The Healey Jensen Connection

[Frankoid]

Hi Per.

Perhaps the procedure for scraping cars in the UK were lackadaisical in the 1960's......

[VFK44]

A small company like Jensen would never waste parts unless they had to. The scrapping was probably a symbolic sawing in half of the chassis or similar, and everything else would be available for re-use. When the first P66 was scrapped, many parts were retained and have followed the surviving P66 around for the rest of its life. Because they were custom parts, they couldn't be re-used in any other way whereas the CV8 FF could become a spares source. Just my guess.

[Chris_R]

Re the scrapping of experimental and test cars by manufacturers, I believe that at that time unless the company certified the car as scrapped then the company would be liable to pay the purchase tax on the car. Certified scrapping exempted them from the tax. How that was verified and who by I don't know. Perhaps a simple statement from the company was accepted by the authorities.

[John Staddon]

For a long time now (certainly for as long as I have been in the club) there has been a C-V8 FF replica in existence, George Zdanko has it now as far as I know. It's a genuine FF chassis and a genuine C-V8 body but it's not the C-V8 FF, though many years ago it was advertised as such. There are some photos of this car in the September/October 2011 JOC magazine, though I seem to remember something more recent as well.

Regards

John

[felixkk]

I have found this about Donald Healey on the origins of the Chrysler Hemi V8
Francis

I've never come across this, very interesting!

[Joerg]

I have found this about Donald Healey on the origins of the Chrysler Hemi V8
Francis

I've never come across this, very interesting!

Chrysler build tenthousends of engines for tanks and airplanes during the WorldWar with Hemi-Heads, I think that is where their experience for these kind of engines and the idea for the car power plant has come from.
Guess that quite some automotive engineers of the 30th and 40th have known about the internals of successful race engines, but Chrysler put it into everyday mass production cars. A Mercedes 300SL (Gullwing) had 180 HP while the Hemi 331 made 245 up to 300 in the same year.

I have an article from a Royal Canadian Airforce Magazine comparing my early Interceptor with a 300SL - my car outperformed the Mercer - as long as the road was straight and not on the brakes
Joerg

[Frankoid]

I too have a report comparing the merits of the Mercedes 300SL against the 541S V8....... the winner, Jensen of course!! But it was driven by a motoring legend, Donald Healey, and the similarities in appearance of the cars were noted. His car had a 360 bhp Chevrolet 327 V8 from a nascar team delivered by the USAF to him in England and he regularly topped 130 mph during testing. Donald Healey induction to the prestigious nascar hall of fame.......

http://www.motorsportshalloffame.com/Ha ... l%20Healey" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have found this about Donald Healey on the Mopar site about the history and origins of the Chrysler Hemi engine......

http://www.allpar.com/mopar/hemi/chrysler-hemi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Working in the engine development area was James Zeder, the younger brother of Fred Zeder; working for James were Ray White, Mel Carpentier, and William Drinkard. Joining this group was a young Ev Moeller, one of the first graduates of the Chrysler Institute in 1939. He came aboard the automobile engine development team in 1947 after working through the war in the aircraft engine development program. These men tested virtually every engine they could find in every combination that they could think of. One of the engines they tested that truly stood out for power and efficiency was built in England by Riley Motors, and used by Healey. It had twin camshafts, located in the block, which operated push rods for overhead valves in hemispherical combustion chambers. It was a long stroke, small bore engine, yet it made the most power for its size of any engine they had tested to date.

This engine was designed during the days of the old British horsepower tax, where annual road tax was £1 ($5) per RAC taxable horsepower. Since the RAC formula was based on cylinder bore and number of cylinders, the Riley engine was extremely undersquare, with a bore of 80.5mm and a stroke of 120mm, giving 2,443cc (149 cubic inches). It was heavy, but by the 1940s, Riley got 100 hp and 134 lb-ft of torque from it, which was better than a flathead Ford V8; the Healey version went up to 104 hp. Riley was bought out by the Nuffield Organisation (Morris/MG/Wolseley) in 1938. The big four survived into early 1957 in the Riley Pathfinder, giving as much as 110 hp.

In the 1930s, Healey was experimental engineer (later chief engineer) of Triumph; he developed a 2.0 liter straight eight for the Triumph Dolomite. The little eight was based on the Vittorio Jano engine used by Alfa Romeo, and had a high-quality aluminum block and head, dual overhead cams, hemispherical combustion chambers, and a Rootes-type supercharger.

