I have read many car articles about many different cars, but the most emotional articles and prejudiced ones, both good  and bad, are about the Jensen Healey.
The Jensen brothers started customizing cars in England in the 1920’s. Their “first” car was built in 1934. The body was built using aluminum and the motor was the new at the time “ford V8”. It is a famous car that had been given the name “The White Lady “.  That car is still in existence today here in Canada; I am proud to say. The owner shipped it here from England in the 1950s. The Brothers went into business in 1936  as custom coach builders. The car bodies were built using aluminum with various drive trains till the start of WW2 . Jensen built trucks and service vehicles for the British during the war. Afterwards they built custom highend luxury sports cars using fiberglass and steel, some of which were the early 1950 Interceptors, 541R Jensens (record holder of the fastest time London to Paris, and first production car with 4 wheel discs ) , the CV8, and Jensen Interceptors, including one model with ABS, full time four wheel drive and a 383 HO Chrysler motor.
The Jensen plant in West Bromwich also hand assembled  cars and bodies for other makes. In the 60s Jensen built the bodies for the  Austin Healeys, Sunbeam Tigers, and early Volvo P1800s. The Brothers sold the business in 1966. The other half of the name is from Donald Healey. Austin had stopped building Donald’s designed Austin Healey in the late 60s when Donald Healey and Austin ended their association (not a happy ending).  Which brings us to the Magnificent 70s.
In 1969 Jensen started designing a roadster. It was to be the replacement for the Austin Healey for Kjell Qvale a Californian-based British car dealer and new owner of the Jensen factory in West Bromwich, England. He wanted to build a car that continued the Great British sports car legend and sales of Austin Healey. Donald, Geoffrey and Brian Healey  were working on a replacement of their own designed for the Austin Healey. Both groups did not feel that the MGC was a true replacement Austin Healey (Austin’s claim). The two camps got together and built  the Jensen Healey. Production began in the second half of 1972 (about 800 cars were built this first year). Heads up display was tried in a prototype of the car, but did not make it into production. The philosophy of the  Jensen Healey seemed to be “Make the ultimate performance British roadster.” Initially the car was also to be inexpensive but as you know you can’t have things both ways, not with a Lotus supplied motor and the inflation of that time. Mechanical parts were taken from various British cars. The tail lights are the same as an Aston Martin of the time. The transmission was also on the Sunbeam Rapier.  The front brakes the same as a TR6. Chapman’s power plant was a 2L “907” Lotus motor featuring dual cam 16 valve all aluminum construction ( steel piston liners), the power plant  was taken from a formula 2 Lotus  car campaigned by Texaco in 1970 ( driven by Emerson Fittapalidi the year before he moved up to Formula 1) and detuned from 280 hp to 145hp. Carburetor was supplied by dual 175CD Strombergs for North American cars and by a pair of 2 barrel 40mm Delorto side drafts for elsewhere. It also can be noted that this motor was in the Jensen Healey before any Lotus car, and was never fully tested except by the unwitting Jensen owners. Lotus did not  fulfill any warranty claims on the Healeys motor after Jensen went out of business in 76 not that they were required to.  American owners and parts supplier have done a great deal of development for these cars since then. Over ¾ of production was shipped to the USA.
A 2.2 liter version of this same engine was being used in all Lotus production cars up till this year.
The handling was excellent, the braking recorded at 117 feet from 60 mph in tests at the time. The cars underwent a refinement process in 1973 and an unbadged mark 11 version was built. A cigar lighter was added as was a passenger side door lock, better vinyl, more wood veneer in the dash and a body side molding provided a more finished look overall.  A removable hard top and air conditioning  became available with a second interior color (black or tan) in 73. The British RHD Jensen Healeys were built to customer order. Some had leather and custom colours.  In 74, smog pumps and 5 mph bumpers were added for North American cars (about 4500 were built this year). In 75  Jensen stopped building the Healey and made a GT. A hatchback or stationwagon looking 2+2 version of the car called the Jensen GT. Only about 500 were built. The Healey part of the name was then dropped in that year. Only 51 Jensen GTs were built in 1976 as the receivers closed in. The Jensen Healey was the last car designed by Donald Healey (he did allow his name to be used on a few modified model cars but, this really was the last of the Healeys)
