting on the flappy paddles or the macho sequential lever, but the road car could go for an old-school manual – if enough buyers request it.

And that’s the whole point of this project really – ‘build it and see if they come'.

Jensen reckons instead of making big promises about a road car programme and then burning through deposit money faster than super-unleaded, it’s cleverer to make the prototype bulletproof, get collectors posting their credit cards to the factory first-class, then work out how to build a road-legal version to make the Aston Martin Vanquish and Ferrari 12Cilindri look meek...