A very original reinterpretation of the Citroën XM saw the light of day in 1992: the Jensen One. The argus returns to the story of this innovative and unique prototype product.
By
Gatien-Hugo Riposseau
Published on
The Jensen One, a very original reinterpretation of the Citroën XM, was born in 1992. The argus returns to this singular car.
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The result of an unlikely collaboration between Danish industrial designer Jacob Jensen, his son Timothy Jacob Jensen and their counterpart Max René, the Jensen One is probably the most futuristic and extravagant version that the wise tricolor roadster has ever known. The project of these three aesthetes was to design an absolutely unique car from an existing model. No one knows why the Citroën XM in its version equipped with the 3.0 24-valve 177 hp V6 was chosen to serve as the basis for this original project. Still, this style study that did indeed see the light of day was also a concentrate of technology.
Carbon fiber and Kevlar bodywork
Presented on August 27, 1992 at the Design Museum in Copenhagen, this prototype then inaugurated the technique of bodywork in carbon fiber and Kevlar. The advantage of this alloy of technical materials lay in the increased rigidity of the structure of the car, which was supposed to be five times stronger than steel, without the slightest excess weight.
The Jensen One seemed literally posed on the ground.
Auctions Haus Meyer
The front face with a perforated grille was also specific.
Auctions Haus Meyer
The front wheel fairing was removable and could be removed electrically to change the wheel in the event of a puncture…
Auctions Haus Meyer
…just like at the back.
Auctions Haus Meyer
The design of this XM was characterized by the fairing of the four wheels in homage to the design of the Citroën DS, SM and CX whose rear wheels were largely masked by their bodywork. And this fairing was precisely electrically removable at the front and at the rear to be able to access the wheels in the event of a puncture. But beyond the inspiration drawn from the design of these ancestors, it is the continuity of the line and the search for aerodynamics that have apparently presided over this bold choice. Failing to be consensual, this ultra-worked design gives a real singularity to the Jensen One which seems not to roll but literally to fly on the road.
Technology at all levels
The Jensen One was not just a designer delirium. Resolutely avant-garde, this UFO-like roadster was supposed to carry the most advanced computer technology of the time. Its equipment was in any case ahead of what the cars of the early 1990s offered at the time. The four seats, the central armrest and even the mirrors were electrically adjustable with several memorizable positions. Several digital screens were placed in the vehicle, in particular to control the opening and closing of the wheel fairings.
It was also equipped with a unique electronic distance measurement system controlled by lasers at the front and rear to avoid obstacles during manoeuvres. But that was not all since the Jensen One could also boast of being equipped with the automatic closing of the windows and the sunroof controlled by computer when the driver leaves and, the height of luxury, an antenna integrated into the windows to receive radio and television channels. Finally, it inherited the hydraulic suspension of the traditional XM whose kinematics at startup always produced its small effect.
A prototype with no real future
Initially, this Jensen One was to be the subject of a production of 30 to 50 copies per year in Denmark. But the project turned out to be financially unfeasible since the conversion of the XM V6 cost the equivalent at the time of more than €30,000 before tax, to which it was naturally necessary to add around €25,000 for the acquisition of the XM serving as the to this crazy transformation. Result, this very special XM was to be displayed at the astronomical price of 92,500 €a perfectly unreasonable sum that buried the project, for lack of investors ready to take up the bet of production.
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Impossible to remain indifferent to such a bold design.
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The number of copies manufactured is also debated. The literature which concerns it sometimes evokes one, sometimes two and sometimes even four copies in total, of which we do not know what became of them. What is certain is that one of them, owned by Jacob Jensen himself, was sold at auction in Hamburg on November 3, 2020 for €30,000 (€36,000 including costs). The dealer and collector who acquired it said he was ready to invest the €6,000 to €7,000 needed to restore it to perfect condition and thus perpetuate the myth of this astonishing car.
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The Jensen One will undeniably remain the most original car built on the basis of Citroën XM.
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