Racing the car did extremely well, in its first race at Riverside it won. The car was driven by Lee Mueller. In 1974 to 1976 the Jensen factory car won all but 2 races. SCCA title went to the Jensen Healey in its first year of racing and also the second year in the highly competitive D Class. The competition at the time would have included race prepped Triumph TR6s, Porsche 911s, and Alfa Spyders. Six cars were sent from the factory to be race prepped by Joe Huffaker in the USA. A few of the modifications made for racing were, larger front discs, sway bars, and Goodyear slicks on Minilite magnesium wheels. The race cars were painted a dark blue and numbered 44 and 43. After the first year of racing  the SCCA required that the J-H race cars use Webber carburetors to handicap the car, weight was also added but the car continued to win. It is a tribute to all involved with the Jensen Healey that the car won the title in its first year of racing. As you know this is almost unheard of. One needs a team in the truest sense of the word to win in auto racing.
Mark Twain said, “ there are lies, damn lies and statistics” here they are, in stock trim ;
An EPA rating of 26 MPG (that’s US Gallons).
Published 0 to 60 time of 7.2 seconds to 8.6 (depending on who, where and when in the 70’s the car was tested).
Curb weight of about a ton.
Top speed of 120 - 125 mph.
Wheelbase 92 inches.
Front Suspension was upper A-arm, lower lateral arms, compliance struts, and coil springs.
Rear suspension was live axle, trailing arms, upper control arms, and coil springs.  Front and rear sway bars are available after market.
Transmission was a 4 spd manual till 74 when it switched over to a 5 spd manual. Final drive for both units was 1 to 1, an aftermarket electric overdrive on both 3rd and 4th is available for the 4spd.
The engine; a Lotus dohc inline 4 1973cc, with about 140bhp (SAE net) @ 6500 rpm, 130 lbs ft @ 5000 rpm. Although the earlier cars were faster and lighter, the factory did not change the engine outputs by year.
Brakes were front disc and rear drums. The fronts are the same as a TR6, the rears were either Girling or Lockheed after mid 1973 .
2 seat 2 door roadster body style, manual black vinyl top, optional second ridged top.
Total production numbers for all years 10,453 cars, 7,709 to the USA 1,194 sold in England.
116 Jensen Healey mark 11’s were sold in Canada.
127 Jensen Healey mark 1’s were sold in Canada.
At present it is difficult to say how many Jensen Healeys exist world wide but estimates of 1000 runners seems about the best guess, very few of the 72s. Like most car models the early ones are used for parts and show their design flaw first, however they will always be my favorite examples of any car.
Engine modifications to bring hp up to 260 were available at the time as reported in an article in Motor Trend February 1973 titled “ ROAD TEST: Jensen-Healey, It’s either the ultimate traditional British sports car or the first of a new generation - or both / By John Christy. Hind site is 20 - 20 but with all the new roadsters being produced now, that title sums up my own views. No story about the J-H would be complete without issuing the following warning. The Jensen Healey originally came with a plastic bio degradable fuel T between the carbs. The distributor was directly below this. Guess what happened when the T developed a crack ( I have not seen one that did not crack ) and when the car was started, FIRE!  When I was in California at a British car wrecker, I saw 7 Jensen Healey’s, 6 of them were there as a result of engine fires. The T is easily and cheaply changed. Do Not attempt to start a car with a whitish yellowish T between the carburetors. There are many other quirks these cars have, like all old autos. I would highly recommend that any owner (past present or future) join a club such as the AJO, JOC or JHPS.  It is possible to learn from others mistakes and in the case of old cars it is impossible to survive without the knowledge of others. Once the typical problems have been addressed Jensen Healeys are reliable, easy on gas and a lot of fun to drive.
With the above reading like a who’s who of British sports cars, coupled with its racing success, it is difficult to fathom why the car would not be a winner in the showroom. The price of the car was relatively the same as a roadster today. In 1975 Jensen Healeys were no longer built. The changing tastes of the 70’s, away from convertibles and sports cars, along with reliability problems with the early motors, inflation, the oil crisis and lack of a promised government grant ( the entire British grants were given to a guy named Deloren ) were all factors. Compound all of these problems and more and after 40 years Jensen stopped making cars almost,  but that is another story. Historians and Californians will judge us by what we drive but the best way to know a car is to drive one. If a picture is worth 1000 words, test driving an Old car is worth 1000 emotions.

All Jensen Factory and Historical records are kept by Richard Calver, (right now he is in Bosnia working for the UN) he also keeps tabs on all Jensens worldwide. If you have any information on any Jensens, especially ones at the wreckers or ones that have been “lost” go to the bellow link page for Richard Calver’s E-mail and more information on other fine Jensen sites.

A model company, Mikensue, may have made a Jensen Healey model in the 1970's they are Mike and Susan Richardson of the UK.  If you have any information or have seen this model please e-mail me, Dr. C. Ronson
 

 

Jensen Motors WebRing site is provided by the JIOC. Questions? Chuck Gerarden.