So who would like to be a paying beta tester for a 70s Lotus engine? Anyone? No? Well, eleven thousand Jensen owners were, and we can assume unwittingly. Colin Chapman, as well as Lotus Elite, Eclat and Esprit owners owe them at least a round of pints. Perhaps that’s why some Jensen Healey owners are still holding on to theirs. It might be a long wait.
Earlier, we’d seen the Jensen Interceptor, which is one of the two hallmark cars made by Jensen. The other is the much smaller Jensen Healey. Expensive V8 powered GT cars like the Interceptor were never going to be large volume sellers even in the best of times, a fact that Jensen was no doubt aware of. The coach building side of the business had previously taken up some of the slack, but this was going to take a major hit with both the Austin Healey and then the Sunbeam Tiger going out production.
So Jensen had a problem, but luckily for them an American sports car dealer, British Motor Car Distributors, headed by Kjell Qvale, also felt the need for a replacement for the venerable Austin Healey 3000. By then it was clear the six cylinder powered MG C was not going to be it. Kjell Qvale bought into Jensen to become a shareholder, and then was able to name Donald Healey a chairman. Donald, his son Geoffery and William Towns were responsible for the design of the new Jensen Healey.
The suspension design for the newest Jensen was lifted almost entirely from the humble Vauxhall Firenza, which could be considered a sort of British Chevrolet Nova. So this meant double wishbones with coils for the front teamed with a live axle and coils for the rear. Certainly better than the lever shocks and leaf springs of the MG B, but nothing earth shattering either.
The top was a rather tent-like affair that would inspire nostalgia from owners of 50s and 60s British roadsters. Even lower rung cars like the Triumph Spitfire had decent folding tops by this time, never mind the much better designs on something like a Fiat Spider. The interiors were rather plain without even the traditional wood trim. Later versions fixed this deficit. The general assessment of the styling ranges from ugly to decently attractive, so what then is the big appeal?
The engine of course was the big draw. For its time, the Lotus 907 2.0L four cylinder engine put out a very impressive 140hp (less in the North American market which was inflicted with Zenith Strombergs instead of the lovely dual side-draft Dell’Ortos). It loved to rev, and indeed needed to be flogged to make its peak power. It certainly made the old B-series lump in the MG B look agricultural in comparison. Think of it as the Honda S2000 engine of its time, but instead of being assembled in a high tech factory it was nailed together in a shed somewhere in the south of England. While the high tech and modern for the time Lotus engine was the Jensen Healey’s trump card, it was probably also its biggest downfall.
When the Jensen Healey was being designed, Jensen did not have any in house engines of its own nor the ability or desire to develop any. They had a goal of a 130hp in a compact engine, ruling out any V8s. One of the engines under consideration was the Vauxhall 2.3 L slant four, which met the all-important emission regulations in the most important market, the US, but power fell short.
The BMW 2002 power plant was also tested, but BMW could not commit to the volumes Jensen was expecting. The Cologne V6 from the Capri was also considered but again a steady supply could not be guaranteed. Colin Chapman was waiting in the wings offering his newly developed but untested 907 alloy four cylinder with impressive performance while gracefully meeting emission regulations (no air pumps or ERG needed). The engine was canted over at an angle just like a Chrysler slant six which helped with hood (or bonnet as the British say) clearance. It was too tempting to pass up, and Jensen bought them with no warranty from Lotus, a mistake that would come back to haunt them. Initially, it was hooked to a four speed gearbox from the Sunbeam Rapier, and later a five speed Getrag.
The early engines suffered from oiling and leakage issues which lead to the Jensen Healey having a reputation as a bit of lemon. These shortcomings were resolved quite quickly, but the damage was already done. With no warranty from Lotus, Jensen had to pay all repairs out its own bottom line. This, combined with the oil crisis impacting sales of the thirsty Interceptor, was too much for Jensen to bear and the company went into liquidation in 1975.
Our featured car looks to have the later interior but the four speed gearbox and the early, smaller bumpers, making it quite attractive. White isn’t my favorite automotive color but it looks sharp here with black interior and trim.
