On a trip to New Orleans, Qvale saw an MG TC, an English sports car made by Morris Garages. He decided to import MG cars into the United States, believing that since he found the car so appealing other people would too. He established a business near San Francisco and diversified by adding other car brands including Austin, Morris, Jaguar, and Rolls Royce. The business traded under the name 'British Motor Car Distributors'. Later Qvale further diversified his business interests by importing non-British brands including Volkswagen, Porsche, De Tomaso, Maserati and Lamborghini. For a brief period Qvale moved into car manufacturing by acquiring a significant stake in Jensen Motors.
Jensen and the Jensen-Healey
By 1970, Qvale's organization was selling more than 160,000 cars in the United States. The Austin-Healey, produced by the British Motor Corporation, was popular with American buyers. BMC's announcement that it would end production of Austin-Healeys created a problem for Qvale, who stood to lose sales. It was also unwelcome news for Austin-Healey's designer Donald Healey – who received a royalty on each Austin-Healey sold – and for English car manufacturer, Jensen Motors, who built the Austin-Healeys for BMC. This prompted discussions between these three parties which ultimately led to a plan for the design and production of a vehicle to fill the gap the Austin-Healey would leave. In 1970 Kjell Qvale became the majority shareholder in Jensen Motors. The first production version of the Jensen-Healey was completed in 1972.
In 1974 Nico Minardos approached Qvale for a product placement deal to use a Jensen Interceptor in Assault on Agathon, a motion picture Minardos was producing and starring in along with Marianne Faithfull. By Qvale's own account, "Minardos must be a better salesman than I am, because he ended up convincing me to finance the entire movie." The movie—a sort of knockoff James Bond thriller—was made, with prominent use of the Jensen car, and was distributed by MGM, but it failed dismally at the box office and Qvale wrote off his investment. As Qvale recounted to Minardos's godson, Owen Prell, in the 2010 documentary film, Finding Nico, "I have no regrets. It was a fun experience being a Hollywood producer."
Qvale Automotive Group
Kjell Qvale's son, Bruce Qvale, founded automobile manufacturer Qvale. Qvale was an independent Italian car manufacturer founded in 2000. Qvale's sole product was the Qvale Mangusta, originally the De Tomaso Biguà. In 2003, Qvale sold the rights to the Mangusta to MG Rover Group.
