{"id":2711,"date":"2006-10-25T02:05:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-25T06:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2006\/10\/when-donald-met-colin\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:02:03","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:02:03","slug":"when-donald-met-colin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2006\/10\/when-donald-met-colin\/","title":{"rendered":"When Donald Met Colin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jensen-Healey\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Steve McManus has a new project. You’ll probably recognize its rather plain face as that of a Jensen-Healey, the final (and probably least happy) automotive venture of Donald Healey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Healey’s greatest fame came from the very successful Austin-Healey<\/a> that made his name a household word, much more so than the Nash-Healey<\/a> and predecessors we featured some months ago. The Austin-Healey and its junior edition, the Austin-Healey Sprite<\/a>, sold nearly 200,000 units.<\/p>\n

Fearing, accurately but somewhat prematurely, the demise of the British sports car in the United States, Austin’s parent British Motor Corporation<\/a> had discontinued the “Big Healeys<\/a>” after 1967. The Sprite continued on until 1971<\/a>, the final year as simply “Austin Sprite” since Healey’s contract had expired. (Its badge-engineered companion, the MG Midget<\/a>, lasted until 1979, latterly with a Triumph engine.)<\/p>\n

Donald Healey, however, was not finished with automobiles, nor was Kjell Qvale<\/a>, the San Francisco BMC dealer. Qvale’s store had sold more Austin-Healeys than any other in the US. The two men hit it off, and Qvale enabled the deal by buying Jensen Motors<\/a>, a foundering British manufacturer.<\/p>\n

Jensen had grown up building special bodies<\/a> for Fords, then modifying Ford chassis into their own Jensen S-Type<\/a> cars and Nash 8-powered H-Types<\/a>. After the war, they gravitated to GT coupes with Chrysler V8 power, like the CV8<\/a> and latterly Interceptor<\/a>. A big part of Jensen’s business, though, consisted of body shells for larger manufacturers, like the Austin A40 Sports<\/a>, Volvo P1800<\/a>, and aforementioned Austin-Healey. It seemed a natural partnership.<\/p>\n

Alas, the best-laid plans soon began to unravel. The Jensen-Healey had intended to use a Vauxhall Viva drive train. Vauxhall’s engine proved anemic, but a new Lotus powerplant looked promising. Thus Colin Chapman’s<\/a> Lotus 907 engine<\/a>, a 16-valve, two-liter four<\/a>, made its debut<\/a> in the Jensen-Healey<\/a>, even before its first appearance in a Lotus car, the Esprit<\/a> of 1976. A transmission from Chrysler UK, from the Sunbeam Rapier H120<\/a>, and Viva suspension<\/a> completed the concept, packaged in a unitary shell designed, in turn, by Hugo Poole and William Towns<\/a>. It went on sale<\/a> in the summer of 1972.<\/p>\n

One can charitably say the car was “underdeveloped.” Engines, in particular, had teething problems, and I can recall seeing Jensen-Healeys outside repair shops, their front ends sitting high in the air, indicating that the engine was undergoing surgery inside the shop. A Mark 2 version with minor changes came in mid ’73, and a five-speed Getrag box was introduced in November 1974. A nifty GT version<\/a>, reminiscent of Volvo’s 1800ES<\/a>, came in July 1975, but by this time Donald Healey had acrimoniously severed ties with Qvale. That car was sold simply as the “Jensen GT<\/a>.” Total production of Jensen-Healeys and Jensen GTs totalled just under 11,000.<\/p>\n

By September 1975, the whole Jensen enterprise was ailing; the last car was built early in 1976. But hope springs eternal, and in the 1980s Ian Orford, a long-time Jensen employee, attempted an Interceptor revival, unsuccessfully. Later, the Jensen name was acquired by investors who attempted a Mustang-powered Jensen S-V8<\/a>. Only about 30 were built.<\/p>\n

Sic transit gloria Jensen, but the cars have a devoted following. Ed Moore of Bellingham Auto Sales<\/a> in Massachusetts, who supplied the Interceptor pic, has two of them<\/a> for sale, and the Jensen Healey Preservation Society<\/a> carries the torch for Donald Healey’s last car. Steve McManus might sell his Jensen-Healey when he’s had a chance to bring it up to snuff. Contact the CarPort<\/a> if you lust for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve McManus has a new project. You’ll probably recognize its rather plain face as that of a Jensen-Healey, the final (and probably least happy) automotive venture of Donald Healey. Healey’s greatest fame came from the very successful Austin-Healey that made his name a household word, much more so than the Nash-Healey and predecessors we featured….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2711"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3363,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2711\/revisions\/3363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}