DAVID KNIGHTLEY’S 1975 JENSEN-HEALEY
David’s Jensen-Healey provides a departure from the other Healeys featured here.
The Jensen-Healey was originally devised as a successor to the Big Healey, but it took the entrepreneurial skills of Kjell Qvale to marry Donald Healey’s idea to Jensen’s West Bromwich production line, with an eye to selling the new sports car in the US. During the pre-production development the original Hugo Poole body design did not go down well, and ex-Rootes’ stylist Bill Towns was called in to chivvy it up. However, the final result was still disappointing enough to cause Donald Healey to resign from the Jensen board in 1973. The car’s plain styling lacked the brutal good looks of the Austin-Healey 3000. However, Jensen’s major headache was brought on by their choice of engine, the car essentially becoming a testbed for the new Lotus 907 16-valve twin-cam engine. As you might expect, this engine proved rather unreliable, and its problems would only be solved with the introduction of a MkII model. Between 1972 and 1975, 10,926 examples were built.
David’s introduction to the Healey marque came in the early ‘60s when one of his friends purchased an Austin-Healey 100/6, although not used competitively it was a lovely car and much envied by the local lads.
“Several years later I recalled my earlier desire to have sports car,’ recalled David, “and whilst an Austin-Healey was desired, it was beyond my means and availability.”
However, his search led him to the car being sold by renowned racing driver and performance car importer, Ross Jensen who was the first importer of Jensen and BMW cars in New Zealand, and with the blessing of his wife and two sons, David purchased the Jensen-Healey on June 15, 1984, at which time the car had completed 64,500 kilometres. David was the car’s fourth owner.
David’s car was imported to New Zealand in December 1972, a MkII model fitted with the Lotus 907E 1973cc engine and a fivespeed Getrag gearbox – earlier cars were fitted with a Sunbeam Rapier H120 closeratio four-speed ‘box.
The car was subsequently used as an everyday classic, with minimal operational issues other than having to repair or replace the odd component due to age or wearing out. But by the late ‘90s it was beginning to show its age, the paint was not up to condition, the synchromesh in the gearbox was not working properly, rust was showing up in some of the panels and David decided to take the car off the road for a full rebuild.
With the car stripped of all its various components, the body was shipped off to The Healey Shop at Mt Maunganui with the motor being rebuilt by Taylor Automotive in Mt Eden. Upholstery was replaced by John McKechnie Motor Trimming, and they also crafted a new soft top.
David reassembled the car himself using diagrams taken from the parts book, and aside from the usual frustrations of trying to find original parts or suitable replacement parts, the only major issue was with replacing the gearbox synchromesh cones, this work being carried out by the Gearbox Factory.
After a fruitless search, David was eventually able to source replacement cones as remanufactured by BMW Traditional.
“My contact with Ross Jensen came in handy as he put me in touch with the local BMW distributor who procured them on my behalf,” said David.
During the rebuild, the only modification involved replacing the original ‘5mph’ bumpers with better looking MkI items.
The Jensen-Healey has now travelled just over 47,000kms since it was put back on the road in 2000, with most of that travel being in association with the Austin-Healey Club’s biennial rallies over both the North and South Island.
A more recent and very worthwhile modification, has involved changing the distributor to fully electronic but apart from that, David’s attitude is to try and keep the car in an as original condition that he can, only using modern substitute parts when originals are unavailable or where there is a recommended alternative.