5k: 1974 Jensen Healey 1-Owner Garage Find
The Jensen-Healey was a two seat sports car produced by British Automaker Jensen Motors from 1972 to 1976. Jensen made some fantastic looking cars in the late ’50s and early ’60s, but by the early ’70s was in its death throes. They did manage to turn out the Jensen-Healey before going belly-up, a plain looking car with some cool mechanical tricks under the hood. This 1974 Jensen-Healey is a claimed 1-owner garage find and for sale in Redding, CA, currently bidding on ebay at $5,655 reserve-not-met with 4 days to go (Big thanks to reader Tom for the tip!).
This Jensen-Healey is a 1974 model, which unfortunately does not have the earlier chrome bumpers but instead sports some hideous black rubber pieces that wouldn’t look out of place on the front of a dump truck. A swap back to earlier US-spec or European bumpers would be easy, but finding a pair could be tricky given the relative rarity of the J-H.
This Brit is powered by the Lotus designed & built ‘907’ all-alluminum dual overhead cam 2.0 liter inline 4 cylinder engine putting out a respectable 144 horsepower, giving the J-H a top speed of 119 mph. The Lotus 907 is known for a lack of low end torque and a thirst for oil – but it was a high revving, light weight engine that was more refined than the other British engines being built by MG & Triumph in the same era.
It is hard to understand the condition of the interior of this Jensen-Healey from the few blurry photos, but given its low miles and garage-find status, it is probably in decent shape for its age and much better than the last Jensen-Healey that this editor climbed into and found that the seat bolts had rusted out of the frame rails. Rust is probably the biggest problem with the structural integrity of these cars and it is important to thoroughly check the underside for tin worms. Any bubbling surface rust you see is likely just the tip of an iron-oxide volcano waiting to erupt and spoil your day. Also – electrics by Lucas are typical in their regular issues – but probably overblown by people who have become accustomed to Bosch switches that function for years without issues. If the headlights don’t turn on the first time, just jiggle the switch and try again – they will work eventually.
The paint on this Jensen-Healey (don’t call it a Healey, because it was actually a collaboration between Jensen Motors and Donald Healey (of Nash-Healey and Austin-Healey fame!)) looks nice for its age – and has probably been resprayed at some point – but it is a big plus for us if it is the original paint.
Seen another classic British roadster we should feature? email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com
Seriously, did a bumper eat your mother? I understand that you don't like big bumpers, but the constant harping on the bumpers is starting to get a bit weird…
No, big bumpers spoiled the appearance of many US market cars for decades – a crime in and of itself. I'm not aware of any bumpers eating anyone's mother, but big bumpers probably injured more than a few mothers over the years.
If you don't like the nearly constant whining about big bumpers on this car enthusiast site, you can feel free to go check out the nearly constant whining about big bumpers on any number of other car enthusiast sites.
Like braces, a necessary evil, but at least braces go away!
~ the bumpers are incredibly ugly, more so on Jensen-Healey than many other of the contemporary imports. but that muffler-looking thingy under the hood – that really looks ridiculous. 5mph bumpers were by government dictate, no one said Meineke had to put their brand on it.
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