[Frankoid]

605 KUE engine bay showing Chevrolet 327 V8 Donald Healey installed;


Donald Healeys Jensen 541S V8 returning home to Trebah, near Falmouth in Cornwall




Photo Michael Bailie

Richard Jensen in particular was keen to see how Donald Healey developed the 541S V8, and kept in close contact with Healey in regard to the improvements he has made to the 541S, including an anti-roll bar. 100/1121 has a manual style dash, complete with overdrive switch. They must have known it was destined to have a Powerglide auto otherwise it would of had the 102 schedule number. It is interesting that 100/1121, the Healey car, is next to 100/1122, the chassis retained as a spare. Is there any information about 100/1122? What became of it.... Were Jensens waiting to see how Donald Healey got on with the Chevrolet 327? Iso used this engine and im guessing that they shared a similar market so perhaps Jensen may have been contemplating going Chevvy.

[felixkk]

nice!! (looks almost like florida)

[Frankoid]

Cornwall is Englands most southerly county, almost a different country with its subtropical climate! Donald Healey was a proud Cornishman. The Jensen 541S brochure was part set in Portloe, Cornwall, a short distance from Healeys "Trebah" home....

[felixkk]

The "Healey-Chevys" - some context to 605 KUE and SEA 770. It seems that replacing the Austin engine as early as in the 50s was common practice- maybe not so much in the UK, where the engines were probably still quite expensive and difficult to get a hold of:

The saga of Arthur Kennard's Austin-Healey 100 Corvette
A popular “go-fast” solution from the second half of the 1950s was to fit a small-block Chevrolet V8 as a replacement engine. Introduced in 1955, the compact V8 was relatively cheap, reliable, and powerful.

The small-block was the engine of choice for backyard specials but also served to power more exotic machinery like Ferraris to prolong their competition careers. This was not just common practice in North America but was also a popular upgrade “Down Under.” One of the most famous cars to undergo a small-block transplant in New Zealand was this Austin-Healey 100/4. This operation was carried out in 1957 with a surgeon’s eye for detail by Arthur Kennard, who won on his first outing with the car.
https://www.collierautomedia.com/lost-a ... down-under

1954 Austin Healey 5.7 V8 in Historics 2nd March Classic Car Auction
Historics 2nd March auction at Ascot Racecourse features a 1954 Austin Healey that recreates an original idea proposed to Austin Motors by Carrol Shelby via Donald Healey.

Shelby didn't have time to hang around waiting for a decision by Herbert Austin, so called on AC cars instead. And, due to the awkward installation of the distributor at the rear of small block Chevrolet 350 V8s, he went for the lighter Ford 289 V8 instead. Nevertheless, Healey Chevrolets were often seen at British speed hillclimbs in the 1960s, sometimes jacked up between runs while their owners changed the spark plugs via the front wheelarches (they wouldn't have had that problem with a Chrysler hemi).
https://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/news/ ... r-auction/


V8-Powered 1953 Austin-Healey 100 Race Car
This 1953 Austin-Healey 100 is a left-hand-drive example that was built on August 28, 1953 and delivered new to William McDonald in Northern California. Based on the seller’s research, the car was initially campaigned in the D Production class until being fitted with a Chevrolet small block in 1956.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1953- ... g-special/

David Hepworth in his Healey-Chevy (notice the plates )

Healey-Chevy.jpg (162.13 KiB) Viewed 2167 times

[colin7673]

Sorry for mixing this up,, but a late comment to this post, I have also been to the Healey Muslim which I came across totally by accident while touring Holland a few years ago..
Now may my English was poor, by Dutch isn’t any better I know, but I found the staff to be helpful and informative about the cars on show there... But when talking about the Jensen connection they then became a little strange, either they did not know or they wasn’t interested in this part of the car history.
But the museum is still worth a visit if ever anybody is passing

[kees]

A nice place run by volunteers. Friendly and hospitable. They now also have a Jensen-Healey on display. They do have some literature about Jensen but not much. I may help them with that as I still have loads of stuff. In the near future I will give them a Jensen-Healey engine for display purposes. They had been looking for one for a long time.
They offered me a NOS 5-speed propshaft in the original box which was lying about in their storage rooms but wanted to get rid of so I put in a bid which was accepted.
Kees Oudesluijs

[felixkk]

Sorry for mixing this up

What I posted was not relevant to the 99% anyway