An interesting variant on the Jensen Healey was the shooting brake GT variant. Donald Healey had left by this point, so his name was dropped and it was known simply as the Jensen GT. These all had the five speed Getrag gearbox and were moved upmarket with all the expected luxury accessories and price tag to match. Only 505 (or 509 or 511 depending who you believe) were made. Oddly enough they seem to show up on eBay with a regularity that defies their production numbers. I found this one outside a British car repair shop a number of years ago. Strangely it had huge rally lights fitted to the front. Sorry I know the photo doesn’t show them but it was too tight to get a shot from the front. Note the big impact bumpers which later Jensen Healeys and all GTs got.
So the Jensen Healey is a bit of an enigma. Its unique calling card, that lovely slant four Lotus engine, was also a big factor in not only its demise, but without it where would it have been? Suppose it used a more mundane but proven power plant. Power would have been down, reliability would have been up but would it have had enough character to make an impact?
Another problem: if the ad above is any indication, why would someone have tried to sell a british sports car in the USA without offering it in british racing green? Lunacy.
Good point! I also like how Black and White don’t warrant separate color swatches. It was if the designer was just about finished laying out the ad when he exclaimed “all the colors won’t fit across the page width!! What in the world am I going to do?!”
No British Racing Green but two yellows!
Those hot colors were all the rage in the early seventies. BRG MGs and Triumphs were a pretty common sight on North American roads by then. I’m sure Qvale and his cohorts were striving to distinguish this car from that crowd.
BRG, like most things, had to go through a period of rejection before it was embraced as nostalgia.
This is the color I was driving then, and it looked good at the time.
I remember that color well. My best friend’s aunt drove a 72 Galaxie 500 2 door in that color. Dark brown vinyl top and interior, as I recall. I considered it an attractive car at the time. My cousin had a 73 Pinto in that white and orange 2 tone with orange interior. Seemed really cool in 1973.
Still, I remember that good old british racing green was still very popular on british cars of the early 70s – you still saw a lot of it on Jags, MGBs, Spitfires and so on. There was something classically british about it, and (at least in the midwest) it was a very popular choice, although it would never have been a blip on a car from the U.S. or any other country.
The Jensen GT (at least from the limited angle here) reminds me of the Triumph GT6 and the later “shoe” BMW Z3 coupe.
It also reminds me of the Reliant Scimitar GTE and Volvo 1800ES. Seems like there was decent selection of factory ‘shooting brakes’ in the 70s.
Yup — I did a sidebar on those in the article I did in September on the Volvo. There was also the Gilbern Invader Estate, the Lancia Beta HPE, and, if you wanted to stretch the point a bit, the BMW 1800/2000 Touring. (I don’t know that I’d call the latter a shooting brake, but when they were new, CAR made the point that in price and market positioning, they were quite similar.) I suppose if you prodded them enough, you could have gotten a Chevrolet dealer to install the GT package on a two-door Vega wagon, as well.
The UK’s Classic & Sports Car did an interesting comparison test between the Volvo, the Reliant, and the Jensen GT back in 2000. They concluded that the Volvo was the best looking and most comfortable, but not outstandingly quick (theirs had the automatic) or particularly agile, the Jensen was the least practical but most fun to drive, and the Scimitar probably the best compromise. The GTE gave you Capri 3000-rivaling performance with room for kids and luggage, and in the UK it was actually cheaper than the 1800ES — not a bad deal for the early seventies.
That was your article I was remembering. In 1974, my folks bought a ’73 1800ES, red with black interior and automatic. It was such a cool car, I loved it and remember it well, even though I was only six years old when they sold it. It got traded in on a new ’86 240DL wagon, cream yellow with brown interior.
No prodding necessary.
“One of the engines under consideration was the Vauxhall 2.3 L slant four, which met the all-important emission regulations in the most important market, the US, but power fell short.” Quote
The Lotus 907 engine was of course based on the block of the Vauxhall engine, with Vauxhalls’ permission, in order to save development cost and time. Instead of the Vauxhalls’ single cam cylinder head the Lotus got a twin cam 4-valve head.Vauxhall subsequently used a similar head (but with slightly different valve angles) on their high performance rally cars.There was some trouble at one stage when the sporting authorities questioned the exact parentage of the cylinder heads on particular Vauxhall rally cars. Vauxhall heads were legal, Lotus heads were not.
The Vauxhall engine was used in the development but not used as a base. The Lotus project was actually underway already when the Vauxhall came out.
The earlier 904 engine was a Vauxhall block and Lotus head. It was used in the type 62 Europa racecar. The Vauxhall has an iron block, Lotus Aluminum.
http://www.lotusespritworld.com/EHistory/Lotusownpower.html
I saw one of these awhile back in British Racing Green in the local classifieds with a Buick/Olds 215 V8 and auto trans swapped in. I wanted it sooooo bad. . .
Had no idea what it was at first, but after some research I wanted it even more. Especially in light of how simple it would’ve been to dump that automatic and swap in a 5-speed GM trans. But there was just no way. :*(
I saw one of these in a local junkyard awahile back. The engine was still present, but all the trim and interior bits and light assemblies were missing. The body was swiss cheese, however. Probably the reason it was there in the first place.
I’ve often toyed with the idea of swapping a Nissan OHC six into a derelict Triumph TR6, or a Toyota 20 / 22R into an old MG.
Here’s one that showed up a few blocks away one day.
The name promised so much: Jensen, builder of handsome coupes… and Healey, builder of sweet sportscars… the result, however, was rather homely and unimpressive… which explains the poor sales.
I almost bought a Jensen Healey around 1988. I saw them when I was visiting California, and I found them really attractive. I guess if you grow up with big bumpers on all the new cars you see, you can find cars with big bumpers attractive. I still find them attractive when one of my cars gets bumper damage and I think back to my ’88 BMW’s ability to shrug off sloppy parallel parkers. Anyway, back to the JH. It belonged to Oliver Kuttner, who was well known at the time for his Lamborghini and Maserati restoration shop. I’m not sure why he had the Jensen-Healey, but he told me it was about his only car that would start. It was white with a black removable hardtop, and it had just had new rocker panels and frame work done in his shop. I drove it around for a day, and then I made an easy to reject offer. I only made the offer because I didn’t want to be shunned from hanging out at Oliver’s shop, which was the best place for a teenage car enthusiast to visit in my home town. He turned it down easily enough, and I later had opportunities to drive cars that weren’t British, so it worked out well. The Jensen-Healey didn’t measure up to expectations because it sounded like it was going to blow up at 4,000 rpm, well below where it was supposed to make its power. It made the engines in my Festiva and Horizon seem substantial and incredibly smooth. More so the Festiva, admittedly.
With regard to the bumpers, I’d say that the Jensen Healey did a neater job of integrating them into the design than some — the bumpers on the GT don’t look as awkward as a rubber-bumper MGB, certainly.
(In fairness to MG, the later nose probably would have looked a lot better if they’d been able to make the bumpers body-color, rather than matte black. They apparently tried, but I guess they didn’t have the technology or budget for Endura-style urethane bumpers, and none of the paints they tried were flexible enough for it.)
Some owners have done it for themselves and it can look decent.
Yhe Vauxhall Firenza is the performance version of the Vauxhall Viva usually fitted witha Vauxhall Victor slant4 OHC engine Lotus used Vauxhall engines prefix LV. Jensen fitted the entire Vauxhall running gear set.
I’m not sure if anyone else noticed this in the Jensen ad in the article, but the west coast office was in Compton, Ca. That’s south-central LA. Jensen – straight outta Compton!
Another reason for the poor sales: CAR Magazine said that the Jensen felt ‘sloppy, barge-like and horrible’ after stepping out of the Alfa Romeo Spider in a 1975 comparison test. Something about the down-in-a-hole driving position, dull steering, and soft and bobbly front end.
Doesn’t stop me wanting a GT, though. The ’70s were truly the golden age of sexy shooting brakes, and most of those that survived can now be had for a pittance.
I disagree PJ. Just about all the contemporary roadtests were very favourable. The JH wasn’t anything spectacular – it didn’t have a unique, race-bred, rose-jointed suspension set-up, but it did use a competent off-the-shelf set-up from Vauxhall. The only real criticism you could make is that the bushes are all old-school wobbly rubber (mostly for the American market). Easily fixed with modern polyurethane items.
What killed JH sales (and eventually the company) was the warranty claims – mostly for the greatly-underdeveloped Lotus engine. If they were in the US, Jensen would sued the pants off Lotus – and won. Even though they fixed the engne problems after only 18 months with the Mark II, the damage was done, both reputation-wise, and financially with the huge cost of the warranty repairs.
The JH was basically a very sound design and a good car. It still is, Even better, as all the engine problems will have been well and truly sorted after 40 years. They are half the price of a TR6, but faster, better handling, more comfortable and more modern.
Just don’t spread the word, or everyone will want one!